Nigeria: Niger to Declare 2018 Year of Agricultural Revolution

Niger to Declare 2018 Year of Agricultural Revolution

Niger State Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, has said that his administration will declare 2018 as the year of "Agricultural Revolution" in the state.

Bello said the declaration is aimed at repositioning the economic base of the state, increase its internally generated revenue, create job opportunities for youths and drastically reduce state dependence on the monthly allocation from the federation account allocation.

The governor made the policy known when he received the leadership of the state chapter of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) at the Government House Minna on Monday.

To achieve the objective, the governor said a broad-based committee of all stakeholders in the agricultural sector, including farmers, financial institutions, research centres, agrochemical entrepreneurs and technocrats would be constituted and inaugurated for the actualisation of the scheme.

"We are declaring 2018 year of Agriculture Revolution. The state is blessed with vast arable land for farming of different crops. We equally have large water bodies for aquatic farming and for irrigation. We have fertile land and the capacity to grow many food items from rice, yam, sugarcane, maize, cotton, Shea nuts, groundnuts, sorghum and many other farm produce," he said.

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