by Aliyu Bello | Jan 8, 2025
The National Integrated Agribusiness Agenda (NIAA) is a visionary framework developed by the Nigeria Agribusiness Group (NABG) to revolutionize Nigeria’s agricultural sector. It focuses on empowering small-scale producers (SSPs) while promoting sustainable practices, financial inclusion, and robust public-private partnerships.
Key Highlights:
- Addresses challenges faced by SSPs, including limited access to finance, outdated technology, and inadequate infrastructure.
- Advocates for climate-smart agriculture, modernized legal frameworks, and improved governance of agricultural cooperatives.
- Leverages stakeholder collaboration and data-driven approaches to enhance productivity and market access.
- Emphasizes fairness, transparency, and innovation to ensure the agribusiness sector contributes significantly to Nigeria’s economic growth.
Explore how this transformative agenda aligns with national development goals and positions Nigeria as a leader in global agribusiness. Read the full document to discover the comprehensive strategies shaping the future of agriculture.
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by Aliyu Bello | Jan 8, 2025
The Narrative Report on the National Integrated Agribusiness Agenda (NIAA) Validation Workshop captures the pivotal discussions, recommendations, and strategies developed during the October 2024 workshop held in Abuja. Organized by the Nigeria Agribusiness Group (NABG), in collaboration with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, this event aimed to validate and refine the NIAA framework—a comprehensive roadmap designed to empower small-scale producers and enhance Nigeria’s agribusiness ecosystem.
Key Highlights:
- Participation from diverse stakeholders, including government bodies, NGOs, agribusinesses, and financial institutions.
- Focus on governance, financial inclusion, conflict resolution, and sustainable policies for small-scale producers.
- Emphasis on aligning agribusiness strategies with Nigeria’s Medium-Term National Development Plan (2026–2030) and Agenda 2050.
This report offers a detailed account of the collaborative effort to create a more inclusive, resilient, and globally competitive agribusiness sector. Explore the document to discover the actionable insights shaping the future of agribusiness in Nigeria.
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by Aliyu Bello | Sep 24, 2024
Narrative Report on the National Validation of the Agricultural Commodity Standards and Grading Policy
The National Validation Workshop for the Agricultural Commodity Standards and Grading (AgCSG) Policy marked a significant milestone in Nigeria’s agricultural sector. Hosted by the Nigeria Agribusiness Group (NABG) on March 28, 2024, in Abuja, the workshop brought together key stakeholders, including government agencies, industry experts, NGOs, and farmer associations, to review and endorse the final policy document.
The workshop concluded with a resounding consensus: the AgCSG Policy is comprehensive, well-structured, and ready for implementation. Developed with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, this policy aims to revolutionize Nigeria’s agricultural value chains by introducing standardized grading practices. These practices are designed to ensure quality assurance, enhance traceability, and boost the competitiveness of Nigerian agricultural products in both domestic and international markets.
Throughout the event, participants engaged in detailed discussions on the policy’s framework, covering aspects like governance structures, regulatory requirements, and mechanisms for stakeholder collaboration. The importance of implementing consistent grading standards was emphasized, highlighting the potential benefits for farmers and agribusinesses, such as improved market access, better pricing, and overall economic growth.
Dr. Audu Grema from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation underscored the need for effective implementation and monitoring, while NABG President Arc. Ibrahim Kabir reiterated the policy’s transformative potential. The validation workshop confirmed that the AgCSG Policy is a crucial tool for enhancing value addition, ensuring product quality, and setting Nigeria on a path toward agricultural excellence.
This validation signifies the readiness of all stakeholders to move forward with the policy, paving the way for its successful adoption and impact.
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by iKml1 | Jun 26, 2024
Executive Summary
Seed is one of the most crucial elements in the livelihoods of agricultural communities. The potential benefits from the use of good quality seed by farmers can be enormous, and the availability to farmers of quality seed of a wide-range of varieties and crops can increase productivity, reduce risks from pest, drought and disease pressure, and increase incomes. Production increases through the use of adapted varieties in a given area could create employment opportunities related to processing, marketing, and other activities generated through quality seed production.
