Dry season farming targets 1m tonnes of rice, others – FG

The Federal Government says it is boosting dry season farming under the National Agricultural Growth Scheme Agro-Pocket (NAGS-AP) with an expected yield of one million tonnes of rice and 525,000 tonnes of cassava.

Bayo Onanuga, the special adviser to the president on communications and strategy at the weekend, said the first phase of the dry season farming which was launched in November 2023, focused on the cultivation of wheat across 15 wheat-producing states, covering 118,657 hectares and involving 107,429 farmers.

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In the statement which dwelt on President Bola Tinubu’s efforts to strengthen food security, Onanuga said, “The fields are green now and harvest will commence in a matter of weeks” quoting Abubakar Kyari, the minister of agriculture.

“There are fantastic reports of the growth of wheat from Jigawa State, which is now targeting harvest from about 50,000 hectares, 10,000 hectares more than initially allotted under the programme.

Onanuga also revealed that the second phase of the dry season farming will commence soon, across all 36 states of Nigeria and FCT.

According to him, “This will cover rice, maize, and cassava.

“For rice, the target is 250,000 hectares involving 500,000 farmers with the expected output of one million metric tonnes of paddy rice.

“For maize, we are cultivating 55,000 hectares with 110,000 farmers thereby adding 165,000 metric tons to national maize production while for cassava, we are doing 35,000 hectares with 70,000 farmers to produce 525,000 metric tons of cassava.

“The NAGS-AP project offers a 50 percent subsidy. However, the Federal Government is providing additional support for phase 2, which will bring aggregate subsidy to about 93 percent to farmers cultivating the crops.

“Also, various governors are showing strong support, to further enhance the subsidy. Additionally, solar-powered water pumps for irrigation, provided by the Federal Government, are being deployed to aid the upcoming phase of the programme.”

The government said already grains being released in seven locations of strategic reserve, are now being bagged for onward delivery to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

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“The need to bag the grains, caused the delay as the bags were freshly ordered by the government.

He assured that “Nigerians will not need to pay for the grain bags, as they are free.

“This will be complemented by the 60,000 metric tonnes of milled rice to be purchased by the Federal Government from the Mega Rice Millers.

“Already, with the announcement of the impending releases of food commodities from the Strategic Reserve, there is a noticeable reduction in commodity prices across major grains markets in the country.”