Dry Season Farming Set to Kick-off in Nigeria

The federal government of Nigeria has disclosed its readiness to officially commence dry season farming for 2023/2024 on Saturday, November 25. In a bid to combat food inflation in the country.

This was made known in a statement signed by the Technical Advisor, Strategic Communication, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, and Food Security, Kingsley Osadolor.

According to the statement, the exercise which would be led by the Hon. Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari, and other dignitaries to Hadejia, Jigawa State, North-West, Nigeria, where the ceremony is set to take place, as a direct response to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s declaration of emergency on food security earlier in July this year.

Part of the statement reads:  A range of agricultural inputs, including seeds, fertilizer, herbicides, and pesticides, will be delivered to farmers at the occasion. The federal government is subsidizing agricultural inputs by 50 per cent.

“The 2023/2024 dry season farming is being boosted by the 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.

The statement added that the dry season farming is expected to take place in all 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory,  noting that one critical requirement among others is the availability of irrigable land where the dry season farming will take place.

“The crops being targeted for the 2023/24 season are wheat, for which seeds have been imported from Mexico; rice, maize, sorghum, soybeans, and cassava.

Wheat farmers have been guaranteed off-take of their produce by the Flour Millers Association of Nigeria,” it added.

Meanwhile, the Hon. Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen Kyari, had described the flag-off as a milestone in realizing the Renewed Hope Agenda.

He said the availability of agricultural inputs and machinery would enhance the cultivation of about one hundred and twenty thousand hectares in different parts of the country.

Agronigeria/Shakirat Sadiq