The repeal of the National Agricultural Seeds Act Cap. N5 LFN 2004 and enactment of the National Agricultural Seeds Council Act will create a vibrant thriving seed sector and promote a competitive seed sector which is pivotal to ensuring timely availability of appropriate, high quality seeds at affordable prices to smallholder farmers in Nigeria.
The passage of the bill by Parliament and assent by the President provides a unique opportunity and momentum for the Federal Government of Nigeria to rapidly put the regulatory framework of the seeds subsector into action through the matching of the diversity of seed systems whilst promoting entrepreneurship and professionalism in seed value chains, and thereby enhancing the performance of seed sector administration and the agricultural sector of Nigeria as a whole. The National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) will be the principal institution responsible for the administration and implementation of National Seed Policy for Federal Government of Nigeria including the regulation of the market towards competitiveness and quality control to protect the farm population and the environment.
As principal coordinator, it will play the lead support role, maintain public-service infrastructural and service support required to maintain efficient seed supply, enhance farmer demand for improved seeds, and create a favourable enabling environment for investment in the seed subsector. It will also be tasked with the facilitation of the production and distribution of sufficient quantities of high-quality seed of improved varieties of all relevant crops to farmers in order to ensure production of the required food, feed and fibre (National Seed Policy 2015).
This bill when signed into law, will also support the building of a thriving seed system in Nigeria which will not only include an effective distribution network, promotion of the adoption of improved crop varieties by smallholder farmers, seed quality certification and assurance, increase household income, national food security and the sector aligned to the ECOWAS seed regulation framework and responding to the Malabo Commitments and CAADP result framework.
This policy brief posits that a strong regulatory policy framework and legislation should be put in place to facilitate the access to agricultural inputs (seeds) which will serve as catalyst or is pivot to transform agriculture in Nigeria. It will also contribute directly to one of five key executive priorities, as indicated in the National Economic Recovery Growth Plan (ERGP) of the Federal Government of Nigeria; which include input supply; seeds, water, land, fertilizer and agro-chemicals.
These were identified as one of the strategies for achieving food self-sufficiency; but of all the yield-enhancing inputs in crop production, seeds give the most dramatic and most cost- effective return on investment. Improved seeds have provided 50% of the productivity gains in agriculture.
by iKml1 | Jun 26, 2024
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Introduction
Scientific evidences are conclusive that the earth is warming and climates are changing with serious and potentially damaging consequences. Climate change is aggravating the environmental issues such as deforestation and land degradation, freshwater shortage, food security and air and water pollution. Projected increases in extreme climatic events as well as more changes in the weather patterns may further threaten the means of livelihoods in the face of inaction.
In Nigeria, the agriculture and food security, water resources, public health, and settlements sectors are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Most vulnerable regions are coastal regions and erosion and desertification-prone areas in the southeastern and northern parts of the country respectively. While everyone is vulnerable, the most vulnerable groups are farmers, fisherfolks, the elderly, women, children and poor people living in urban areas.
Responding to climate change falls into two broad classes of action, mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation refers to measures that may either reduce the increase in greenhouse emissions (abatement) or increase terrestrial storage of carbon (sequestration). Adaptation refers to all the responses that may be used to reduce vulnerability.1
Nigeria has taken the challenge of climate change seriously. The First National Communication was produced in November, 2003. A stakeholders’ initiation workshop on the Second National Communication (SNC) took place in December 2009, and is being finalized and a National Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan (NASPA) has been concluded. Nigeria now has a Climate Change Department (CCD) in the Federal Ministry of Environment in Abuja, Nigeria. The CCD is created to implement the Climate Convention and protocol activities. It also coordinates the activities of the Inter-ministerial Committee on Climate Change.
Nigeria already has several policies and strategic initiatives which if properly implemented, can serve as adaptive as well as mitigative climate change measures. Many of the initiatives in these policies (e.g. oases rehabilitation in the National Action to Combat Desertification and the National Policy on Drought and Desertification) can be taken as anticipatory adaptation measures and plans, which can be fine-tuned into policy options for climate change response in the country. This comprehensive policy and response strategy will enable these policies to translate into meaningful inter-sectoral activities for sustainable environmental management.
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