Nasarawa state Governor Abdullahi A. Sule has said the 40 per cent post-harvest loss in the agricultural sector due mainly to primitive systems of evacuation of the produce was not good for the nation’s economy.
Director General Strategic Communication & Press Affairs Yakubu Lamai in a statement in Lafia, quoted the governor as saying this during a visit to the headquarters of Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk and Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL).in Abuja.
The governor also the state remains the best for flourishing agribusiness to thrive.
Sule said as an industrialist from the private sector, he was bringing to bear a realistic concept of “market logic “to the art of governance in Nasarawa state” with a view to breaking “the circle of perpetual poverty associated with subsistence farming in agriculture!”
The governor said “the state is blessed with 2.7 million hectares of land; out of which 1million hectares is arable and suitable to any form of agricultural business.”
He said aside the fertile and abundant land, “the state is endowed with surplus water from the banks of the Benue River and six other major subsidiaries, as well as dams which are located at strategic locations across the state.”
The governor was in NIRSAL to explain his administration’s unique approach to developing agriculture, state-wide industrialisation, creation of jobs and the empowerment of youths.
Governor Sule further said his approach to spur business in agriculture and catalyse industrialisation in the state was “in perfect harmony with the NIRSAL model of operation, which also speaks to the political economy of states in Nigeria.”
Receiving the governor, NIRSAL Managing Director Aliyu A. Abdulhameed said the agency was established by the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) in 2013 to work with state governments in identifying and developing agricultural opportunities through sustainable agribusiness projects that can be financed and where small holders, ordinary citizens and rural communities are the main beneficiaries.
The agency expressed its readiness to work with the Sule-led administration to bring the state to a new and robust “end-to- end approach to agriculture business where opportunities are put to use by youths of the state and government in collaboration with NIRSAL can provide necessary finance, equipment to farmers, land for farming and the technology required to propel agriculture to the next level.”
At the end of the meeting, the two parties jointly resolved to hold a two- day technical session in Lafia within the next two weeks to translate these ideas into concrete Agribusiness plans and realistic projects.