As part of efforts to boost agricultural production in Ogun state, the government has begun a systematic review of the CBN’s Anchor Borrowers initiative to increase farmer’s productivity and value addition.
To ensure that farmers harness the opportunities in the initiative, the Ogun State government in partnership with the apex bank organised a town hall meeting to address issues limiting farmers’ productivity.
Adeola Odedina, special adviser to the Governor on Agriculture, noted that the town hall meeting was held to work out modalities by which loans granted by CBN and other financial institutions would be judiciously invested in agriculture.
Odedina says the state would create the enabling environment and other incentives, while National Commodity Association would be involved in ensuring that farmers are linked to credit, inputs and ready markets.
“The focus of agriculture in the state is to link farmers to industries, and get raw materials from them and the Government cannot do it alone, that is why we are doing the Public-Private Partnership,” he said.
“We have off-takers (representatives of industries and factories) in our midst to off-take cassava from the farmers, as the CBN is ready to make the State a model for cassava production in Nigeria, as the success of the State in cassava production would be replicated in other states in the country,” he added.
Yemisi Olukoya, representing the CBN, stated that the job of the apex bank is to provide access to affordable loans for farmers, which would be repaid in due course, as well as creating the assurance of a ready market through the off-takers initiative.
She noted that stakeholders had been formed into the committees that would let the apex bank know what cost of production is, the expected yields and the interest rate, then there would be considered for the Agricultural Insurance Corporation to mitigate against the unplanned losses.
“All these are being made for the farmers to know their profit margin, the variety of what they want to plant and what it would cost them to pay the people that would clear their land,” she said.
Also, Bola Okuneye, chairman, Anchor Borrowers Programme Steering Committee, noted that the Committee had done the necessary paperwork to have a successful scheme in the state, just as he stated that the essence of the stakeholders meeting is to establish a window between the farmers that are buying and those that are supplying them.
Okuneye also submitted that the meeting became imperative as the Committee is trying to bring the major stakeholders (the buyers, the bank, CBN, input suppliers) together to minimise the problems of the farmers and ensure increased productivity on the part of the farmers.
Isola Olusegun, a rice farmer from Ijebu-Igbo, while lauding the State government for keying into the ABP, expressed his satisfaction with the meeting, saying that the farmers would make profit from the ABP if inputs, fertilizers, chemicals, and seeds are delivered on time as well as the mechanised aspect is completed at the right time.
He, however, advised his colleagues that they should not see the financial aspect of the ABP as a give-away, but a loan or grant that would be repaid, saying that they should be sincere with whatever output that comes out of their farm.
RAZAQ AYINLA, Abeokuta
