BAUCHI State government has unfolded plans to mobilise farmers on how to benefit from N70 billion textile rehabilitation fund. The Deputy Governor, Alhaji Garba Gadi, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Bauchi.

Gadi said the government had constituted a committee to mobilise the farmers on how to effectively access the funds. He noted that cotton farming had been abandoned in the state for years.

Gadi said the Bauchi State Agricultural Development Programme (BSADP) and the Japan-assisted Sassakawa Global 2000, had put the necessary mechanism in place

to revive not only cotton production but also all other cash crops.

NAN learnt that the BSADP had already earmarked 25,000 hectares of land for allocation to 25,000 farmers as part of measures to boost cotton production this year.

The farmers, according to the agency, will be given loans ranging from N50,000 to N500,000 through their farmers' co-operative societies.

It would be recalled that former President Olusegun Obasanjo's administration had introduced the initiative in 2007 with a view

to reviving the textile industries and cotton production.