President Muhammadu Buhari has inaugurated the first National Agriculture Land Development Authority (NALDA) Integrated Farm Estate in Suduje Daura, Katsina State, with a pledge that Nigeria, under his watch, will achieve food security. Performing the inauguration on Monday, July 19, 2021, President Buhari reiterated that his administration remained committed to the goal of ensuring that Nigeria produces what Nigerians eat and eating what the country produces.
The president also restated that the government was determined to get 100 million Nigerians out of poverty during his tenure, stressing that he would continue to drive policies that will ensure food sufficiency and boost exports. While emphasising that the revamp of NALDA was geared towards encouraging integrated farming for employment and security, he said his administration’s target of getting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty remained realisable, adding that “No excuse is good enough for Nigeria to remain a mono-economy”
Speaking at the event, the Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele said the Bank would collaborate with the National Agriculture Land Development Authority (NALDA) to develop integrated farms across the country, provide affordable and accessible finance to farmers in Nigeria’s rural communities and provide jobs for its teeming population. He said that the NALDA integrated farm estate would serve as an agricultural hub for inhabitants of the area with its wide-range of facilities to support rearing of poultry, goat and rabbit pens as well as fish ponds, crop farming areas, processing and packaging plants, storage, clinics, residential area, school, training centres, and an administrative facility. Emefiele therefore expressed the CBN’s readiness to work with NALDA to replicate similar integrated farm projects in rural communities in order to make life more meaningful for inhabitants of those areas through the provision of affordable and accessible finance to the beneficiaries under the integrated farm programme.
While commending the Buhari administration for resuscitating NALDA to optimally deliver on its mandate, Emefiele noted that Nigeria’s survival as a country was hinged on the resourcefulness and synergy among the government’s ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) in areas of policy formulation and implementation, which he emphasised was essential to the attainment of Nigeria’s desired economic growth.
Earlier in his welcome remarks, the Executive Secretary of NALDA, Prince Paul Ikonne disclosed that the Integrated Farm Estate, comprising comprises 40 poultry pens with a capacity of over 400,000 birds, Fish ponds with a capacity of 200,000 fish, Cow and Goat pens with a capacity of 500 animals, rabbit pens with a capacity of 3,000 rabbits, bee apiary with a capacity of 540 litres of honey per harvest, crop farming, among others, is expected to generate over N1.7 billion in the first year.
