FG secures $134 million loan from AfDB to enhance food production
The Federal Government has secured a loan facility of $134 million from the African Development Bank (AfDB) to help farmers boost seeds and grain production in the country.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, disclosed this while flagging off the 2024/2025 National Dry Season Farming in Calabar recently, along with the Governor of Cross River State, Bassey Otu, represented by the Deputy, Peter Odey, recently.
He explained that with the reintroduction of the national dry season farming to boost year-round agricultural production, the loan would be handy and guarantee national food security in the country.
The minister said the initiative is under the National Agricultural Growth Support Scheme-Agro Pocket (NAGS-AP) Project. He noted that the Federal Government had declared an emergency on food production to enable all Nigerians to get easy access to quality and nutritional food at affordable rates.
He revealed that the government wants to use the agricultural sector for national economic revival through an increase in the production of some staple food crops such as wheat, rice, maize, sorghum, soybean, and cassava during both dry and wet season farming.
Kyari disclosed that 107,429 wheat farmers have been supported under phase 1 of the 2023/2024 dry season, 43,997 rice farmers under the second phase of the 2023/2024 dry season and, recently, 192,095 rice, maize, sorghum/millet, soybean and cassava farmers under the 2024 wet season across the 37 states, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
MEANWHILE, a professor of Analytical and Environmental Chemistry, Godwin Olutona, of Bowen University, Iwo, Osun State, yesterday, advised the Federal Government and stakeholders on the need to use biochar as a replacement for fertilizer.which, according to him, is more environmentally friendly and good for human health.
Delivering the 17th inaugural lecture of the university entitled, ‘The Menace of Environmental Pollution: Sustainability And Pathway To Eden,’ Olutona said that biochar is a by-product of biomass pyrolysis, highly rich in aromatic structures that enhance soil humus.
He lamented the damage which fertilizer and other kinds of pesticides are doing to the soil and the environment.He said biochar also plays a crucial role in increasing soil carbon storage, improving nutrient retention and availability, and maintaining the balance of soil ecosystems. He added that it also replenishes the soil and can mitigate climate change.
While emphasising the need to encourage organic farming in Nigeria, the don said that doing so would discourage the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, aiming to minimise their environmental effects and reduce food contamination from pesticides and high levels of nitrates.
He also emphasised the need for the Federal Government to implement relevant regulatory measures to control the importation and use of priority pollutant chemicals and products containing them.
