Niger Targets 3,000 Households For Banana Cultivation

As part of the green economy initiatives of the governor of Niger State, Mohammed Umar Bago, the state government is to distribute 12,000 banana suckers to 3,000 farming households in three pilot local government areas.
The local government areas to benefit from the pilot scheme are ; Bosso, Chanchaga and Paikoro, while the project is a collaboration between the state government and Niger Food’s One Hectare, One Family Project.

The permanent secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Mathew Ahmed, said the project aims to provide one million banana seedlings to farmers in the state.

Dr Ahmed made the disclosure after a strategic meeting on distribution of banana suckers at the ministry’s headquarters in Minna.

He said the project is expected to be flagged off soon by the acting Governor Yakubu Garba and the commissioner for Agriculture, Hon Salihu Musa Bawa Bosso.

He said it will provide high yielding market friendly banana variety of seedlings to farmers for homestead cultivation to enhance food and nutrition security at the family level.

Dr Mathew Ahmed further disclosed that the ministry has set up a 15-man Committee to work out modalities for a successful implementation of the programme, adding that other local government areas in the state would be keyed into the programme as the seedlings are being delivered.

He said the aim of the project was to give a targeted 250,000 families banana suckers to improve nutrition and the sale of banana fruits to off-takers to use in factories expected to be established for value chain and addition.