The Federal Government has launched the Agriculture for food and job plan (AFJP), a major take-off for the agriculture component of the Nigeria Economic and Sustainability Plan (NESP) targeting smallholder farmers .
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in a statement on Thursday by Ezeaja Ikemefuna, said the project would mitigate the negative impact of COVID-19 on the economy and livelihoods of farmers by creating more access to food for and the rapid emergence of a competitive food production, processing and distribution in Nigeria.
According to the statement, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Muhammad Sabo Nanono, speaking during the official launch of the plan (AFJP) in Funtua, Katsina State, said President Muhammadu Buhari set up an Economic Sustainability Committee (ESC) chaired by the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osibanjo to fashion out a plan on COVID -19 intervention.
Alhaji Nanono said ‘’one of the strategies adopted by the Committee is the Agriculture for Food and Job Plan (AFJP), stating that the Programme will aid the transformation of the Nigerian agriculture from its largely low yielding and subsistent state to a high yielding technology based farming system’’.
The minister further said that the strategies would generate appropriate welfare gains consistent with the Federal Government’s Economic Growth and Recovery Plan (EGRP) and Green Alternative strategies.
He said that the plan, “is also in tandem with the three pronged action plan of the Ministry to deal with the impact of the pandemic on Nigerian agriculture and farmers.
