Nasarawa State government has approved the release of N88m as counterpart fund to the International Fund for Agriculture (IFAD) to participate in the Value Chain Development Programme for small farmers in the state.
The state governor, Abdullahi Sule, disclosed this during the handing-over ceremony of agricultural equipment donated by the Japanese government in in Azara, Awe Local Government Area.
He said the vision of his administration was to see that Nasarawa State account for at least 25 percent of Nigeria’s total rice production.
This is as the Japanese government has donated the Japanese government has donated 20 rice reapers and 20 rice threshers for use in three selected local government areas of the state.
The governor, while restating the commitment of his administration to give agriculture its pride of place as the major mover of the economy of the state, disclosed that the state government recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with IFAD for the State’s participation in the value chain development programme, a scheme aimed at improving cassava and rice value chains for small farmers.
While emphasising on the out grower scheme, a contract farming involving agricultural production being carried out on the basis of an agreement between buyers and small farmers, Sule further disclosed that Olam Group currently has over 10, 000 hectares of land in Rukubi of Doma Local Government Area, for the rice value chain development, especially with the out growers.
He added that Olam Farms has over 4000 out growers, with more to come from other commercial rice farmers, with operators like Azman Farms and Dangote Group coming into the state.
“I commend Olam for this and I call on all the other commercial farmers who are coming into Nasarawa State to copy from Olam, so we can continue to empower our farmers,” he stated.
Governor Sule said his administration was poised to place Nasarawa State on the global map as being a frontline rice-producing state
Japanese ambassador to Nigeria, Yutaka Kikuta announced recently that farmers in selected three local government areas of the state would benefit from the Japan’s agricultural funding to boost food production through mechanised farming in the state.
To this end, the Japanese government has donated 20 rice reapers, as well as 20 rice threshers to Nasarawa State, for use by small-scale farmers in the three selected local areas of Awe, Obi and Keana.
A total of 155 out-growers working with Olam Farms Nigeria Limited in Doma Local government, the technical partner for the project, are expected to also benefit from the scheme.
Kikuta made the donation at an elaborate ceremony held in Azara, Awe Local Government Area of the state.
While commissioning and handing over the agricultural equipment, Kikuta disclosed that the donation was coming under the Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Project (GGP), under which the Japanese embassy within two decades had funded 170 projects across Nigeria, worth over $12m.
He explained that the scheme was designed to provide mechanized rice farming equipment to increase and improve the quantity and quality of rice produced by rice farmers, towards enhancing the economic wellbeing of communities in the three local government areas.
The Japanese ambassador added that the development in the agricultural sector was in line with the themes of the 7th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD7), with the Japanese government pledging to further support economic transformation in Africa.
This, according to Kikuta, was expected to be achieved through the promotion of innovation in agriculture, developing and expanding agricultural technologies, increasing income of small-scale farmers through the Smallholder Horticulture Empowerment and Promotion (SHEP), among others.
He noted that before the commencement of the project in 2011, local farmers lost up to 20 percent of harvested rice due to damage from the traditional method of threshing, besides the additional cost of hiring manual labour.
“With the introduction of 20 rice reapers and 20 threshers, it’s our expectation that this project will reduce time and loss of rice from reaping to threshing,” the Japanese ambassador said.
Responding, governor Sule commended the Japanese government for the choice of Nasarawa State farmers to benefit from such a worthy collaboration, considering the comparative advantage the state has in the rice value chain.
Sule told the ambassador that Nasarawa State was blessed with 140, 000 hectares of land suitable for rice, with the state having a capacity to produce over 350, 000 metric tonnes of rice.
The governor disclosed that through the GGP, 442 rice farmers were empowered and trained to improve rice production technologies, management, with 35 front line extension agents also trained in good agricultural practice to be passed to other farmers, as well as 11 extension agents that were trained in Japan on improved rice production technologies and research methods.
He described the event as yet another milestone in his administration’s determination to further strengthen the collaboration with the Japanese government, towards achieving the desired import substitution and backward integration policy of the Federal Government.
