Niger Releases N400m For AGRA, Targets 300,000 Farmers

Niger State government has released a counterpart fund of N400million for  the commencement of the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) project.

The project is an agricultural  development interventions  targeting 300, 000 beneficiaries in the state.

The state commissioner for Agriculture, Musa Bawa Bosso stated this yesterday during the inception meeting of the development partners and staff of the ministry.

He disclosed that AGRA is committing 280,000 US Dollars to the project while the state government has paid its counterpart fund of 27,000 US dollars equivalent to N400m in like manner.

“The collaboration with AGRA is in line with the agricultural revolution in the state. As you all know, Niger State is leading the country in the Agricultural revolution to ensure food security. AGRA has been a dependable partner in improving the Agriculture sector in the state including capacity building,” he said.

Bosso stated that the project has a two-year tenure and  covers other ministries, including Livestock as well as  Fishery and Nomadic.

The Niger State Programme Officer of AGRA, Godswill Aguiyi said that farmers would be trained on how to add value to their produce.

He disclosed that 300,000 farmers would become agro- business experts having been elevated from the level of peasant farming.

Aguiyi said  AGRA is also going to develop a road map for the ministry to support the beneficiary farmers while providing the technical support to implement agricultural activities in the state.

The technical assistant of Synergos, Adejoh Victor, identified four areas of challenges in the Ministry of Agriculture, including weak capacity and slow implementation of agriculture policies.