We’ve created 300,000 jobs, 210,000 metric tonnes of food with $175m agric programme, Nigerian govt claims

The Federal Government said 299,615 jobs were created and 209,464 metric tonnes of food provided with the first phase of its $175m Agricultural Transformation Agenda Support Programme (ATASP-1)

The government also said over 20,000 farmers and processors were trained under the ATASP-1 on good agronomic practices and food processing across the four zones where the programme was on-going.

These were disclosed during a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday by the National Programme Coordinator, under the (Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) FMARD, Ibrahim Arabi.

ATASP-1 is created in collaboration with African Development Bank (AfDB) to adopt a holistic approach to tackling the challenges confronting agriculture in Nigeria.

The ATASP-1, which is supervised by the Permanent Secretary, FMARD, Mohammed Umar, is on-going in 200 rural communities, 33 Local Government Areas in seven states of the federation – Anambra, Enugu, Niger, Kano, Jigawa, Kebbi and Sokoto

The Coordinator said, “The programme has contributed to the food and nutrition security, job and wealth creation objectives of Nigeria’s agricultural policy.

“About 299,625 jobs have been created, compared with a target of 120,000; 209,464MT of food valued at N32.2bn has been injected into the economy as against a target of 100,000MT.

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“Also, the increase in the incomes of farmers and entrepreneurs by 20.5 per cent at midterm review of the programme gives confidence that the target of 25 per cent increase in income for the programme beneficiaries is achievable at the end of the programme.”

He added that the primary goal of ATASP-1 was to contribute to poverty reduction, employment generation and wealth creation, import substitution, economic diversification and growth of Nigeria, particularly in the zones where the programme was being implemented.

“In order to achieve this goal, ATASP-1 uses the strategy of capacity building and empowerment of farmers, women and youths, among others across the three commodity value chains of rice, cassava and sorghum alongside rural infrastructure development,” he said.

By Babatunde Alao…

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