To Reduce Prices Of Food Items, FG Plans 50% Subsidy On Farm Input

Farmers across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory will be receiving a subsidized “farm input of 50 per cent”, as the Federal Government flags off the 2023/2024 dry season farming.

The move, according to the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, FMAFS, Abubakar Kyari is part of the measures to be implemented in curtailing food insecurity in the country.

Recall that President Bola Tinubu in July, barely two months after his inauguration as President of Nigeria declared an emergency on food security.

In a statement on Thursday signed by Kingsley Osadolor, Technical Adviser on Strategy and Communications FMAFS, the dry season will be flagged off officially on Saturday, November 25, 2023.

Osadolor said, “A range of agricultural inputs, including seeds, fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides, will be delivered to farmers at the occasion (November 25, 2023). The Federal Government is subsidizing the agricultural inputs by 50 per cent.

“The 2023/2024 dry season farming is being boosted by an African Development Bank facility and implemented under the National Agricultural Growth Scheme and Agro-Pocket (NAGS-AP) project.

“The implementation is ICT-driven with earlier steps taken to geo-locate farmlands, enumerate, register, and cluster no fewer than 250,000 farmers”.

Speaking on crop production being targeted during the farming period, Osadolor said, “The crops being targeted for the season are wheat, for which seeds have been imported from Mexico; rice, maize, sorghum, soybeans, and cassava. And wheat farmers have been guaranteed off-take of their produce by the Flour Millers Association of Nigeria.”

He added that dry season farming is expected to take place in all 36 states and FCT with one critical requirement among others being the availability of irrigable land where the dry season farming will take place.