Agric contribution to GDP jumps to 28.7 % on anchor borrowers’ scheme

Despite Nigeria’s economy contracting three straight consecutive times this year, Agriculture’s contribution to the country’s GDP jumped to a record high of 28.7 percent in third quarter 2016, data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows.

“The contribution of Agriculture to overall GDP in real terms was 28.65 percent in the quarter under review, higher by 1.86 percent from its share in the corresponding quarter of 2015, also higher from the second quarter of this year by 6.10 percent,” the GDP Q3 report said.

Key players in the industry who spoke to BusinessDay attributed the jump in Q3, GDP to bumper harvest and governments renewed commitment to the sector.

“The government is now giving priority to the agric sector with a lot of commitment. With this, more people are going into agriculture and has increased crop production output,” said Prince Ike Ubaka, president, All Farmers Association of Nigeria.

“There was bumper harvest for farmers, as most of them harvested their crops within the last three months and made good profits,” Ubaka said.

In the last one year, the government devoted a lot of energy at deepening agriculture with initiatives such as the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP).

The central bank reserved N40 billion to provide single-interest loans to rice and wheat farmers as part of a government campaign to boost agriculture and reduce food imports, which weighed heavily on the local currency.

“The federal government is really doing a lot through the anchor borrowers’ scheme for farmers and it has increased our crop production output especially for rice and wheat,” said Tola Faseru, national president, National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN).

“If the momentum is maintained, the agric sector will bring the country out of recession,” Faseru said.

BusinessDay’s findings in Kebbi state, the pioneer location for the anchor borrower’s scheme revealed that about 200,000 farmers participated in the just concluded farming season, leading to the realisation of 1.1 million metric tonnes of rice paddy which was based on an average yield of 5.5 tonnes per hectare.

Abiodun Olorundenro, chief executive officer, Green Vine Farms said ”Due to high demand for farm produce now farmers have increased their farming areas to farm more and make a lot of money.”

 

JOSEPHINE OKOJIE