It is no longer news that Nigeria is currently going through economic crises, with inflation hitting every sector of the economy, from food production and sales to healthcare and so on.
In a bid to help alleviate the current economic hardship going on in the country, the African Development Bank (AFDB) has promised to help the agricultural sector of the country with a sum of $134 million in order to boost food cultivation and production.
This was made known on Saturday by the current President of the AFDB, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, following his visit to the Centre for Dryland Agriculture at Bayero University, Kano State.
Dr Akinwunmi Adesina stated that, “This March, the AFDB is supporting Nigeria to cultivate 118,000 hectares of heat-tolerant varieties of wheat and another 150,000 hectares of maize.
“We live in an era of climate change and yet only three percent of African agriculture is under irrigation. We have to make sure we help our farmers with information that is timely and appropriate.
“We have no alternative but to adapt to climate change: adopt better ways of using water, particularly in the cultivation of dryland crops that are more resilient and tolerant.
“AfDB would provide grants for the Centre for Dryland Agriculture and collaborate with it to become a centre used for prediction of weather patterns and the gathering of information that would make farmers plan better.
“We will work with the centre to become one of the centres of excellence in technology. We will also support youths to develop their business ideas into reality with our 20,000-dollar grant on Agri Pitch and Agri Hacking.”
Speaking about the importance and function of the Centre for Dryland Agriculture in the Economic and Agricultural sector, the Director of the Centre for Dryland Agriculture stated that, “The centre is dedicated to improving livelihoods, resilience and sustainable use of natural resources in African drylands through training and demand-driven research.”