Taraba government, on Friday, said arrangements have been concluded to distribute first batch of tractor units to farmers in the state.

Nicholas Namessan, the state commissioner for agriculture and food security, disclosed this to journalists while inspecting the assemblage of 20 Cabrio and 250 units of mini tractors in Jalingo.

The commissioner said that the state government had ordered a total of 100 Cabrio and 750 mini tractors to be delivered to farmers.

He explained that the state Gov. Agbu Kefas has already developed a template on how the tractors would be shared to farmers across the 16 local government councils at a subsidised rate.

Mr Namessan also disclosed that 60 home-based engineers have been trained by some Ghanaian engineers to assemble, maintain, operate and train farmers on how to operate and maintain the tractors.

“We have so far received 20 Cabrio and 250 mini high-powered tractors, which will be distributed to our farmers on May 28.

“Government had already developed a template through the just-concluded farmers registration preliminary assessment at various local government and that is what we are going to use in distributing the tractors.

“I wish to disclose here that the government had also perfected plans to subsidise the prices of fertilisers and herbicides for farmers to ensure that every farmer goes into production successfully.

“I want to assure all the people of the state that the tractors would be given directly to genuine farmers to achieve government desire to end hunger in Taraba,” Mr Namessan said.

(NAN)