The Federal Government has secured a loan facility of $134 million from the African Development Bank (AfDB) to help farmers boost seeds and grain production in the country.
Chief Information Officer, Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Anthonia Eremah, disclosed this in a statement on Thursday.
According to the statement, Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari, made his announcement at the unveiling of the 2024/2025 National Dry Season Farming in Calabar.
Kyari explained that with the re-introduction of the national dry season farming to boost year-round agricultural production, the loan would be handy and 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.
Kyari was quoted in the statement to have said that the federal government had declared an emergency on food production to enable all Nigerians to get easy access to quality and nutritional food at affordable rates.
He also said that government wants to use the agricultural sector for national economic revival through increase in production of some staple food crops such as wheat, rice, maize, sorghum, soybean, and cassava during both dry and wet season farming.
The minister added that 107,429 wheat farmers have been supported under phase 1 of the 2023/2024 dry season, and 43,997 rice farmers under the second phase of the 2023/2024 dry season.
According to him, the government recently supported 192,095 rice, maize, sorghum/millet, soyabean and cassava farmers under the 2024 wet season across the 37 States including the FCT.
He said that Cross River was leading 16 other states in wheat production, adding that over 3,000 wheat farmers had been listed to benefit from the support to grow the grain.
Kyari noted the Cross River government’s commitment to wheat production.
He said it informed why the federal government is partnering with the state to kick start the maiden wheat production and enlisting them among states commencing the current 2024/2025 dry season farming.
