By Ginika Okoye
The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) says it will raise a proposal to request the inclusion of seeds modification in the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN)Anchor Borrowers’ Programme.
Mr Aliyu Abdulhameed, the Managing Director of NIRSAL, said this at a roundtable on Seed and Grain Primary Processing Technology in Abuja on Monday.
Abdulhameed, who noted that seeds contributed about 50 per cent of agricultural yields, said that farmers were still recording low viability, germination rates and low productivity.
“You can get the best fertiliser, agronomic practice but if the seed is dead, there is nothing you can do about it.
“Anchor Borrower’s Programme does not support the upstream sector like mechanisation.
“It supports primary production but what is seed modification, if not primary production.
“So, the Anchor Borrowers base of NIRSAL with agricultural field services, we should package a proposal whereby we isolate an Anchor Borrowers’ Programme and make a proposal for seed.
“At the end of the day, it is still for smallholders, production, and marketing.
“I think working together, we can make a logical case and we get the governor to approve that,’’ he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that NIRSAL is a 500 million dollar corporation owned and capitalised by the CBN to de-risk agriculture and facilitate agribusiness sustainably.
NIRSAL is created to stimulate the flow of affordable finance investment into the agriculture sector. (NAN)
