FG inaugurates committee on smallholder farmers

The Federal Government in collaboration with a Mauritius based company Manobi Africa Plc has inaugurated the National Agcelerant Technical Committee to mobilize financial support for smallholder farmers.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Mohammed Sabo Nanono, who inaugurated the committee yesterday in Abuja, said the nation’s agricultural sector was characterised by low productivity, poor value chains development and negative food import level, which affect our international trade balance.

“We need to start reversing this trend by harnessing the huge potentials in the agricultural sector for sustainable development through partnership and engagement with willing stakeholders, who genuinely believe in our beloved nation and ready to lend us helping hands.

“The AgCelerant is a novel Value Chain orchestration platform connecting smallholders contract farming and producers with banks, insurers and input providers and agro-industries to control risks and improve the productivity, security and welfare of millions of farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa,” Nanono said.

In his opening remarks, the Permanent Secretary, (FMARD), Dr Mohammed Bello said that this first national AgCelerant Technical Committee will lay the footsteps for the acceleration of Nigeria’s Agricultural Sector.

The committee has the Permanent Secretary (FMARD) as chair; it will be co-chaired by International Crop Research Institute for Semi-arid Tropics (ICRISAT)/Manobi Africa PLC, Central Bank of Nigeria, Bank of Agriculture, among others as members.