The federal government has secured a loan facility of $134m from the African Development Bank (AfDB) to help farmers boost seeds and grain production in the country.
Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari disclosed this in Calabar when he, alongside Gov Bassey Otu, represented by his Deputy, Peter Odey, and international development partners, flagged off the commencement of the 2024/2025 National Dry Season farming and commencement of wheat cultivation.
The event was held at the Cross River Basin Development Authority on Wednesday with arrays of critical stakeholders from the agriculture sector witnessing it.
He explained that with the reintroduction of the national dry season farming to boost year-round agricultural production, the loan will be handy and will guarantee national food security in the country.
The minister said the initiative is under the National Agricultural Growth Support Scheme-Agro Pocket (NAGS-AP) Project in the state.
He said the government has declared an emergency on food production to enable all Nigerians get easy access to quality and nutritional food at affordable rates.
He further said that the government wants to use the agricultural sector for national economic revival through increased production of some staple food crops such as wheat, rice, maize, sorghum, soybean, and cassava during both dry and wet season farming.
He disclosed that 107,429 wheat farmers have been supported under phase 1 of the 2023/2024 dry season, 43,997 rice farmers under the second phase of the 2023/2024 dry season and recently 192,095 rice, maize, sorghum/millet, soyabean and cassava farmers under the 2024 wet season across the 37 States including Abuja.
He noted that Cross River is leading 16 other states in wheat production, adding that over 3000 wheat farmers have been listed to benefit from support to grow the grain.
“For the 2024/2025 dry season farming, the project is targeted to support 250,000 wheat farmers across the wheat-producing states with subsidized agricultural inputs to cultivate about 250,000 hectares with an expected output of about 750,000 metric tons of wheat to be added to the food reserve to reduce dependence on importation of the product and also increase domestic consumption.
“Equally the Program will provide support to 150,000 rice farmers under the second phase to cover all the 37 States including FCT, Abuja with an expected output of about 450,000 metric tons.” He added.
On his part, Gov Otu said they have a deliberate agriculture policy to bolster food availability, assuring of the state’s support and cooperation for the initiative, especially as she is listed as a foremost wheat farming state.
“This will further propel us to intensify more efforts at producing more grains and seeds for food availability. This dry season farming will also help us in irrigation.”
The National Project director in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Mr I. Goba said they will implement the project in two phases where they will support farmers with good quality seeds and grains.