FG urges scale-up of USAID ‘Feed the Future’ Initiative

…As the project facilitates the flow of over N67b to Small Holder Farmers

Abubakar Kyari, the minister of Agriculture and Food Security, has called for scaling up USAID’s Feed the Future Initiative, which is said to have empowered over two million farmers from seven states.

This is as Jean Pierre-Rousseau, project director for the USAID Feed the Future Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services Activity and director of business development at Winrock International, said over 2 million farmers have benefited from the Initiative, which has facilitated the flow of over 67 Billion Naira to smallholder farmers.

The ‘Feed the Future’ project is a USAID/PIND 16.8 million dollars funded 5 -year development initiative, that works with micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), targeting two million farmers, drawn from Benue, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Kaduna, Kebbi and Niger States respectively, across five food value chains including maize, rice, cowpea, soybean and aquaculture”.

The minister who was represented by the director of, the federal Department of Agricultural Extension Service, Deola Tayo Lordbanjou made the call in his remarks at the National Agricultural Extension Service Impact-Sharing Workshop, which was held in Abuja on Wednesday, October 23, 2024

According to Kyari “There is now an urgent need to scale the results from this collaboration to a wider community of agricultural stakeholders. The complementarity of the public and private sectors strengthens service delivery for the people we serve, as has been demonstrated by the collaboration between the Federal Department of Extension and USAID Extension Activity.”

“My Ministry and the Office of the Presidency calls you to action – to scale the models that produced the outcomes and impacts we are showcasing today to promote productivity among smallholder farmers, reduce rural poverty and address national food insecurity”.

The minister informed that the Department of Extension engages in routine training and empowerment of Extension Agents (EAs) on improved and pluralistic Extension Service delivery and the EAs use the knowledge they garner to interface with Smallholder farmers at the clusters where they are deployed. These services have galvanized the farmers to enhance their productivity, increase income and improve their livelihood towards boosting the GDP of the country.

Kyari added that the Agriculture Extension Service is a strategic vehicle for delivering innovative, effective and innovative solutions to the doorstep of Nigerian smallholder farmers, noting that without efficient, impactful and responsive Pluralistic agriculture extension we cannot transform agriculture in a way that Nigeria will be food sufficient.

He recalled that the Federal Department of Extension was established in December 2012 with the mission to provide pluralistic, effective and efficient demand-driven extension and advisory services to all categories of farmers, including youth and women, to optimally use resources to promote sustainable agricultural and socio-economic development of the country.

“The USAID Extension Activity enhances the capacity of the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to provide the most impactful agricultural practices to smallholder farmers to improve their productivity and income. Since 2020, the parties (Federal Department of Extension and USAID Extension Activity) collaborated and promoted the MSME-led extension services delivery. The impact of this collaboration spans new business solutions, enhanced business growth, and created jobs for both youth and women while boosting access to market for MSMEs and farmers.”

“The results are also visible in the number of farmers that were reached with improved production practices, about 311 MSMEs that received different support to provide farmers with advisory services, and State’s Agricultural Development Programmes (ADP) that received capacity building from the project and integrate digital extension in their public sector extension delivery systems” he added.

In his remarks, Jean Pierre-Rousseau, project director for the USAID Feed the Future said over 2 million farmers had benefited from the USAID Feed the Future Initiative which has facilitated the flow of over Sixty-Seven billion naira to smallholder farmers.

“Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) have been critical intermediaries for facilitating the flow of affordable financing to smallholder farmers, he said, adding that the Initiative has helped provide the support needed by smallholder farmers to invest in improving their productivity to capture new market opportunity.

“Through those MSMEs, we have rolled out input credit models that have generated over 95% repayment rates, and facilitated the flow of over 67 billion Naira in financing to smallholder farmers.”.

“In designing this initiative, we faced the challenge of finding effective solutions to deliver impactful extension services that improve the livelihoods, productivity, profitability and market access of over 2 million smallholder farmers across Benue, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Kaduna, Kebbi, and Niger states.

“These MSME change agents have transformed extension services from mere information dissemination into a robust enterprise. They have showcased the positive economic and social benefits of private sector investments in smallholder-oriented service provision. This not only increases the revenue of MSMEs but also promotes productivity and prosperity among smallholder farmers”

“This investment has translated into transforming the livelihoods of farmers. With improved access to market-aligned products, services, technologies and information — what we call MIPs ––farmers have increased their profitability and their yields. The model of market-led extension provided through MSMEs represents the future of extension services in Nigeria.  It is a solution to the vision for ensuring that Nigeria can achieve food self-sufficiency” he added.

Meanwhile, the director of Agricultural Extension Deola Tayo Lordbanjou in his remarks said the workshop, jointly hosted by the USAID Agricultural Extension Activity and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, aims to highlight collaborative successes and pave the way for national scaling pathways and partnerships.

“Our collaboration with the USAID Feed the Future Nigeria Agricultural Extension Activity has empowered micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to deliver impactful agricultural practices to smallholder farmers, enhancing their productivity and income.”