- Production to begin during 2023/2024 dry season farming
- Wheat production expected to hit 1,250,000mt
- ATASP-1 increases nat’l food reserve with 1,397,939mm, creates 1,923,524 jobs
Hope rises on food production and availability as the Federal Government, Wednesday, disclosed African Development Bank’s $134 million allocation to Nigeria will be for the production of rice, maize, sorghum and soybean.
E Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and
Rural Development, Dr Ernest Umakhihe, made the disclosure in a keynote address
during the ‘Preparatory Meeting of Relevant Stakeholders for the Implementation
of National Agricultural Growth Scheme and Agro Pocket , NAGS-AP, in
Agricultural Transformation Agenda Support Programme Phase-One, ATASP-1 States
of Jigawa, Kano, Kebbi, Niger, and Sokoto’ held in Abuja.
Umakhihe explained to participants that the meeting was
basically to deliberate and chart a way forward for the effective and efficient
implementation of the rebranded National Agricultural Growth Scheme and
Agro-pocket, an ICT-based platform for the delivery of farm inputs such as
Fertilizers, seeds, Agrochemicals etc to the farmers across the country.
He also reminded the participants that the Federal
Government in collaboration with the State Governments and in partnership with
the various private sector players implemented an e- wallet Scheme called
‘Growth Enhancement Support, GES, Scheme between 2012 – 2017, which was
designed purposely to serve as a channel for the delivery of the agricultural
Inputs to farmers across the 36 States of the Federation and the Federal
Capital Territory.
Meanwhile, he recalled that was a known fact that the GES
Scheme made significant impact in the lives and incomes of the farmers
particularly the smallholder farmers including input producers and distributors
as well as other value chain players like financial institutions and those
operating in the downstream processing, marketing and value addition also
significantly benefitted under the scheme despite some challenges in the
Scheme.
According to him, the Federal Government after critical
re-examination of the enormous multiplier benefits derivable under the Scheme,
rebranded it with a new name ‘National Agricultural Growth Scheme and
Agro-pocket, NAGSAP,’ while its implementation strategies and operational
modalities were also reformed to eliminate observed weakness and associated
challenges.
He said: “It was in the Ministry’s desire to test run the
re-formed Agro Pocket Scheme, that the Agricultural Transformation Agenda
Support Programme Phase-One (ATASP-1) Project was restructured to obtain funds
to kick start the implementation of the Scheme in the five ATASP-1 States of
Niger, Kebbi, Jigawa, Kano and Sokoto.
“Under the programme, a total of 60,000 smallholder farmers
in 26 Local Government Areas of the five ATASP-1 States that are involved in
the cultivation of rice, maize and sorghum will be supported with critical farm
inputs such as fertilizers, seeds and agrochemicals through the ICT based
delivery platform with a view to increasing their productivities, household
incomes and livelihood so as to contribute towards bridging the national food
supply – demand gap arising from the global food crisis, COVID- 19, climatic
variabilities, security challenges to mention but few.
“The use of the same ICT platform will as well as adopted in
implementing future farm inputs support programme to the farmers especially
under the forthcoming Policy Base Operations, PBO, project.
“The Policy Base Operations, PBO, as you may be aware, is a
Sector Budget Support, SBS, project prepared under the African Emergency Food
Production Facility, AEFPF, funded through a loan from the African Development
Bank, AfDB, to be implemented across the 36 States of the federation and FCT
for a period of two years or so beginning from the 2023/2024 dry season
farming.
“Under the PBO facility, a total sum of USD134 million was
allocated to Nigeria to support wheat production and other key crops such as
rice, maize, sorghum and soyabean and it will be implemented via the National
Agricultural Growth Scheme and Agro Pocket, NAGSAP.”
The Permanent Secretary further explained that, “The goal of
the National Agricultural Growth Scheme (NAGS) is to increase total food
production to crash the continued rise in the prices of agricultural
commodities and make them affordable to the average Nigerians.
“The key objective is to increase the production of wheat,
rice, maize, sorghum and soyabean through the provision of relevant farm inputs
such as fertilizers, seeds, agro-chemicals etc to small scale farmers under
both wet and dry season farming.
“Specifically, the project is targeted to support over
250,000 wheat farmers with relevant farm inputs to cultivate about 250,000
hectares with expected output of 1,250,000 metric tonnes of wheat to be added
to the food reserve with a view to reducing dependence on foreign importation
of the product and increase domestic consumption particularly for the Flour
Millers.
According to him, the project aside supporting farmers with
critical farm inputs for the production of the priority crops, will also
provide institutional supports for better performances.
“It is therefore expected that, this important gathering of
relevant stakeholders will provide an opportunity to re-examine the Standard
Operating Procedures (SOP) and the Operational Modalities (OMs) of NAGS-AP with
a view to eliminating any possible areas of weaknesses being exploited by the
enemies of the Scheme as any form compromise from any player involved in its
implementation will not be tolerated or accepted.
“It is of paramount importance to note as well that, all the
reformed areas would be fully implemented and complied with in order to
preserve, protect the integrity and sustenance of the scheme which most
Nigerians and the international partners are expected to see”, he said.
However, the Permanent Secretary charged input producers on
producing products based on the prescribed standards, and also input
distributors to sell only certified and approved products.
“I am therefore charging you the input producers to ensure
that you will be addressed appropriately produce your products in line with the
prescribed set standards, the input distributors or agro-dealers to sell only
certified and approved products. The farmers in turn are expected to use the
entire inputs given to in line with the best agronomic practices.
“In the same vein, the personnel or officers that would be
deployed to manage and coordinate the supply chain activities should adhere
strictly to the laydown rules and guiding principles while in its case, the ICT
platform provider is expected deploy the best and reliable system that can
capture and trace all the transactions under the scheme, being the primary
purpose government decided to use technology platform in the inputs delivery
process”, he added.
Earlier, in an address of welcome, the National Coordinator,
ATASP-1, Ibrahim Arabi, highlighted impact made since inception of the
Programme.
“ATASP-1 has added additional 1,397,939.32MT of food to the
National Food Reserve against Life of Program target of 120,000MT.
“The Programme has been able to create 1,923,524 new jobs
above revised Life of Program target of 350,000 from program inception till
date and the income of Program beneficiaries has increased from N 517,000 at
baseline to N2,684,172,080
“NAGS-AP will be implemented in five states namely Niger,
Kano, Jigawa, Sokoto and Kebbi States.
“The crops being promoted are Rice, Sorghum, and Maize. The
benefitting farmers will be assisted with inputs such as fertilizers,
agrochemical and seeds”, Arabi added.
According to him, the demonstration carried out on improved
varieties and Good Agronomic Practice (GAP) of Cassava including the various
capacity buildings resulted into increase in yield of Cassava from 10 MT/Ha at
baseline to an average of 34.6 MT/Ha representing over 100% yield increase.
The total land area under cassava production increased from
11,840Ha at baseline to 20,980Ha. An estimated 664,436.6MT of cassava roots
have been added to the national food basket while the revenue accruable is
estimated at N 53,154,928,000.
Under the Rice Value Chain, a combination of the
introduction of improved Rice varieties, capacity buildings on GAP and
demonstration of proven production technologies contributed to the significant
increase in yield of over 198% from 1.8MT per hectare to an average of 6.1 MT
per hectare.
The total area under production across the four SCPZs
increased from 10,560Ha at baseline to 102,358.52Ha . It is estimated that
624,386.52MT of Rice paddy has been added to the national food basket. This
translates to estimated revenue of N 118,633,438,800.
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