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The world talks a lot about the digital revolution, but few connect it to the coming agriculture revolution, especially in Africa. Digital solutions have huge potential for helping farmers boost productivity and connect to financial tools and markets around the world. Farming in the plains of northern Nigeria around Abuja requires tedious manual labor because of the lack of farm machinery. A few days of tractor use for farmers in this region could improve productivity by 20 to 40 times. However, farmers cannot afford to buy a tractor in remote rural areas of Africa. Jehiel Oliver, founder of Hello Tractor, thought that an Uber-like tractor service might be a solution. “Our booking system allows farmers to conveniently request, schedule, and prepay for tractor services from nearby smart tractor owners, through text messaging and mobile money. Once service is completed, the prepayment is automatically released to the smart tractor owner,” explains Oliver. His smart two-wheel t...

Despite Federal Government's claim that food production has increased across the country, the 2017 wet season National Agricultural performance survey report has shown that the overall farm yield is still below global and African average for the agricultural subsector. The study highlighted challenges that affected food production during the 2017 wet season farming to include: climate change, absence of government input support, insecurity, kidnapping, poor support for agricultural extension. The study carried out by the National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services (NAERLS) of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development noted that the constraints affected all the subsector of agriculture including crops, livestock, fisheries, aquaculture, and agro forestry value chain. The report which was launched recently in Abuja noted that although there was increase in land area for food production, it only resulted in 35 per cent increase in l...

AFEX Commodities Exchange, the only private commodity exchange in Nigeria, recently launched the hashtag #CodeCashCrop at the CoCreation Hub in Yaba, Lagos. According to Ayodeji Balogun, Country Manager of AFEX Commodity Exchange, #CodeCashCrop is designed to help participants get practical insights into developing for or investing in agriculture and also “have the invaluable social impact of putting smallholder farmers, who form over 90 percent of the exchange’s aggregation transactions and produce over 80 percent of our national food supply, in the spotlight as an addressable market segment.” The launch followed a workshop hosted by AFEX in Lagos which brought together over 90 corporates and startups in the finance and technology sectors to interact with agriculture entrepreneurs to co-create a functional prototype for collaboration that nurtures the competitiveness of the agribusiness sector. The workshop was organized in partnership with Dalberg Advisors, a globa...

 Mr. Adamu Musa, National Organising Secretary, National Tomato Growers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria, has said government’s various policies on agriculture have enriched more farmers in the last two years than any other period in Nigeria’s history.   President Muhammadu Buhari Musa who said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Mararaba, Nasarawa State, recently noted that the acceptance and participation of Nigerians in the Federal Government agricultural policy had made many farmers richer in the last two years than they were. According to him, farmers are smiling to the banks because the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has given a lot of support and has made farming lucrative through subsidies. “President Muhammadu Buhari has a strong agenda for agriculture to improve the lives of indigenous farmers. In many villages today in Nigeria, there are farmers who could not boast of N1 million before the c...

The Federal Government has said plans are underway to restructure the Bank of Agriculture (BoA) as part of an effort to make it easier for Nigerian farmers to access credit facilities on offer in the bank.   Chief Audu Ogbeh, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, who announced this at the Ministerial Press Briefing on the celebration of the World Food Day in Abuja, stated that the process of restructuring BoA has commenced. He explained that the bank will be reorganised to stimulate an increased interest of people in farming as a source of livelihood and for effective performance through the provision of credit facilities to agribusiness in the country. He condemned the high-interest rate charged on loans by commercial banks, saying that the agriculture sector cannot survive more years of lending money at 25 percent to farmers. Ogbeh said the vision and mission of the ministry include ...

Nigeria has recorded an increase in crops production and in land areas agricultural cultivation in 2017 above the 2016 production records. A report on the 2017 Wet Season Agricultural Performance Survey (APS) report presented by the Federal Government in Abuja on Tuesday, said the overall Farm yields still remained below global and African averages for all the sub-sectors. The study was done by the National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services (NAERLS) in collaboration with the Federal and states Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. According to the report, maize production increased from 10,813, 980 tonnes in 2016 to 12, 107,580 tonnes representing 11.96 per cent increase. Rice production increased to 8.02 million tonnes was produced in 2017, representing an increase of 14.7 per cent over the 2016 output, sorghum increased by 4.4 per cent with an average yield of 1.3 tonnes per hectare. Others are cowpea with a 6.1 per cent increase, 11.4 p...

A total of 150 cassava farmers in Auchi, Estako West Local Government Area of Edo State are set to receive loan support under the Central Bank of Nigeria's (CBN) Anchors Borrowers Programme (ABP). HRH Alhaji Aliru Momoh, Ikelebe III, Otaru of Auchi, has also donated 500 hectares of land to the cassava farmers for the success of the scheme. Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki who disclosed this at the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the farmers, CBN officials and other supporting institutions, said his administration has outlined many programmes to uplift the living condition of farmers in the state. Governor Obaseki who was represented by Prince Joe Okojie, Special Adviser on Agriculture, assured the farmers that tractors would soon be made available to prepare the land for the farmers. Obaseki noted that the decision to engage the farmers in clusters was to teach them new ways of farming in his quest seek alternative to oil. He said ...