As with the increasing expectations of agric stakeholders for the Buhari administration, farmers have called on the Federal Government to retain the e-Wallet system for input distribution as operated under the past administration in a bid to enhance food security in the country.

This call was made by the President, Etche Farmers Cooperative Union, Mr. Godwin Akandu, who disclosed that the system enabled farmers to get direct access to agro-products at subsidized rate. As beneficiaries are allowed to pay only 50 per cent on agro-products, while the State and Federal Government covered the balance.

The President of the Cooperative Union said “Federal government had always made efforts to boost agricultural outputs in the country but these efforts had not been directly channeled to the right beneficiaries – farmers, until the introduction of the e-wallet system which allowed every farmer registered as a cooperative union to benefit from the fertilizer distribution scheme.

Akandu noted that the e-wallet fertilizer distribution process had improved agricultural output as fertilizers were no longer diverted or sold at high rates to the local farmers.

He, therefore, called on the Federal Government to sustain the e-wallet fertilizer distribution process which was introduced by the immediate past Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and the President-elect African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina to enable agriculture thrive in the country.

Culled from AgroNigeria