Ogun smallholder farmers benefit from FG scheme

The Governor of Ogun State, Dapo Abiodun, on Wednesday, hailed the commitment of the Federal Government to achieve food security, as 2,400 smallholder farmers in the state have benefited from the National Agricultural Growth Scheme-Agro Pocket.

Abiodun said that his administration was also leaving no stone unturned to achieve food sufficiency and to also be a food basket for the entire country.

The governor disclosed this during the inauguration of the 13-member State Working Committee of the Federal Government initiated National Agricultural Growth Scheme-Agro Pocket.

Abiodun, while thanking President Bola Tinubu for the initiative, said that the programme would go a long way toward boosting food production in the country

He said that the initiative was in line with the vision of his government, which recognised the immense potential of employment generation, wealth generation, food production and poverty eradication in agriculture

The governor stated that the scheme was designed to address various challenges associated with smallholder farmers, especially about access to improved and climate-smart crop varieties and organic and inorganic fertilizers, through enhanced private sector participation in input production.

Abiodun said, “This scheme is based on an e-wallet platform, an innovative private sector-based efficient and transparent ICT platform that helps to directly deliver and support smallholder farmers for the purchase of farm inputs without an intermediary.

“Ogun state is to be supported in staple food crops like cassava, rice and maize values chain. 2,400 smallholder farmers are benefiting from 1,200 hectares of land, with 0.5 hectares per farmer. Farmers are to pay 25 per cent for the inputs, while the FG will pay the rest 75 per cent for the wet planting season.”

The governor urged the committee headed by the Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Dr Bolu Owotomo, to ensure the effective running of the scheme and ensure that its aims and goals were not defeated.

Earlier, Owotomo said that NAGS-AP was one out of many intervention programmes of the Federal Government that the state had embraced

He remarked that the interventionist programme was structured to address the challenges with low agricultural productivity of smallholder farmers, especially access to affordable certified seeds of improved and climate-smart crop varieties, and organic/inorganic fertilizer.

The commissioner added, “This partnership with the NAGS project is part of our continuous efforts towards empowering smallholder farmers.  This is leverage on the efforts of Ogun State Government based on the enabling environment created to encourage smallholder farmers, entrepreneurs and other value chain actors to thrive in the state”.

Speaking on behalf of the committee, the Olota of Ota, Oba (Prof.) Abdulkabir Obalanlege, pledged that the committee would work in line with the objectives of the scheme to boost food production.