Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, on Monday narrated how he said the Federal Government was able to put an end to forty years of corruption in the agricultural sector.
Adesina spoke on the third day of the Public Affairs Forum organized by the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs in Abuja.
He said the sector has witnessed a monumental change in the way and manner agriculture and its related activities are handled.
He said, “We ended 40 years of corruption in the fertilizer sector. The old system of government direct procurement and distribution of fertilizer was corrupt. Nearly 90% of farmers never received subsidized fertilizers.
“Between 1980 and 2010, over N873bn ($5.4bn) was spent on fertilizer subsidies. No more than 11% of farmers received these fertilizers. Over N776bn($4.8bn) was estimated to have been lost to corruption or an average of N26bn($162.5m) annually. The system displaced the private sector.”
He said the ministry under the current arrangement has built a national database of 10.5 million farmers, which has increased the participation in every state of the federation just as the Growth Enhancement Support Scheme programme has increased farmers getting fertilizers from 11 per cent before the programme to 92 per cent.
He added that 1.3 million metric tons of fertilizer have been delivered to farmers.
The minister also said, 55,000 metric tons of improved seeds have been delivered to farmers pointing out that Nigeria is the first country in Africa to deliver inputs to farmers at scale through e-wallet.
The minister also said that the country boasts of cassava both in quality and quantity, a reason he decided to embark on the cassava transformation initiative, which has led to the introduction of 20 per cent cassava bread, which he said has led to the establishment of 30 bakeries across the country.
On rice, Adesina said the ministry with support from Bank of Industry and Bank of Agriculture has unleashed a rice revolution to become self-sufficient in rice, which has led to production of million metric tonnes of the commodity.
The investments, he said, has run into billions of naira.
He also said several crops including sorghum, cocoa, maize oil palm, fish as well as animal production have significantly with the youth participating actively in all the value chain circle.
In the area of mechanization, he said the programme, which was aimed at bringing back equipment hiring enterprise is now brought back on stream.
He announced the completion of 33 silo complexes with capacity of 1.1million MT across Nigeria, nine air conditioned warehouses and a $250m investment by Blumberg to make Nigeria the hub for manufacturing warehouses. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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Good job Adesina!!!
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