Kwara State government has resolved to start distributing farm inputs oat subsidised rates to farmers in the state through their cooperative societies to ensure the inputs get to those who are real farmers and that will comply with the terms of the deal.

The state Commissioner for Agricultural Resources, Olabode Olayemi who disclosed this in an interview with newsmen in Ilorin said the governor was introducing this method because it has found out that many of those who hitherto benefited from the inputs are not farmers as they claimed to be.

He also said that there had been instances where some of the people sold farm implement given to them on loan aside from defaulting in payment.

He stated: "Next planting season our distribution of inputs will be through cooperatives. Even if we have only ten identifiable cooperatives so be it. We will start with that.

"As soon as I got here,(assumed duty at the ministry) I started verifying claims of people who are farmers, the thing I saw made me very sad.

"Somebody who claims to be the chairman of a very big farmers’ association in Nigeria did not have a farm of his own, but he came here grandstanding to be one. He took us to a thick forest in Osun state that the land belongs to him.

"Before I got here, government used to give out tractors as subsidy, some of the people who took these tractors did not only default in payment, they sold the tractors. So these are the challenges.

"Having identified the real farmers, we will try to make them metamorphose from subsistence to commercial farming. We have been able to achieve commercial farming and averages of crop yields that are even above national average yield.

"The next stage is to translate the successes to the local farmers. By the time the local farmers start harvesting three tons par hectares in rice yield, the business becomes very profitable for him.

The commissioner disclosed that the inputs that will be distributed include improved seedlings, herbicides and fertilizer. He also said the government will provide funds for the preparation of the land and for the labour to assist the farmers.

He said the cooperative system will ensure that those who lay false claim to being farmers do not benefit from the programme while the real farmers who benefit do not default.