Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has said 720,000 small farm holders got N120.6 billion credit through the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme.
He said the credit was given directly to small farmers, through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and 13 banks.
The farmers, he said, handled 12 commodities, including rice, wheat, cotton, soya beans, cassava, poultry and groundnuts, in the 36 states and Abuja.
Prof Osinbajo spoke at the the Fourth National Discourse organised by The Companion, an Association of Muslim in Business and Professions at the University of Lagos Auditorium, Akoka.
The Vice-President said the Anchor Borrowers’ programme was now digitised.
“With all farmlands GPRS mapped, biometric data of farmers captured, electronic cards issued and specific inputs are recorded. This has enhanced traceability and enhanced productivity and yield,” he said.
According to him, the government launched a fertiliser programme to improve local blending capacity in collaboration with Morocco, saying “today we have 11 fertiliser blending plants with a capacity of 2.1 million.
“Fertiliser price has since dropped from N13,000 per 50kg to N5,500 and N6,000. One of the things that have happened with fertiliser is that in the past we used to import fertiliser and give to the states and the state will give to emirates and obas and they will distribute it in the way that they want. But we now have our blending plants and we now manufacture locally, access by farmers is much easier and this had proved to be more effective and the farmers are a lot happier.”
The Anchors Borrowers’ programme was launched by President Muhammadu Buhari in Kebbi State in November 2015.
Former Governor of Osun State Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, who chaired the event, enjoined Nigerians to patronise locally-made foods.
This, Aregbesola said, would enhance the nation’s economic potential.
Aregbesola decried the nation’s low level of productivity which, he said, “cuts across all sectors of the economy.”
He called on governments to assist livestock farmers.
“Livestock farmers are the least assisted by the government. We all know the importance of protein…” he said.
The guest speaker Prof. Fola Lasisi underscored the importance of extension services in the productive agricultural practice.
While praising farmers in the northern parts of the country, Lasisi lamented that those in the South trifle with extension services.
He noted that extension service officers in the South were lazy and should be sacked as they were not doing enough for farmers in southern states.
Lasisi, an ex-vice-chancellor of the University of Uyo, said government’s attempt in trying to be in business had never yielded positive results.
“Government does not have to be in business, they will never be efficient. Look at the organisations that have been set up a long time ago, they never made it. “Government should just provide a conducive environment for private people to do business.
The Companion National Amir (president), Alhaji Thabit Wale Sonaike, called for more commitment and innovation to end food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition.
He said sustainable development cannot be achieved with so many hungry and malnourished people.
Economic growth and positive socio-economic development, he said, must translate to benefit to Nigerians, especially the urban poor and rural dwellers.
Sonaike lamented that despite widely reported reduction in food import and increasing domestic food production, hunger and undernourishment were increasing.
“As a matter of fact and for the past six years, domestic food production figures have been up with no corresponding reduction in hunger and food insecurity. This goes contrary to the expectations of most Nigerians as a lot of people including a number of scholars have always posited that the panacea to food insecurity in Nigeria is good agricultural policy and increase domestic food production. The reality, however, has proved them wrong indicating that food insecurity is not to be measured or remedied by food production figures alone. This, therefore, calls for more interrogation by scholars and practitioners as well as other stakeholders and government,” he said.