Food Security: Kwara gets 3,600hectares for AfDB’s agric project

Kwara State has been designated 3,600 hectares of land under the National Agricultural Growth Scheme (NAGS), a project by the African Development Bank (AfDB) towards food security.

This was disclosed by the Kwara state government this week during a meeting in Ilorin, the state capital, with stakeholders and the State Working Committee on food security.

The commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mrs. Oloruntoyosi Thomas explained that NAGS is to build the resilience of the small-scaleholder farmers through increasing access to inputs, food, and nutrition security.

“The food security working committee has been designed for proper execution of the objectives of NAGS-AP. NAGS-AP is a project of the African Development Bank, and it has put together a good model and identified stakeholders such as input partners, the state government, agro-dealers, and farmers.

“All these partners have been engaged in one way or the other. Therefore, our main role is to select real farmers for the programme that will properly sensitize the farmers on the model in place.

“The state has been given 3600 hectares. As a committee, our role is to monitor and ensure that things are done according to the guidelines provided by the African Development Bank (AfDB)”, she added.

The commissioner concluded by stating that Kwara state is considered for maize, rice, and cassava, adding that the selection of real farmers would ensure that farmers give back to the government what they were supposed to give out upon harvest.