The Nigerian Government is set to kick start 12 months of revolutionary Agriculture intervention scheme with an aggregate of 2 million hectares of land across the country.
According to a statement signed by the Special Assistant to the President on Agriculture, Andrew Kwasai, the scheme titled “Agric for Food and Job Plan” is aimed at increasing locally grown food supply and creating employment opportunities in the agriculture sector.
The scheme which will provide zero-interest inputs, financing options such as fertilizers and seeds to farmers across the 36 states and FCT is a partnership venture between the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Central Bank of Nigeria and the State Governments.
In collaboration with N-Power, trained enumerators have been set out to identify farmers and their farms to ensure proper targeting of beneficiaries, appropriate linkage to quality inputs service supply schemes and reduce non-performing loan.
Read Also: Kogi State embraces World Bank projects to take graduates into Agriculture
The project which is expected to eliminate post-harvest losses, seeks to enhance land productivity through agronomic practices and position farmers to be the drivers of economic growth and in turn ensure food security.
The scheme will produce 10 million metric tonnes of food within the period with focus on livestock, rice, maize, sorghum, soyabean, groundnuts, cowpea, cassava, millet, horticulture, palm kernel and cotton for local markets, while sesame, hibiscus, cocoa, hides and skins, horns and hoofs are targeted for the export market.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
