WATThe National Agricultural Development Fund (NADF) has set aside N19.5 billion to provide 50% subsidies on seeds, fertilizers, and agrochemicals to support 50,000 farmers under the National AgGrow Farm Suport Programme.The fund covers four main priority crops – rice, maize, cassava, and soybeans – across the six geopolitical zones of the country.Speaking at the unveiling of NADF’s M&E software and application for the agro project to stakeholders yesterday in Abuja, the Executive Director of the fund, Mr. Mohammed Abu Ibrahim, stated that the National Agro Programme was designed to empower farmers, enhance food security, and drive economic growth.
He added that the fund would leverage the M&E platform to track progress, identify areas for improvement, and inform decision-making.
The capacity, productivity, and profitability of smallholder farmers is something that we hold dear to our hearts and informs most of the on-lending schemes that we are about to unveil,” he said.How the project will work
Lanre Wilton-Wadell, the Special Assistant Technical to the Executive Secretary, provided a breakdown of the project.
He explained that NADF would fund 100% of the inputs (seeds, fertilizers, and agrochemicals) by providing them through processors who have farmers under their out-grower schemes.
At harvest, NADF will be paid back by the processors for 50% of the total cost of the inputs.“So, we came up with this scheme due to the fragmented markets and access to raw materials by the processors, and also to try and boost productivity for the farmers,” he explained.
We looked at a way we can create a linkage between the farmers, where the farmers have ready offtake markets, and also the processors have ready raw materials. Seventy percent of the farmers face constraints with quality seeds and the knowledge of good agricultural practices, and on the other hand, the processors can’t get sustainable supplies of raw materials at competitive prices, mainly due to activities of middlemen and aggregators,” he added.
