FG supports 340,000 farmers under agro pocket programme

The Federal Government says no fewer than 343,187 farmers have been supported under the National Agricultural Growth Scheme Agro Pocket Project (NAGS-AP) within the last two farming seasons.

The farmers were supported to grow crops such as wheat, maize, rice, sorghum, soyabean, millet and cassava.

The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari, said in Calabar on Wednesday during the commencement of the 2024/2025 dry season farming under NAGS-AP programme.

The minister gave the breakdown of the figure and crops grown to include 107,429 wheat farmers in the first phase in the 2023/2024, 43,997 rice farmers under the second phase.

He listed the last figure to be 192,095 rice, maize, sorghum/millet, soyabean and cassava farmers under the 2024 wet season across the across 36 states of the federation and the FCT.

He said the programme was undertaken with the loan facility of 134 million dollars from the African Development Bank (AfDB) to increase production of some staple food crops such as wheat, rice, maize, sorghum.

Kyari said the national dry season farming was reintroduced to boost year-round agricultural production and with a view to guarantee national food and nutrition security in the country.

“As you are quite aware, Mr President, accorded high-attention to the agricultural sector right from the inception of this administration because of the pivotal position of the agricultural sector to national economic revival process.

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“To match his words with action, Mr President declared emergency on food production to enable all Nigerians get easy accessibility to quality food at affordable rates.

“In furtherance to his declaration and priority attention given to the agricultural sector, the Federal Government secured a loan facility of $134m from the African Development Bank (AfDB).

“The aim is to increase the production and productivity in some staple food crops such as wheat, rice, maize, sorghum, soybean, and cassava during both dry and wet season farming in the country,” he said.

To underscore the importance of the programme, Kyari said the ministry is addressing some noticeable challenges under the NAGS-AP programme.

He said out that his ministry had reviewed operational standards to guide implementation of the programme to make it more efficient and expects all the stakeholders to adhere strictly to the set operational standards.

He said Cross River was chosen for wheat production to utilize the favourable climatic and weather condition in some parts of the state.

“The passion and commitment of the governor of Cross River therefore informed our Ministry’s desires to partner with the state government to kick-start this maiden wheat production in the state.

“This will enlist the state among wheat producing states commencing from this current 2024/2025 dry season farming,” he said.

Gov. Bassey Out, represented by his deputy, Dr Peter Odey, said the state aimed to bolster food availability, assuring of the state’s support to 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,”