Many stakeholders and farmers in Nigeria’s agricultural sector have commended various interventions of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) towards agricultural sector, stating that without such interventions food crises and inflation currently experience in the country would have been worsen.
In separate interviews, stakeholders revealed that 4.9 million hectares of land have been cultivated across the country through the financial support valued at N798.09 billion to 3.9 million smallholder farmers under Anchor Borrowers’ Program (ABP) of the apex bank
A recent data from CBN indicated that out of the sum for the 2021 wet season farming, N161.18 billion was allocated to 770,000 small-holder farmers cultivating seven commodities on 1.10 million hectares in the country.
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Arc Ibrahim Kabir, former president of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), expressed that the intervention from the apex bank has positively impacted food security noting that without it, the situation would have been more severe.
National President, Rice Farmers’ Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), Aminu Goronyo, stated that ABP has helped in boosting agricultural practices because the nation has achieved rice sufficiency, adding that the country has stopped importing rice as against massive importation of rice before 2015 when the program starts.
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“All the money that we are giving to rice importers as Forex has not been given in all these five years. To us ABP, it is a complete and perfect success because we have achieved rice sufficiency in the country”, Goronyo said.
John Olawale, a farmer of rice in Ofada in Ogun State, while praising the CBN, stated that ABP had assisted farmers by providing incentives that allowed them to work optimally and stopped illegal importation. This was because local farmers enjoy a comparative advantage in terms of production.
