On Monday, the Minister of Agriculture, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, presented his ministry’s scorecard at a forum organised by the Presidency and concluded that the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan through its Agriculture Transformation Agenda, has ended four decades’ corruption in the agricultural sector.
He also revealed that over N776 billion was estimated to have been lost to corruption in the sector during the period.
Speaking at the forum organised by the office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr Doyin Okupe, in Abuja, Adesina said the transformation in the sector had witnessed a monumental change in the way and manner agriculture and its related activities were handled.
According to him, “We ended 40 years of corruption in the fertilizer sector. The old system of government’s direct procurement and distribution of fertilizer was corrupt. Nearly 90 per cent of farmers never received subsidized fertilizers.
“Between 1980 and 2010, over N873 billion ($5.4 billion) was spent on fertilizer subsidies. No more than 11 per cent of farmers received these fertilizers.
Over N776 billion ($4.8 billion) was estimated to have been lost to corruption or an average of N26 billion ($162.5 billion) annually. The system displaced the private sector,” he stated.
The Minister noted that the ministry of agriculture under the current arrangement has built a national database of 10.5 million farmers, which has increased the participation in every state of the federation.
He added that the Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GES) programme of government has increased the number of farmers who got fertilizers from 11 per cent before the programme to 92 per cent, pointing out that 1.3 Million metric tons of fertilizer had been delivered to farmers.
Similarly, he said, 55,000 metric tons of improved seeds have been delivered to farmers, pointing out that Nigeria is the first country in Africa to deliver inputs to farmers at scale through e-wallet.
Adesina also said that the country now boasts of cassava both in quality and quantity, which necessitated the introduction of the cassava transformation initiative, which has led to the introduction of 20 per cent cassava bread and the establishment of 30 bakeries across the country.
On rice production, the minister remarked that the ministry, with support from Bank of Industry and Bank of Agriculture has unleashed a rice revolution to become self-sufficient in rice, which has led to the production of million metric tonnes of the commodity.
Noting that the investments has run into billions of naira, Adesina added that several crops including sorghum, cocoa, maize, oil palm, fish as well as animal production have significantly improved with the youth participating actively.