Cooperative farmers in Benue State under the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Anchor Borrowers Scheme, are protesting against the alleged failure of the scheme to take off as originally scheduled for June 2016.
Spokesperson for the over 500 farmers, Mr Simon Tyav, said that the failure of the CBN to release the farm inputs, especially the Faro 44 rice specie which takes four months to produce quality yield, is deliberately aimed at frustrating the farmers.
Leader of the protesters, Mr Kase Emmanuel, told Channels Television that the CBN’s failure to release funds to help pay for tractors hired to plough farms, led to a situation that made it impossible to cultivate the farm land which is now swampy due to the rains.
Efforts by Channels Television crew to speak with the CBN Branch Controller proved abortive as he would not take calls put through to his mobile phone nor respond to text message.
This was after the chief security officer had refused entry to journalists.
