FG Inaugurates Soludo led NAGS-AP State Working Committee on Farm Inputs Distribution in Anambra

By Olisemeka ObecheFederal Government on Wednesday, July 31 inaugurated the Anambra State Chapter of the National Agricultural Growth Scheme Agro-pocket, NAGS-AP State Working Committee. The Committee chaired by the State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo is saddled with the responsibility of mobilization and sensitization of profiled farmers that will benefit from the federal government’s NAGS-AP Inputs subsidy initiative.

The program being implemented through the Agricultural Transformation Agenda Support Programme (ATAPS-1) project of the federal government is a direct replacement of the former Growth Enhancement Support (GES) which was re-introduced to address the yearnings of different value chain stakeholders. During a brief swearing-in ceremony attended by sectoral stakeholders at the ADP Hall of the Anambra State Ministry of Agriculture, Awka, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari restated the commitment of the federal government to tackle food shortages in the country through strategic interventions such as provision of relevant farm inputs to farmers under NAGS-AP. The Minister, represented by Dr. Ibrahim Arabi, National Program Coordinator, Agricultural Transformation Agenda Support Program Phase One, ATASP-1, described the NAGS-AP committee as an important vehicle for the implementation of the agricultural agenda of the federal government. Arabi disclosed that, though NAGS-AP was launched with a US$140 Million loan from the African Development Bank, AfDB, additional financing was already underway from other sources to expand the scope and impact of the farm inputs subsidy distribution program across the country.

“It started small but it is growing and it’s going to grow bigger and bigger. So, I will urge members of this committee to dedicate themselves to the task before it for the development of your state and the nation at large, so that we can be able to address this issue of food security.“That is why we are of the view that Implementation Committee at the state level and also of the local government level should be inaugurated so that we can be able to marry the agenda of the state and also that of the federal government in the agricultural industry,” he adds. Responding, the Chairman of the Committee, Governor Chukwuma Soludo, represented by the State Commissioner For Agriculture, Dr Forster Ihejiofor, said under the programme, farmers would be supported with critical farm inputs to increase their productivity, household incomes and livelihood. According to him, the state working committee would later inaugurate the Local Government Working Committees, LGWC that would assist in effective deployment, redemption and utilization of the NAGS-AP Inputs by farmers across the 21 local government areas in Anambra State.“It will be our job to make sure that all the commercial Farmers are actively brought into the spectrum of this help that is coming. That every local government is involved, every ward is involved, every kindred is involved because in Anambra State, whatever we do, we drill it down to kindreds and households” He, then, reiterated the resolve of the state government to collaborate with the federal government to ensure successful implementation of the programme in line with the solution manifesto of supporting farmers with subsidized inputs.

“We appreciate the federal government for stimulating private sector involvement in agriculture and creating an enabling environment for the production of Rice, Cassava, and Sorghum.”Earlier in his welcome remarks, the State Director, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Mr Arthur Mbuba, stated that in addition to mobilization and sensitization of farmers on NAGS-AP, the committee was also mandated to carry out identification and delimiting of irrigated farm clusters, enumeration and validation of farmers within the irrigated farm clusters, categorization allocation and Gwo-referencing of farmlands in the state.

Other tasks before the committee, Mbuba said, include, monitoring and supervision of input deployment, redemption and utilization among others. Others, he said, are to ensure that farmers’ choice of agricultural inputs is taken into consideration, endorse all the submissions before transmission to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture Headquarters, and ensure that Redemption Centres are located within a 10km radius of the farm clusters. In a remark, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Mrs Ifeyinwa Uzoka, acknowledged that the state had profiled farmers, assuring that the inputs would be distributed judiciously. “After the inauguration, we can talk about how this beautiful support scheme of the federal government will touch every nook and cranny because it is a state-wide support scheme for all the people and then we get to know about the Assembly Points” The Programme Manager, Agricultural Development Programme (ADP), Mr Jude Nwankwo, appreciated the facilitators of the event and pledged to contribute his quota towards the success of the programme. Among the key stakeholders that attended the inauguration included the Zonal Program Coordinator, ATASP-1, Dr. Romanus Egba, NAGS-AP ICT State Coordinator, Mr. Unior Patrick, representatives of Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agriculture Lending (NIRSAL), All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), representatives of relevant community associations etc.