NADF, AFAP Sign MoU To Tackle Challenges Facing Farmers.....See Full Story>>.....See Full Story>>
The Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Sabi Abdullahi has attributed the current food crisis in the country to activities of portfolio farmers infiltrating the country’s agricultural landscape.
According to him, insecurity is not only responsible for the current food crisis challenge, but also the issue of fake farmers who largely benefit from government interventions.
The Minister, while speaking at the Close-out ceremony of the Agricultural Input Resillence programme in Abuja, lamented that instead of Nigeria farmers accessing farm inputs provided by the government at subsidised rate, they were getting it at higher rate because of portfolio and ghost farmers that have infiltrated the programmes.
Applauding the project implemented by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS), in collaboration with the African Fertiliser and Agribusiness Partnership (AFAP) and the National Agriculture Development Fund (NADF), under the guardians of the Office of the Vice President, the Minister said the programme will help bring out the core area of needs and they cannot now target the real farmers.
The President and CEO of AFAP, Michael Sudarkasa, in his address said the initiative implemented in nine states in the last nine months is aimed at identifying challenges facing farmers, and reporting it to the authorities to take necessary actions.
He noted that they have observed that the Nigeria agricultural inputs is plagued with challenges such as poor implementation of the Fertiliser Quality Act, which has given room for circulation of adulterated fertilisers, thereby impacting on improved crop yield.
AFAP CEO emphasised the need for fertiliser blenders and the Fertiliser Supplier and Producers Association of Nigeria (FESPAN) to work together to ensure farmers access quality fertiliser, adding that there is need for capacity development among agro dealers to promote extension services to enable farmers understand the appropriate product to be used on appropriate crop.
He further emphasised the need for liberalisation of the subsector, so that there could be other importers of the farm inputs other than just the government.
The Managing Director of NADF, Mohammed Ibrahim stated that the initiative is aimed at addressing the critical challenges of availability, affordability, and quality of essential farm inputs across Nigeria.
He noted that the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), between NADF and AFAP is a fallout of the just concluded programme, saying having identified some of the pin-points affecting farmers, they will be able to work out modalities in providing funds to farmers to address the problem.
Ibrahim said the MoU is categorised into three broad aspects, which include comprehensive financial support targeting developing financial programmes that will support the farmers, capacity development, as well as policy implementation, and research to enhance development of the sector.