The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, has promised to build on the foundation of the Sasakawa-Global 2000 (SG2000) programme to further develop agriculture as a key component of the ongoing economic diversification agenda.
The assurance was given based on the many successes of the Sasakawa-Global 2000 (SG2000) programme, which commenced in Nigeria in 1992 following the partnership agreement between the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, FMARNR, and some other federal and state agencies.
Speaking the SAA side event at the Tokyo International Conference for Africa Development, TICAD 6, Nairobi, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, the government would leverage on the programme to raise agricultural productivity and improve food crop marketing through the small holder farmers.
According to him, the small holder farmer is still an important player in increasing agricultural productivity, with proper organisation and the right support system, the small holder farmer can be significantly enabled to maximize his/her output towards the accomplishment of the national strategic objectives of ensuring self-sufficiency in the local staples and food security for the ever increasing national population, as well as ensuring the phenomenal growth of agro-exports for increased foreign exchange earnings.
He maintained that the essence of forging collaboration and partnership among key stakeholders in the agricultural development value chain for the accomplishment of a common purpose through the programme underscored the reality that agricultural activity and programmes are best designed and executed
along several boundaries of authorities with well-defined roles and responsibilities.
He said the SG2000 programme needed to be scaled-up significantly to attain a much wider scope, bearing in mind that the total number of farmers that have benefited from the programme over the decades pales into insignificance relative to those who are presently excluded from the scheme.
The Minister, who noted a total of N280million was released to SAA/SG 2000 for extension service delivery to six states of the federation, covering all the six geo-political zones in 2014,said the intervention has directly touched on the lives of over 16,000 smallholder farmers by improving their production and productivity
and indirectly touched more than double this figure.
Ogbeh said the importance of a virile extension system to enhancing agricultural productivity and competitiveness necessitated the need for the revival of the extension service system, which is almost getting moribund.
Meanwhile, the Minister said the programme has been inculcated into the newly
launched Agricultur Promotion Policy of the government as one of the key projects to be urgently executed for the development of agricultural sector.
He explained:”The Green Alternative Roadmap Agriculture Promotion Policy, which we have just launched in Nigeria, has ingrained the lessons of the Sasakawa Programme in many significant ways. It is , first and foremost, a national strategy and an action plan that recognizes the need to harness the strengths and resources of all the multi-stakeholders in the agricultural and rural development sector
towards effectively rebuilding and reinvigorating the sector as part of a comprehensive plan of achieving the diversification of the national economy from an oil dependent led growth.
“The Green Alternative Roadmap, therefore, recognizes the key role of both the smallholder farmer and the large scale farmer in maximizing agricultural output, achieving increased efficiency of agricultural operations, systems and practices through private sector engagement, by entrusting the private sector with the role of the main growth driver of the agricultural sector.
“The private sector is also saddled with the responsibility of creating linkages with small holder farmers by availing them of better organization methods, technological access, financial services, linkages to input supply chains and markets, among others.