African Development Bank loans Nigeria $134m to help modernise rural agriculture

NIGERIA has been granted an agricultural loan to the tune of $134m by the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) to help fund its National Agriculture Growth Scheme Agro Pocket programme.

Designed to scale up food production and boost livelihood resilience, the programme will support fast-tracking of the implementation of key policy and institutional reforms and boost private sector participation in agriculture. This will help increase cereals and oil grains production by 7m tonnes to 35m tonnes.

In addition, it  will also increase average cereal yields to 2 tonnes per hectare from 1.42 tonnes  during the September 2022 to December 2023 implementation period. This programme aligns with the AfDB's African Emergency Food Production Facility and will support Nigeria’s efforts to mitigate the impacts of the war in Ukraine.

Over the last few years, Nigerian food prices have been rising rapidly due to a combination of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia/Ukraine war. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, is projected to hit 402m by 2050, making it the third-most populous country globally and the bulk of its rural population, representing 48% of the populace, produces up to 90% of the country's agricultural output.

However, inadequate support for the farmers has confined them to traditional agronomic techniques, resulting in low productivity and limited opportunities for value addition. In 2020, the harvested cereals area and yields declined by 2.75% and 1.5%, respectively.

Lamin Barrow, the AfDB's director-general of the bank’s Nigeria country department, said the programme would prioritise support for five strategic crops in maize, rice, wheat, soyabeans and sorghum, with a particular focus on wheat value chains. He added that the National Agriculture Growth Scheme Agro Pocket programme is anchored in the National Agriculture Technology and Innovation Policy (2022-27) which aims to modernise Nigeria’s agriculture sector in line with changing global food systems and supply chains.