Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq of Kwara State has praised the African Union Development Agency- New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AUDA-NEPAD) Nigeria for its initiative to strengthen small-holder farmers capability.
Gov. Abdulrasaq said the initiative – National Committee on Innovative Strengthening of Smallholder Farmer Capabilities in Nigeria amid COVID19 pandemic – was capable of impacting the nation’s food security, eliminate unemployment and promote other socio-economic benefits.
He noted that small-holder farmers constitute almost 90 per cent of farmers in the country and that any initiative to strengthen their operations, as being envisaged with the initiative by AUDA-NEPAD, Nigeria should be encouraged by all.
Gov. Abdulrasaq spoke in Abuja during a courtesy visit to the National Coordinator of AUDA-NEPAD Nigeria, Princess Gloria Akobundu, at the agency’s headquarters September 10, 2020, Akobundu’s media aide, Abolade Ogundimu said in a statement on Sunday.
The governor, who was named as the Chairman of the committee, said: “Over 90% of farmers in Nigeria are small-holder farmers, despite their limited means, they have been feeding the nation, but they need to be strengthened in order to be more productive.
“It is a thing of joy to see AUDA-NEPAD came up with an initiative that targets smallholder farmers for them to scale up their productivity.
“As Governments cannot do it alone, AUDA-NEPAD Nigeria has done so well by providing a platform for smallholder farming to be more productive and profitable through the engagement of governments at various levels and other key stakeholders.
“AUDA-NEPAD Nigeria has consistently been stepping up its developmental roles over the years, state governments should embrace the Agency’s programmes for rapid development.”
The Kwara governor, who called for synergy among stakeholders, noted that “the committee has a vital role to play in the implementation of the initiative, I, therefore, urge AUDA-NEPAD to bring the Committee to speed on developments in the entire process for effective and efficient participation.”
Earlier, Akobundu Akobundu said the initiative was one of the various programmes of her agency to eliminate poverty in the entire continent.
She said: “Being a member of African Union (AU)-(African Peer Review Mechanism) APRM COVID-19 Taskforce Team, we came up with a white paper to deliver our continent from the effect of COVID-19.
“So, to get our dear country out of COVID-19 effects, we are implementing this initiative to strengthen smallholder farmers across the six geo-political zones and create wealth at the grassroots.
” We target a bottom-top approach to take our people out of COVID-19 problem. If you look at the communities, you will observe our fathers, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters are the farmers.
“They need the enabling environment, land reclamation, startup packs, seedlings, they need to be trained on better preservation means to eliminate wastages, better packaging.
“We are bringing the development partners, the private sectors in agricultural value chain like food processing and packaging, as well as a market which include export, we will create food, we will also create wealth at the community level, ” Akobundu said.
The committee was made up major stakeholders including two Governors from each geo-political zone, six Federal Ministries of Environment, Agriculture and Rural Development, Education, Power and Budget and National Planning had a member each in the committee.
Also, a representative from five development partners including Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN); Development Bank of Nigeria,; Nigeria Incentive-based Risk Sharing Systems for Agricultural Lending NIRSAL) and; Nigeria Export Processing Zone Authority (NEPZA).
Representatives of the civil society are the Nigeria Farmers Association (NFA), Nigeria Women in Agriculture (NWA) and Youth Initiative for Sustainable Agriculture (YISA), while Dangote Group of Company represented the private sector.
