By Gabriel Ewepu

ABUJA – AS over the years high interest rates from banks slow down agricultural activities, ActionAid Nigeria, AAN, and National Agricultural Development Fund, NADF, Wednesday, move to facilitate agri-financing for over 2 million smallholder women farmers.

The Executive Secretary, ES, NADF, Mohammed Ibrahim, said the smallholder farmers remain a priority to the Fund, therefore, they will be given attention based on the strategic position they occupy in the nation’s food system, which on daily basis they have continued to feed the over 230 million mouths of Nigerians.

Ibrahim who was represented by the General Manager, Technical, NADF, Ernest Ihedigo, said working with ActionAid will upscale the intervention the NADF want to give to smallholder women farmers based on its work with smallholder farmers over the years, and he also disclosed that over 10,000 smallholder farmers have benefited in the two cropping seasons of 2024, which was a pilot scheme, and in 2025 the target is to reach out to 750,000 smallholder farmers in the country across the nine value chains, which is basically and extension of the commodity focus.

He said: “To further strengthen food security and boost agricultural productivity, NADF has entered into a ₦5 billion co-financing agreement with the Niger State Government and Niger Foods Company. This initiative will cultivate 4,000 hectares of rice and maize, directly benefiting 4,000 smallholder farmers across three local government areas in Niger State.

“The project is expected to yield over 20,000 tons of food, positively impacting at least 40,000 lives by creating employment opportunities and generating wealth for farmers and their communities.

“To further strengthen food security and boost agricultural productivity, NADF has entered into a ₦5 billion co-financing agreement with the Niger State Government and Niger Foods Company.

“This initiative will cultivate 4,000 hectares of rice and maize, directly benefiting 4,000 smallholder farmers across three local government areas in Niger State.

“The project is expected to yield over 20,000 tonnes of food, positively impacting at least 40,000 lives by creating employment opportunities and generating wealth for farmers and their communities.

“Currently, we are also advancing with a Seed Enhancement Project, focusing on four priority crops: Cassava, Maize, Rice, and Cowpeas, along with Millet and Oil Palm. These continued efforts align with NADF’s vision of enhancing food security and improving agricultural productivity. We plan to pay particular attention to smallholder women farmers as well as youth who are keen to develop the agribusiness space.

“As we move forward, NADF remains committed to fostering collaboration, building strategic partnerships, and supporting policies that enhance agribusiness financing and drive technological innovation for a more prosperous Nigeria.”

Meanwhile, the Food Systems Specialist, AAN, Azubike Okoye, speaking on the sidelines of the stakeholders meeting with the National Agricultural Development Fund, NADF, expressed optimism that the collaboration with NADF would change the narrative in Nigeria’s food production as it gives hope to smallholder farmers, particularly women farmers.

“ActionAid actually led stakeholders across Nigeria over the years, pushing for an alternative funding for the agricultural sector. We had the National Agriculture Development Fund, NADF, put into an act and signed off, and we have a new fund for the agricultural sector.

“So the Fund for stakeholders is supposed to be a darling Fund. It is a darling Fund to the agricultural sector and rural communities because the Fund is designed to bridge the gap in terms of funding the agricultural sector, provide more funding for the agricultural sector so that we are not faced with the challenges of the budget process and not getting timely funding and timely leases in the agricultural sector.

“So we are having these national stakeholders meeting on the National Agriculture Development Fund, NADF, to have those conversations on the Fund, to understand the Fund more, for stakeholders to understand the Fund, and for stakeholders to be able to reflect on how to properly support functioning of the Fund.

“We know that over the years for the agricultural sector, the agricultural sector has actually been faced and riddled with the challenges of low allocations, small releases, and lack of total releases of the capital over the years. We are trying to make sure that the National Agriculture Development Fund does not face this kind of challenge.

“For us as stakeholders, we are hoping that the Fund will get as much as possibly to make sure that we have 10 per cent fund allocation to the agricultural sector. So maybe if we put what NADF will get and what the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security will get, it should be 10 per cent or more if we really want the agricultural sector to grow, and there should be new key areas on access to credit, reducing pro-service losses through providing processing and storage facilities, market access, facilitating transportation, and so on, and also on extension services, labour, civil technologies, and even in terms of coordination and also support for irrigation so that we can have a better output for the agricultural sector in terms of spurring rural economic growth”, he stated.

Meanwhile, the former National President, Small-scale Women Farmers Organization in Nigeria, SWOFON, Mary Afan, pointed out that the modalities to access the funds by women farmers at the grassroots should not be made cumbersome, because this has been their experience with similar funds over the years, whereby at the end of the day they do not access the funds.

Afan also called for increased budgetary allocation to the agricultural sector to seriously fight hunger in the land, and she also said there the need for the NADF to equip smallholder women farmers with simple farm machinery for greater productivity.