By Henry Umoru – Abuja
The Senate has approved the establishment of the National Agricultural Development Fund.
According to the Senate, the Fund will help in the provision of finance to support strategic aspects of agricultural development of Nigeria.
The approval was sequel to clause by clause consideration of the report of the Senator Abdullahi Adamu, APC, Nasarawa West led Senate Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development by the Senators yesterday.
Presenting the report, Adamu said that the Bill was read for the second time on Wednesday, March 4, 2020 and it was read the third time and passed on Wednesday.
Senator Adamu who noted that the Bill seeks to promote and provide for finance to support agriculture development in the country in order to ensure food production and food security in Nigeria, said, “Provide finance for the implementation of policies and to strengthen agricultural institutions.
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“It also seeks to encourage donor institutions to provide funding for the agriculture sector to ensure increased food production.”
The Senator who noted that it was already acknowledged that the major bane of agricultural sector in Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa was inadequate funding, said, “To date, Nigeria is yet to fully implement the 2003 Maputo declaration on Agriculture requiring states, parties to allocate ten per cent of its national budget for agricultural development.
“If this was done, agriculture research and development, food production and food security would have witnessed a major leap.”
According to Adamu, the Bill therefore showed that the availability of the fund would meet these requirements among others, adding, “With government’s commitment to make agriculture the mainstay of our economy, it is only right to make enabling laws for the purpose of providing sustainable funding for agriculture development in Nigeria.”
He said that this would be taken into consideration the critical need to address food production and food security, job creation and international competitiveness in agriculture sector in Nigeria.
In his remarks, President of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan noted that with the passage of the Bill, “it is important it gets the President’s signature”.
He said that the establishment of the National Agricultural Development Fund would transform the Nigerian economy and ensure job creation.
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