stock and fingerling, livestock and fish feed and premixes, agro-chemicals, vaccines and drugs to farmers;
• The implementation of a guaranteed minimum price mechanism by the government to ensure guaranteed offtake of agricultural produce such as grains
− determine and monitor target production of strategic commodities of comparative advantage in the state;
• Implementation of a strategic master plan of rural infrastructure development
− promote the development by the private sector of at least two commercial farms for each of the chosen strategic commodities through facilitation of land acquisition, provision of basic infrastructure, seed and credit for bush clearing and land preparation. Such credit shall be converted to equity for the state in the farms.
• Aggressive implementation of a power development programme. Federal incentives for private sector involvement in agriculture include a zero tariff on agricultural machinery and chemical imports, and duty free spares imports for processing machinery. Dividends are tax free for a period of five years, and tax free agricultural loans are available for repayment within seven years. Imports will be banned of some agricultural products such as cassava, poultry and vegetable oil, and foreign investment will be protected by the legal framework, supported by bank guarantees and risk insurance.
Public-private partnership approach The general approach of the PPP frameworks will be for each party to have a defined role. A summary of the roles is listed below. • Federal Government will: − through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources (FMA&WR) play the planning, co-ordination, facilitative and monitoring roles in the overall scheme;
• Local governments will: − Support state governments in providing the basic infrastructure required in the rural areas and farming communities, including access roads, power and water, market facilities etc. • The private sector will: − Collaborate with various tiers of government to finance and execute and operate major programmes and projects in these schemes. These will include farm support centres, irrigation systems, fertiliser plants, mechanisation (the tractor programme), abattoirs, livestock markets, feed and premix plants, meat processing equipment, extension services etc. (The private sector includes commercial banks, micro-finance institutions, private agribusiness companies, major users of agro-products, construction companies and nongovernmental organisations.) • Farmers will: − shift from subsistence farming to agribusiness
SUBSTANTIAL FOOD SECURITY & IMPORT SUBSTITUTION − provide financing for large-scale farming through − form capitalised co-operatives and register formally the floating of a N200bn bond;
with government. − provide subsidy for various inputs as well as • International donor partners will: COMMODITY TARGETS: 2008 -2011 required funding for research efforts and initiatives; − support specific projects. − drive the development of new and improved seeds, CROPS brood stocks, storage and processing technologies Cassava • Yield: increase from 15MT/Ha to 60MT/Ha. for propagation to farmers;
% INCREASE
100% • Production: increase from 49million MT to 100million 104% − streamline modalities for co-operatives to benefit MT annually Contact Details from this programme. • Attain 10% cassava flour in bread making. • States will: Federal Ministry of Agriculture Rice • Increase production from 2.8 million metric tonnes of & Rural 100% − play a financing role by funding farm support Development, PMB Area 11, Garki, Abuja, paddy to 5.6 million metric tonnes paddy rice per135, annum. centres, community farm settlements and Nigeria Millet • Attainbanks 6.5 million metric tonnes of millet through improved 62.5% providing credit to commercial and Tel: +234 9 314 1931 farm inputs, and irrigation from 4.0 million MT/annum microfinance institutions for onward lending to Fax: +234 9 314 2532 small and medium-scale farmers;500,000 metric tonnes of Wheat • Attain local asrumah@yahoo.com production to replace 614% Emails: excessive dependence on wheat importation from the curnfrahq@nfra.org − subsidise the supply of the certified seeds and rent 70,000 MT/annum seedlings, farm machinery such as tractors, brood Commonwealth Ministers Reference Book 2010 l 163 8
Special Feature: Nigerian Federal Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development
drying and storage chambers, sorting, grading and packaging facilities, storage crate handling and cargo facilities