Activities of criminal incursion on farmland in the northern part of the country, already threatening farmers’ productivity, may frustrate the $500m World Bank agricultural support intervention in Nigeria.
Besides, the Federal government’s policy on tax waivers, particularly for ‘contractors’ importing food into the country, is considered a major hindrance to agricultural production.
The threats were among the major concerns raised by stakeholders at a workshop on Nigeria’s Sustainable Agricultural Value Chains for Growth (AGROW) on Tuesday in Kano.
The AGROW programme, designed to support farmers and enhance food security, is anchored by the Presidential Food Systems Coordinating Unit (PFSCU), the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS), and the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) to support farmers in the Sudan Savannah zone of the country.
However, stakeholders from Kebbi, Zamfara, Katsina, Borno and Kaduna states are concerned that inconsistencies in government policies may render the new intervention ineffective.
Commissioner for Agriculture in Kebbi, Alh. Shehu Muazu, particularly lamented the inability of farmers to gainfully benefit from government intervention due to the invasion by money-bag contractors. Muazu also faulted the government’s waiver on food imports, which he considered inimical to local production.
On his part, the agric commissioner from Katsina State, Alh. Aliyu Lawal Zakari, urged the Federal government to manage insecurity threatening farmers’ productivity, worried that persistent banditry attacks in the state could threaten food security.
Zakari also advocated for market access for farmers in Katsina to boost production, while urging urgent intervention to manage post-harvest loss.
In a similar vein, their counterparts from Gombe, Zamfara, and Kano states called for the prompt provision of agrochemical inputs and other farm support to large-scale farmers to boost food security.
Speaking on the objective of the intervention, Mr. Eniola Akindele, Manager of Data and Input Assessments, said the AGROW programme was designed to ensure access to loans for farmers, create jobs and encourage private-sector investment in the agricultural sector, with a view to realising the Renewed Hope Agenda of food security and industrialisation.
Akindele described the AGROW as a value-chain programme used to tackle the food security problem in the country.
“We must not only look at one side of the value chain; we must look at the value chain holistically. We follow it from production through processing to the market and consumption. That is why this programme is coming in, and that is why we are here,” he stated.
Akindele said the programme has opened a window for stakeholders to brainstorm and deliberate on all the challenges facing agribusiness in the country, with a view to proffering solutions and tackling the problem of food insecurity head-on.
According to him, the essence of the workshop was to review AGROW programmes in the Sudan-Savannah zone, revalidate initiatives, and ensure that any action being taken to help farmers in the zone is specific and result-oriented.
He encouraged farmers to believe that the Federal Government is determined to carry them along in policy formation and decisions concerning farmers’ improved productivity
