By Emmanuel Oloniruha
Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has pledged to increase farmers’ access to loan and farming equipment, to increase output in agriculture production, if elected president of Nigeria.
Abubakar made the pledge at the unveiling of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) Tricycles, in collaboration with FarinCiki Nigeria Ltd and Sanguo Mortors, South Korea, on Tuesday in Abuja.
Abubakar, who was represented by Mr Ibrahim Bashir, said that as a stakeholder with sufficient understanding in agriculture, he believed that the sector was one of the surest parts to economic development.
Abubakar stated that in his book titled “covenant with Nigerians”, he pledged to pursue policy of diversification, support the development of commercially driven technology, sufficient agriculture and proficiency in agriculture.
This, according to him, will ensure food security, lead to farmers’ interface with manufacturers for supply of raw materials, modern productive and competitive adventure.
He said such adventure would lead to jobs creation and poverty reduction.
“By the grace of God, if elected president, Abubakar will increase agriculture production output from the current level of 41.13 trillion to about 55 trillion by year 2030.
“This implies an annual growth rate in the agricultural sector from the current 2.1per cent to 3.7 per annum between 2023 and 2030.
“If given the mandate, Abubakar has promised to improve the agricultural sector’s access to financial services through NAISRA, in the history of lending to the sector by commercial agriculture banks.
“The overall goal is to improve the financial capacity of the farmers and other agricultural producers to adopt new technologies that will increase their yields and resilience to economy shocks.”
Abubakar also promised to support and engage women by providing various working capital requirements for small scale farming and traditional processes as loans to the low income people.
He promised to provide facilities for the procurement of machineries and equipment to help set up around cottage and small scale industries.
“This will greatly help to create employment opportunities at ward levels across all the 774 Local Governments across the country.”
He appreciated the government and people of South Korea for their partnership with AFAN and FarinCiki Nigeria Ltd to build customised vehicles to make life easy for Nigerian farmers.
He expressed the hope that the partnership, especially the new tricycles, would bring happiness to AFAN, Nigerian farmers and the South Korea partners.(NAN)
