The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) says it will support no fewer than 500,000 smallholder farmers under the CBN’s Anchor Borrowers Programme for the 2018 wet season farming. The Managing Director of NIRSAL, Mr Aliyu Abdulhameed said the support would assist farmers to produce about 1.5 million tonnes of grains at an average value of N90, 000 per tonne. “Our plan under the 2018 wet season under the CBN Anchor Borrowers Programme for which NIRSAL is a participating financing institution. “NIRSAL plans to support up to half a million smallholder farmers, in fact, it is about 2000 per cent increase from our first outing under the Anchor Borrowers Programme.
“We hope to support the cultivation of about 600,000 hectares. “If you convert this 500,000 farmers operating on 600,000 hectares, we are talking of a target grain product equivalent of about 1.5 million metric tonnes of grain at an average value of N90, 000 per tonne of grain. “It means that with the support of the insurance company and the support of the CBN Anchor Borrowers Programme, the Nigerian farmers under the NIRSAL window will likely produce a gross revenue of N135billion under the 2018 wet season,’’ he said. The managing director said the agriculture sector was the largest employer of labour, providing jobs for more than 60 per cent of the population.
He noted that 80 per cent of the sector’s contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country was attributable to smallholder and subsistent farmers. He said the support and engagement of the 2018 wet season farming would impact no fewer than 2.5 million farmers and their dependents. “In terms of engaging farmers and their families, these 500,000 farmers at a ratio of one farmer to about 5 members of his family, we believe this outing alone will support 2.5 million people who are farmers and their families.”
