The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group on Friday approved a $134 million loan for the National Agriculture Growth Scheme – Agro Pocket program in Nigeria to scale up food production and boost livelihood resilience.
The program will support fast-tracking of the implementation of key policy and institutional reforms and boost private sector participation in agriculture. This will help increase cereals and oil grains production by 7 million tonnes to 35 million tonnes. It will also increase average cereal yields from 1.42 tonnes to 2 tonnes per hectare during the September 2022-December 2023 implementation period.
The program aligns with the Bank’s African Emergency Food Production Facility and will support Nigeria’s efforts to mitigate the impacts of the war in Ukraine. Food prices have been rising rapidly due to higher volatility caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, aggravated by the war.
However, inadequate support for the farmers has confined them to traditional agronomic techniques, resulting in low productivity and limited opportunities for value addition. In 2020, the harvested cereals area and yields declined by 2.75% and 1.5%, respectively.
Lamin Barrow, Director General of the Bank’s Nigeria Country Department, said the program would prioritize support for five strategic crops: maize, rice, wheat, soya beans and sorghum, with a particular focus on wheat value chains.
He said National Agriculture Growth Scheme – Agro Pocket program is anchored in the National Agriculture Technology and Innovation Policy (2022-27) which aims to modernize Nigeria’s agriculture sector in line with changing global food systems and supply chains.
“The Bank will support the Federal Government to put in place a robust institutional framework, including operationalization of the National Agriculture Growth Scheme – Agro Pocket program Secretariat as the administrative vehicle to oversee the implementation of the Agro-Pocket Scheme, whose precursor is the highly successful e-wallet scheme that was rolled out in Nigeria between 2012 and 2015,” he said.
The National Agriculture Growth Scheme – Agro Pocket program would help build the resilience of farming livelihoods, enhance farmers’ access to improved seeds, and strengthen the capacity of industry stakeholders, Barrow stressed.
Beth Dunford, the Bank’s Vice President Agriculture, Human and Social Development, said: “Cushioning the poor from the effects of higher food, and energy costs, requires urgent and sustainable policy, such as increased public expenditure on agriculture.”