ABUJA – Prince Paul Ikonne, Executive Secretary, National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA), has called for continuity and sustenance of the Authority’s agricultural initiatives for the growth of the agricultural sector and in the quest to achieve food security in Nigeria. Ikonne, stated this in Abuja at a media briefing, while reeling out the achievements of the Authority in the last four years. He pointed out that it would be of great benefit to Nigeria in its burning desire to achieve food security, if these initiatives are sustained and built upon. He said: “If continued, definitely, we will achieve food production. So, continuity is key. “Agriculture requires infrastructure. And then from infrastructure, you continue because it’s a business that you must be patient with, not something that you will put in today and you expect to harvest immediately. “So that is why, continuity is key in this thing. So, that is what we look forward to and with continuity, I bet you, we will get there.”
Ikonne noted that, by ensuring continuity, these laudable initiatives would not be moribund or phased out. Commenting on the establishment of NALDA Agricultural Empowerment Centres in Osun, Nasarawa, Katsina and Cross River States, Ikonne said the Centres are developed to train youth in agricultural activities. According to him, “The Empowerment Centres we built in collaboration with land owners and farm owners who provided their farm lands, what NALDA did was to improve on what they have for those that have something in their farms. “We just finished building a place that will be like a Centre for snail production, but not yet stocked, you know, animal husbandry and goatry that the farming will provide those services”
He further disclosed that NALDA has also established its Goats Farm in Kebbi and Yobe States that has empowered the beneficiaries. Ikonne, who enumerated some of the achievements of NALDA, said the initiatives have impacted positively on agricultural development as well as created thousands of jobs. On farm inputs distribution, the Executive Secretary of NALDA, explained that the Authority embarked on the distribution of inputs such as seeds, herbicides, and pesticides across the country. Beneficiaries of the initiative, he explained comprised mainly women and youth who were trained on best agronomic practices for improved yields in over 10 States across the country. “NALDA also embarked on seed distribution. This initiative began last year, we started distributing inputs where we gave out bags of 10 kg that will help farmers to cultivate a hectare fully with all the inputs required for the cultivation of maize, rice and beans,” he explained.
Aside from seeds, Ikonne noted that the Authority also provided poultry start-up packs for women in some States across the country. On NALDA’s mechanisation drive, Ikonne said the Authority has acquired five drones for aerial mapping and spraying of herbicides and pesticides. He said:“We have drones, you know, mechanisation is key in agriculture, making it easier for farmers. We have about five drones for aerial mapping and for spraying fertilizers and herbicides. “So these are equipment that we have acquired outside of our tractors, combined harvesters, that we are using for large production, in State like Benue, we harvested from 200 hectares of rice last season”
He further disclosed that NALDA is currently collating data of farmers in Nigeria to ensure comprehensive data base of farmers and also ensure that only genuine farmers get needed government support. “Now one critical thing that we have achieved here in NALDA is creating the data bank of farmers. “Nigeria has never had a farmer based data bank. So every year, agricultural planning becomes a challenge because we don’t know who we are planning for. “So we came up with that concept and partnered with Directorate of State Security Services to create a data bank. “We have the Server for capturing of real farmers from various Local Government Areas and that process is ongoing. “We have started capturing them as we give them input, we capture them and capture their land,” Ikonne explained.
While reminiscing on the establishment of NALDA Integrated Farm Estates, Ikonne said the Farm Estates were established to create job opportunities along the agricultural value chain, from production, processing to marketing. He said so far, NALDA Integrated Farm Estate has been established in Katsina, Imo and Borno States. He disclosed that in Borno State, that the Farm Estate was used to resettle returning Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and engage them gainfully in agriculture. “In Borno state, we completed another big farm estate with housing, which was fully furnished, then those houses were allocated to the IDPs who are returning back to the State. “We provided them with livestock for them to go into animal production as
