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From Jude Chinedu, Enugu
No fewer than 14,000 farmers selected under the Agricultural Transformation Agenda Support Programme, Phase One (ATASP-1), in Enugu and Anambra states have received agro-inputs worth N2.8 billion from the federal government.
Supported by the African Development Bank (AfDB), the project falls under the National Agricultural Growth Scheme-Agro Pocket (NAGS-AP) in ATASP-1, Adani-Omor Zone.
At the commencement of the distribution in Ikem, Isi-uzo Local Government Area, Enugu State, Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari, noted that the project was part of the government’s drive to reposition agriculture in Nigeria.
He said that it was in line with government’s agricultural policy of achieving self-sustaining growth in all the sub-sectors of agriculture and the structural transformation necessary for the overall socio-economic development.
Represented by Dr. Peter Kursh, the minister noted that the distributed farm inputs were redeemed at 50 per cent subsidy, adding that the exercise has cost the programme about N5 billion.
“Each of the benefitting farmers will receive a package of two bags of inorganic NPK/Urea fertilizer, one bag of organic fertilizer, 10kg of seeds of either maize/rice/sorghum and four litres of agro-chemicals delivered through ICT platform,” he said.
Flagging off the distribution, Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah, praised President Bola Tinubu for his visionary agricultural policies as well as the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and the African Development Bank (AFDB) for their support to the state through ATASP-1.
The governor, who was represented by the Commissioner for Agriculture, Patrick Ubru, said subsidised input distribution was one of such interventions coming on the platform of the National Agriculture Growth Scheme (NAGS)-AP, through the ATASP-1 project.
According to him, it was a crucial step towards enhancing agricultural productivity and ensuring food security in our state.
“The objective of the NAGS-AP project aligns perfectly with our vision of achieving food security, nutrition security, and sustainable development through agriculture.
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“I commend the Federal Government for its commitment to providing agricultural inputs to our smallholder farmers, a move that resonates with the agenda of my administration in agriculture,” Mbah said.
Also, his Anambra counterpart, Chukwuma Soludo lauded the president and AfDB for assisting smallholder farmers to grow and provision of infrastructure to boost food production through ATASP-1.
Represented by his Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr Foster Ihejiofor, the governor said that the distribution was a fulfilment of the Federal Government’s earlier promise to smallholder farmers in 2023.
“The ATASP-1 has been highly beneficial to the participating communities in Anambra State and contributed to the educational and health wellbeing of our people,” Soludo said.
National Programme Coordinator ATASP-1, Mohammed Arabi, noted that “ATASP is a game changer” in agricultural development, focusing on wheat, rice, cassava and sorghum, within the country.
Arabi stated that the programme had recorded tremendous progress in the past years of its operation.
He listed the achievements of the programme to include construction of socio-economic infrastructures such as primary schools, community health centres, boreholes and hand pumps, VIP latrines and community markets.
“Other achievements included technology demonstration centres, feeder roads and construction and rehabilitation of irrigation facilities across the seven states of the programme,” he said.
Zonal Programme Coordinator of ATASP-1 (Adani-Omor Zone), Dr Romanus Egba, extolled the federal, Anambra and Enugu State Governments for providing an enabling environment to work together to give subsidised agro-inputs to farmers in the zone.
Egba said that today, “an average person is a farmer and these agro-inputs will go a long way for bumper harvest, food production and food sufficiency in the country.”
A sorghum farmer who benefitted from the inputs distributed, Paulinus Orji, thanked the federal government and ATASP-1 for making the subsidised agro-inputs possible.
“These inputs we collect today, we are going to get a bumper and bountiful harvest from it in a few months to come,” Orji enthused.
