*Says Nigeria Has Gained N777bn
ABUJA (Sundiata Post) – The Minister of Agriculture, Akinwumi Adesina, on Thursday, revealed that the Ministry was planning crop insurance for 2015 to benefit over five million farmers so as to build the confidence of farmers to farm.
This is even as Adesina disclosed that Nigeria has gained the sum of N777 billion from various interventions in the agricultural sector in 2014.
Adesina, who spoke during the defence of the 2015 Budget before the Senate Committee on Agriculture, further hinted that the Ministry has liberalised the insurance market and opened it up for private sector companies to invest in insuring farmers.
He added that the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC) has also been completely revamped in 2014 to provide agric insurance.
“NAIC is now offering a new product, which is called ‘Planting With Peace’ so our farmers will have access to crop insurance. We are hoping to reach about five million farmers by this year and then we can scale it up, it is a very important issue for us,” he said.
He added that the milestones recorded in the nation’s agric sector is responsible for reducing the food import bill from N3.3 in 2011 to N634 in 2014.
This, he noted, was responsible for the stable prices of food in Nigeria, despite the devaluation of the naira and the fall in oil prices.
Speaking on N777 billion gain the nation made from the various interventions in the agricultural sector in 2014, Adesina explained that the money was accrued to the rural economy of the nation as many farmers had benefitted from the interventions and were now making money from farming as a business.
“The main economic value of all the interventions that we have done across rice, maize, sorghum, wheat, soya beans, cassava and others, have added N777 billion worth of income back into our rural economy. This has helped to create significant amount of wealth for our farmers in the country.
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“As you know, we added about 21 million metric tons of food to the domestic food supply and that goes all over from rice to maize, to cassava to sorghum, and to soya beans. All of that has added an average of N777 billion of revenue back into the economy; that is money going back into the hands of farmers and communities.
“If you go into many parts of Nigeria today, particularly if you go to the north particularly for rice farmers, for example, they will tell you that those that actually pay first to buy tickets to go to Mecca are rice farmers. That tells you how much things have changed for them, we have been able to create significant amount of wealth all across the country from agriculture,” he said.
He disclosed that the agric sector witnessed a revolution in maize in 2014 with 14.9 million metric tons of maize from nine million metric tons recorded in 2009.
“The wheat industry also witnessed a revolution in wheat with two new varieties that yield an average of about six tons per hectare with 240,000 metric tons produced in 2014 on a 75,000 hectare land,” Adesina added.
Adesina said that the ministry utilised 100 percent of the money released to it in 2014 and plans to make judicious use of the proposed N12.82 billion allocation for 2015.
In his remark, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture, Senator Emmanuel Bwacha, expressed the satisfaction of his Committee with the budget implementation of the Agriculture Ministry.
He, however, condemned the low level of funding from the Ministry of Finance for the Agriculture Ministry and called for more funding for the ministry.