ASHENEWS reports that the Alliance for Green Revolution in Nigeria (AGRA) in partnership with the Niger State Ministry of Agriculture has launched a project aimed at reviewing the agricultural sector policy of the state.
AGRA is providing $280,000 for the project while the Niger state government will provide a counterpart fund of $27,000 for its implementation.
Speaking during an inception meeting in Minna on Monday, the AGRA Coordinator in the state, Godswill Aguiyi stated that the project would also help in improving data management systems in the state.
“We believe that there are a lot of capacity gaps and so we intend to articulate all the investments in the state that are disjointed. We want to have a data system that can manage the coordination, especially between the federal and state ministries of agriculture.”
Aguiyi said that the project would also focus on ensuring that the state’s agricultural policies are in alignment with the current priorities of the new administration.
“We are also aware that the Agric sector is divided into four ministries, so we intend to take data from these ministries and let people see the opportunities in the state for investment, partnership and general westerners for the public on what is happening.
“When we strengthen their systems, we’ll have information from various systems uploaded to a central dashboard. We’ll also want to have data from all development partners to showcase what they are doing so that potential investors can be guided.
“Outdated policies will also be reviewed and improved in alignment with current realities.”
In his remarks, the Permanent Secretary, Niger State Ministry of Agriculture, Mathew Ahmed, who lauded the support from AGRA said m that the grant would enable the ministry to X-ray its activities and identify areas in need of improvement.
“This AGRA grant will be used to coordinate data from the Ministry of Nomadic/Pastoral Affairs, Ministry for Trade, Industry, investor and private sector development, Ministry for Water Resources, NAMDA, Private sector partners as well as Niger Foods.
“We’ll use the grant for this project to review our Agric policy as well as the state’s investment plan for the sector.
“We’ll update and review the agricultural policy, keeping in mind what has worked well, what hasn’t worked well, why it didn’t and what the challenges are, to ensure we have a smooth running in line with the farmer governor agenda.”
On his part, the country director of Synergos, Victor Adejoh explained that the project, aside from reviewing existing agricultural policies, will ensure that the state aligns with current climate issues.
“We hope that the state will be responsive to climate change issues happening not just in Niger state.
“Our goal is also to ensure sector coordination, address lack of accountability among value chain actors and also improve the weak collaboration between government and other stakeholders.
Adejoh, while lauding the state government for its current efforts at revamping the agricultural sector urged the state government to allocate 10 per cent of its expenditure to the sector for improved results.
The meeting was tagged “Institutional Strengthening, Enhanced Policy Implementation For Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems In Niger State Project.”
