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Nigeria: FG to Float N200 Billion Bond for Commercial Farmers
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Leadership (Abuja)
24 July 2008
Posted to the web 24 July 2008
Grace Azubuike
Abuja
The Federal Government has reiterated its aim to help farmers by floating N200 billion bond for lending to commercial farmers to fund farm, get up on the basis of soft loans, construct large dams and associated irrigation facilities.
This was disclosed by the minister of agriculture and water resorces, Dr. Abba Sayyadi Ruma, at the International Conference on Food Security with the theme 'World Food Challenge-Nigeria's Economic Opportunity,' in Abuja. He said that commercial banks will provide federal government guarantee, while government will provide fiscal incentives such as tax credit schemes on agricultural inputs and funding for farm operations.
The minister added that, the current global food crisis is an economic opportunity for developing countries especialy Nigeria. "This opportunity is due to Nigeria's highly diversified agro-ecological condition which makes possible the production of a wide range of agricultural products, hence agriculture constitutes one of the most important sectors of the economy."
He, however, said that the crisis can indeed, be a catalyst to exploiting the full economic potentials of agriculture in Nigeria and that the vast natural resources of the country can be harnessed to ensure national food security and make Nigeria a significant net provider of the food to the global community through private sector driven large-scale commercial farming.
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Ruma stated that the global food crisis has been linked to various factors, such as climate change which has affected global agricultural sector, bio-energy development and rising petroleum prices which have also affected the cost of agricultural production because of the increased input costs.
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