Abuja, May 15, 2019 (NAN) The National Association of Sorghum Producers, Processors and Marketers of Nigeria (NASPPAM) has pledged to add 5 million metric tonnes of sorghum in current farming season.
Alhaji Muhammed Maina, National President of the association disclosed this to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja, during the inauguration of the 9-man board of management of the association.
The board members were drawn from the six geo-political zones of the country.
Maina said to achieve the set production target, the association had distributed 400,000 forms to farmers across the country for mobilisation to key into the CBN/Anchor Borrowers Programme.
Maina said the association attached importance to the core sorghum producing states of Taraba, Gombe, Zamfara, sokoto, katsina and Bauchi, including other states across the country.
He said “NASPPAM is targeting 20,000 farmers from each state to cultivate 5000farmer land totalling 2 million hectares of land resulting in over 5 million tonnes of sorghum for 2019.”
He said the association had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the CBN/ABP to enhance the capacity of the farmers.
Alhaji Sadiq Deware, Chairman, Board of NASPPAM, told NAN that all efforts were geared towards the successful implementation of the association’s programmes along the value chain corridor.
He said this had become imperative because the market potential of sorghum farming and production in Nigeria was enormous.
Deware said there was a great demand for sorghum with a wide range of business opportunities within the sorghum farming and production avenue like producing livestock feeds, breweries, pharmacies and bakeries.
He advised the farmers to adhere strictly to the advice given by the extension agents for high yields, saying the market potential of sorghum could continue to rise with the increase in demand.
He said the association had put in place plans for farmers to have easy asses to substantial amount of capital needed to cover the production cost of a high yield sorghum farming through the APB and Bank of Agriculture.
He added that under the ABP, farmers would have easy access to the right kind of seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides, farming tools, while the extension agents would give them adequate training.
He said with all these in place, the farmers would meet the set target of 5 million metric tonnes.
The association was inaugurated on Wednesday by the Federation of Agricultural Commodity Associations of Nigeria (FACAN), following the election held in May.
