ibironkeeniola 
Plucking tea on a hillside on the Kitabe tea estate where the steep slopes, acidic soils and high altitude make them unsuitable for growing food crops, but ideal for the cultivation of tea.Tea production in Rwanda. Picture by Tim Smith.
No fewer than 150,000 subsistence farmers in Katsina State will receive farm input palliatives, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) has said.
The palliatives include fertilizer, improved seeds, agrochemicals and spraying machines.
FMARD Director, Katsina State Field Office, Mr Muhammad Salisu-Sule, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
Salisu-Sule explained that the aim of the planned distribution exercise was to help farmers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic get back to their feet.
He added that the intervention would generally improve the living conditions of not only the farmers but also rural dwellers in Katsina State.
The director also said that the beneficiaries would soon receive the inputs having registered for the exercise online.
He added that the gesture would help them during the dry season farming as well as next year’s farming season.
In the next phase of distribution, he also noted, farmers would receive 450 bags of improved wheat seeds.
Salisu-Sule pointed out that the gesture was aimed at improving wheat production in the state.
The distribution exercise is expected to be carried out through farmer associations within the state, he added.
SOURCE: AGRONIGERIA