Ministry says 92% registered farmers get inputs

Adesina said the Agricultural Transformation Agenda was launched in 2011 with the goal of producing 20 metric tonnes of food and creating 3.5 million farm jobs by 2015. He said the current food production stands at 21 million metric tonnes.Adesina stressed that the country has witnessed many years of corruption in the fertiliser industry from […]

Adesina said the Agricultural Transformation Agenda was launched in 2011 with the goal of producing 20 metric tonnes of food and creating 3.5 million farm jobs by 2015. He said the current food production stands at 21 million metric tonnes.
Adesina stressed that the country has witnessed many years of corruption in the fertiliser industry from which, according to him, not more than 11% percent actually got to farmers.
“Most of it ended up in Niger valley. Fertiliser got hands and legs and walked away from farmers, most of it, 50% fertiliser, 50% sand, was what we got on ground when we came,” he also said.
The minister told the gathering that most of those who are benefiting from the current Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES) are from the North. “10.3 million farmers out of the 14 million registered farmers are from the North,” he said.
He said 2.3 million women were also reached through the electronic wallet system in 2014.
In terms of seed, the minister said there were only five seed companies in the country when he came on board, but that today, the number has grown to 80, producing 171,000 metric tonnes of seeds.
For cassava, he stressed that the country is saving 127 billion annually by using 20% high quality cassava flour in bread making adding that Nigeria, which is the largest producer of cassava, must also process the produce.
Adesina also told the gathering that so much has been achieved in terms of adding value to what the country produces noting that the country’s production of food, both rain-fed and dry season, has helped in mitigating the effect of the flood in 2012.
“I want to let you know that everything about the Agricultural Transformation Agenda is growing up, not declining, as some people claimed,” he said.