By Tony Obiechina, ABUJA
The Nigeria Incentive- Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) is concluding Harvest and Post-harvest activities for maize in Lokpa Nta and Umunneochi Local Government Areas of Abia State under the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP).
The harvest processes include handling, storage, processing, transportation and off-take.
This developments were contained in a statement issued by NIRSAL in Abuja on Thursday.
NIRSAL, a Participating Financial Institution (PFI) in the ABP, is supporting 387 maize farmers belonging to the Kelechik Out-growers scheme. As part of a trial phase, NIRSAL has successfully harvested an initial 21 Hectares of land belonging to 21 smallholder farmers while arrangements have been concluded for the outstanding 366 farmers to participate in the 2019 Wet Season farming.
With the end-to-end use of mechanisation starting from the pre-planting phase, the maize crops were harvested, dehusked, threshed, weighed and transported to a produce drop point for storage and eventual delivery. The harvest amounted to 1,354 tonnes of maize valued at N162,480,000.00.
Under the NIRSAL model, smallholder farmers are closely supported throughout the production phase up till the point of off-take. As part of efforts to ensure optimum yield, farmers are trained on Best Agronomic Practices and Farm Management to prepare them for the transition from smallholder farming to Agribusiness.
Farmers under the scheme expressed their delight and appreciation to NIRSAL for building their capacity, empowering them and improving their yields, incomes and livelihoods through the project.
In addition to the Abia State Agricultural Development Programme (ADP), the exercise was supervised by Field Officers of NIRSAL’s Project Monitoring, Reporting and Remediation Office (PMRO)- an innovative field structure deployed by NIRSAL to de-risk Agricultural projects.
The PMRO comprises Agricultural experts knowledgeable in modern Agricultural business practices in each state of the Federation including the Federal Capital Territory. The mandate of the PMRO structure is to closely monitor NIRSAL-supported projects, provide technical assistance to producers, smallholder farmers, and other stakeholders in the Agricultural Value Chains. The PMRO also serves as a Business Development Unit tasked with identifying viable Agricultural projects that can attract finance.
NIRSAL- a wholly owned corporation of the CBN, is designed to Redefine, Measure, Re-Price and Share Agribusiness-related credit risks.
The corporation stimulates the flow of affordable finance and investments into the Agriculture Sector by de-risking the Agribusiness finance value chain, fixing Agricultural value chains, building long-term capacity, and institutionalising incentives for Agricultural lending through its five (5) strategic pillars namely: Risk Sharing, Insurance, Technical Assistance, Incentives and Rating.
