On FG’s efforts to shore up IGR

The efforts of the Federal Government under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari to further boost the agricultural sector with much focus on food security and economic diversification has so far yielded some reasonable results. The initiation of Home Grown Feeding Programme by the president designed to put an end to importation and market monopoly […]

The efforts of the Federal Government under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari to further boost the agricultural sector with much focus on food security and economic diversification has so far yielded some reasonable results.

The initiation of Home Grown Feeding Programme by the president designed to put an end to importation and market monopoly of farm produce that can be grown in Nigeria has strongly been executed in line with his anti-corruption drive to put to a halt the exogenous leakages in the Agricultural sector, to encourage, empower and enhance the locally made farm produce. This initiative, which is not only a pilot vehicle to sustainable economic, agricultural, academic development and job creation across the length and breadth of the nation, is also geared toward bolstering the Nigerian internally generated revenue (IGR) and increase the foreign exchange and reserve to over $45 Billion in cash and bonds.

Under the President, there is a Standing Inter-Ministerial Technical Committee to ensure a Zero-Reject(ion) of our agricultural commodities and produce / non-oil exports in Nigeria.  Also with 13.1billion Euros honeybee project, the administration has commenced steps to improving the standards of Nigeria’s agricultural exports to align with global standards which have not been favourable to our produce at the European Union (EU) Controls.

This administration in the fourth quarter of 2016 for instance, redefined the coordinating agency for agricultural universities in the country as stipulated in the enabling Act. They are meant to work closely with the National Universities Commission (NUC) and other development partners to re-focus the universities of agriculture in the country.

In the same vein, there is Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises (LIFE) programme aimed at bringing life back to rural communities through the empowerment of youth, women and the vulnerable groups across the country. The core objective of the programme is to promote community-based on-farm and off-farm business activities as a model for job and wealth creation amongst unemployed youth and women in rural and suburban households. The expectation of the programme is to establish 150,000 cooperatives nationwide under commodity value chain groups. The LIFE programme is also to establish and operate up to 1,000 cottage industries in the country, and ultimately engage about 2million youth and almost a million women for enhanced productivity; it is structured to add about 5,965,000 metric tons of foods to the national food store.

The Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), an intervention of the administration aimed at fast-tracking access of rural farmers to finance productivity for all season, has so far made available N82billion in funding to 350,000 farmers of rice, wheat, maize, cotton, cassava, poultry, soya beans and groundnut; who have cultivated about 400,000 hectares of land. The present administration has made provision of agricultural credit for financing the production of rice, wheat, ginger, maize and soybeans in Kebbi, Niger, Kaduna, Kano, Enugu, Benue, Zamfara, Anambra and Kwara States.

The government has taken an action for the use of National Soil Map Data, with the promotion of the use of soil-specific fertilizer formulations and application in prescribed dosages based on soil types following the conduct of soil mapping/test to enhance agricultural production and productivity. This is in addition to the growth in the Nigeria’s fertilizer market.

The government has signed an agreement with the Government of Morocco for the supply of fertilizer raw materials on concessionary terms to boost local blending to make soil and crop-specific fertilizer blends available and accessible to smallholder Nigeria farmers.

The enabling environment for private investment in the seed industry has been created with the Ministry of Agriculture facilitating the timely access of farmers to appropriate quality seeds; facilitating seed trading locally and internationally through the application of regionally agreed principles and rules. This is done following the National Irrigation Policy and Strategy which has been developed to focus on the need to overcome the irrigation challenges and to put available irrigation facilities in the country into effective use.

Having assessed the status of infrastructure in all the 12 River Basin Development Authorities (RBDAs) in the country, the administration has commenced immediate and effective use of the facilities for commercial farming in the light of which the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) has been strengthened for improved delivery of services through consolidation and recapitalization. This is done in collaboration with the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) to ensure loan disbursement at a single digit interest regime in the agricultural sector as obtainable in developed and emerging economies. In order to make this possible, the Buhari administration has secured the approval of a grant of $1.1 million from the African Development Bank (AfDB) for the restructuring of the BOA, aimed at staff training and to strengthen service delivery.

The government has established a N50 billion mechanisation fund to facilitate the second phase of Agricultural Equipment Hiring Enterprise (AEHE) and to roll-out 6,000 tractors and 13,000 harvest and post-harvest equipment units across the country. In like manner, the administration has established 40 large scale rice processing plants and 18 High Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF) plants with a stake commitment of China EXIM (85 per cent) and Nigeria Bank of Industry (BoI) (15 per cent) through concessional credit facilities of US$383,140,375.60 for the rice mills and US$143,722,202.40 for the HQCF Plants. Through the Ministry of Agriculture the government is embarking on a programme of establishing rice mills of 10 tons per day capacity, 20 tons a day, 40 tons a day, 50 tons and a few 100 tons per day. Collectively between them, the capacity for rice milling will be close to 3,000 tons per day nationwide. This is expected to close the gap between paddy availability and mills to process it.

 

Tyokyaa, a public affairs analyst wrote from No. 107 Konshisha Street, Makurdi, Benue State.