By Ginika Okoye
Abuja, – The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) has commenced the distribution of farm inputs to farmers in Ogun.
In a statement issued on Sunday, in Abuja, Ms Anne Ihugba, the Head, Corporate Communications of NIRSAL, said that maize, rice and cassava farmers in the state would benefit from the input distribution.
Ihugba said the inputs would be distributed to the farmers under the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP).
She explained that farmers would receive herbicides, certified seeds, crop protection products, Nitrogen Phosphorus and Potassium (NPK) and urea fertilisers.
The spokesperson said that mechanisation services would also be rendered to the farmers for land preparation.
Ihugba also quoted Mrs. Jumoke Ilo, the Head of NIRSAL’s Project Monitoring, Reporting and Remediation Office (PMRO) in Ogun, as saying that NIRSAL, through the ABP, is committed to addressing the challenges of smallholder farmers in the state.
Ilo said that through the ABP, NIRSAL was addressing the problems of access to finance markets, structuring, low technical know-how and other challenges facing smallholder farmers in the state.
“NIRSAL has organised farmers into geo-cooperatives, provided them with finance components and training, and will further link them with off-takers.
“The ABP is an agricultural input loan scheme of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in which smallholder farmers receive single-digit interest rate loans in the form of inputs and pay back with portions of their produce.
“As a Participating Financial Institution in the programme, NIRSAL administers the ABP on behalf of the apex bank.’’
Many smallholder farmers in different states had also received input for the cultivation of maize, cassava, rice, soybean, oil palm, cocoa, cotton, sorghum, sesame and tomatoes under the ABP for both dry and wet season farming