FG targets 750,000 young farmers with $100m agric finance empowerment

President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday flagged off a $100 million Fund for Agricultural Finance in Nigeria (FAFIN) targeted at empowering over 750,000 Nigerian youths.
This is as the president also launched the Youth Employment in Agriculture Programme (YEAP) scheme in line with efforts to make agriculture commercially viable.
While flagging off the programme at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, President Jonathan paid glowing tributes to the roles played by youths in Nigeria, saying that they have brought glory to the country.
He announced that government was establishing about 1,200 agricultural equipment hiring centers in the next two years, even as 80 of such centers are already operational in several locations across the country.
“To drive the modernisation of the agriculture sector, I launched the Agricultural Equipment Hiring Enterprises (AEHEs), a private sector driven programme that will provide mechanised services for farmers across the country. By the end of December 2014, a total of 80 Agricultural Equipment Hiring Centers would have become fully established across the country. Over the next two years, a total of 1,200 of the Agricultural Equipment Hiring Centers would be established across the nation”, he said.
The president, who noted that the future of the country belongs to the youths, stated that government must work to create the enabling environment that will stimulate jobs for the teeming Nigerian youths.
“The Youth Employment in Agriculture Programme (YEAP), which I am flagging off today, will further change the face of Nigeria’s agriculture. YEAP has been designed to create a new generation of 750,000 young commercial farmers and agribusiness leaders (Nagropreneurs) that will make Nigeria’s agriculture more efficient, profitable and competitive.
“They will become the CEOs of their own farms and agribusinesses, create jobs in the rural areas and reverse the trend of high rural to urban migration. They will help to change the mindset of the younger generation on agriculture”, he said.
The president noted that the new vision will not only target self-sufficiency in food production in Nigeria in the next few years, but will ensure that the Nagropreneurs will become models and champions for the recently launched National Agriculture Schools Initiative.
According to him, the project will also help to “consolidate and ensure that our future green economy endures”.
Jonathan recalled the great success recorded in the agricultural transformation agenda (ATA) in 2011, which he said was targeted at adding extra 20 million metric tons of food to the country’s domestic food supply by 2015.
“Today, we have already surpassed our target. Over the past three years, our farmers have produced additional 21 million metric tons of food.
“Within the same period, we have created 3 million farm jobs. I am confident that we will soon surpass our target of 3.5 million farm jobs. Today, the gap between the farmer and the government has been substantially bridged – Farmers, all over the country, are being touched by the new drive for food production.”
“The recent decline in the price of crude oil further underscores the necessity to rapidly diversify our economy away from dependency on crude oil. By producing our own food, we will save scarce foreign exchange, reduce dependence on food imports, while reviving our rural areas and creating wealth for our farmers”, he said.