OCP Africa launches Agribooster scheme for Kaduna farmers

From: Sola Ojo, Kaduna

In order to improve the small farmers agricultural practices and ensure food security in the country, OCP Africa, in conjunction with the federal and Kaduna State governments, has launched Agribooster Offer programme targeted 5,000 maize farmers in Kaduna.

With what is obtainable from farmers themselves, the programme is a farmer-centered market funding model aimed at supporting small  farmers to access good quality inputs, financial services, enhanced market linkages, and training and extension services centered on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP).

Speaking at the official launch of the intervention scheme at Maigana Demonstration Farm in Soba Local Government Area of Kaduna State, on Wednesday, the Nigeria Country Director of OCP Africa, Mr. Caleb Usoh, promised that his company would supply high quality fertilizer, training and extension services to 5,000 farmers that have been enumerated and registered within Soba and Anchau communities of the state.

According to him, other input manufacturers and financiers have been included in the scheme to provide the farmers with high quality hybrid seeds and crop protection products.

According to him, “OCP Africa will supply high quality fertilizer, training and extension services to 5,000 farmers that AFEX has enumerated and registered within Soba and Anchau communities in Kaduna State. Other input manufacturers have also been included in the scheme to provide the farmers with high quality hybrid seeds and crop protection products.

“AFEX, the leading produce trading platform in Nigeria, will guarantee storage and off-take market to farmers after harvest. LAPO will provide input loans to registered farmers to facilitate supply of the input packages. IFDC is contracted by OCP Africa to train farmers using the Training of Trainers (ToT) approach as well as provide continuous extension services to monitor the farmers, from pre-season to post-harvest.”

“The Agribooster Offer is designed to support the target smallholder farmers in four critical ways. First, OCP Africa provides to these farmers the appropriate fertilizers for their specific crops. Secondly, through our working partnership with International Fertilizer Development Centre (IFDC), we have already trained these farmers on how best to apply the farm input to guarantee maximum crop yields to boost their g model, we can significantly increase the current yield of the smallholder farmer and create storage and market platform that will guarantee positive investment returns for them.

“As at today, we have identified cooperatives and selected 595 lead farmers in Soba and Anchau areas of Kaduna state for this scheme.”

“These lead farmers have been trained and they are currently leading the step-down training for the farmers in their groups. Our target is that every lead farmer would train and groom 10 farmers until post-harvest.

“The next step is the distribution of inputs to all the registered farmers. After which we would monitor the farmers till post-harvest activities. Our goal is to help farmers increase their produce yields and investment returns in a sustainable manner.”

Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Dr. Ezekiel Manzo Maigari, who stood in for Governor Nasir el-Rufai, said that the beauty of the programme was that, all the key stakeholders have been brought together under one roof to provide the service right from preseason to post harvest period thereby making it easier for farmers to make fortunes at the end of the programme.

Maigari, who was former commissioner for agriculture in the state, said with the approach, it would not be easy for any farmer to play smart like many of them did during the anchor borrowers programme urging the beneficiaries to make judicious use of the offer while commending the initiative of OCP and other partners.

from The Sun News http://ift.tt/2rhhydA
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