Federal government said yesterday that no fewer than 10 million cell phones would be distributed to farmers to boost agricultural production in the country.
The Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mrs. Ibukun Odusote, said this at a sensitisation programme for farmers at Igan-Ipabi in Ijebu-East Local Government Area of Ogun.
She said distribution of the cell phones was one of the steps being taken by the ministry to ensure food security in Nigeria.
Odusote said that the Ministry of Information Technology and other relevant stakeholders had been contacted to collaborate toward effective distribution of the phones.
She said: "As part of the electronic-wallet which we are promoting, the handsets will be the toll with which we will communicate to farmers in the rural areas. Deep into the interiors, we will be able to communicate with them.
"We are actually working with the Ministry of Communication Technology, so they are talking to the network providers. They will extend their networks into rural areas where normally they will say there is no economic viability.
"The federal government will be putting some support into this; they will go into the hinterlands and expand their network so that we can have access."
She said appropriate measures had been taken to commence the distribution exercise before the end of the first quarter.
Odusote also said that the beneficiaries would receive direct alert for the collection of fertilizer as well as information on farming seasons, prices of products and scarcity period.
She added that farmers would get 50 per cent subsidy on fertilizer as well as other necessary assistance from government.
Though Odusote did not specify the exact amount to be expended on the project, she stated that the phones would be bought directly from the manufacturing company.
She added that some of the manufacturing companies had also expressed readiness to partner with the ministry and invest in the sector.
Odusote also said farmers would be provided with solar-powered lamps for charging the phones, adding that the initiative was to achieve a complete value change in the sector.
She said graduates searching for white collar jobs should tap into the opportunity, noting that this would bring about overall development in the sector.
- NAN
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The Nigeria rural farmers do not need cell phones. What they need is good education, good access and market to their products. Government provision of cell phones is nothing more than an avenue to enrich some selfish politicians. I won't be surprised that at the end of the day, government will claim to have spent 10 million naira for the purchase of 10 million phones, that is, a single phone will cost a million naira. Except our corrupt politicians change their stealing ways, what happened in Libya and Egypt, will sooner or later happen in Nigeria. And we all know that Nigeria cannot survive such experience. Let those who have ears hear now!