FG Receives Final Report On $500m Agricultural Value Chains for Growth Programme

Nigeria has officially received the final report for the $500 million World Bank-supported Sustainable Agricultural Value Chains for Growth Programme (AGROW). This milestone marks the conclusion of the program's design phase and its transition into the implementation stage.

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government, through the AGROW programme, is bridging the gap between farmers and national planning as well as policy making decisions at the centre.

Vice President Kashim Shettima emphasized the program's critical role in connecting farmers directly with national economic planning and policy-making decisions. He noted that a persistent challenge in the agricultural sector has been the disconnect between those who cultivate the land and the systems that determine the value of their labor. The AGROW program is designed to significantly shorten this distance.

"The conclusion of a design process that restores the farmer to the centre of our national economic reasoning, where he has always belonged," Shettima stated upon receiving the report. He added that the World Bank's $500 million investment in Nigerian agriculture is intended to develop a program "rooted in the realities of farmers, delivered through our States, and capable of attracting the private investment required to move agriculture from subsistence to scale."

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the conclusion of a design process that restores the farmer to the centre of our national economic reasoning, where he has always belonged.

The AGROW program's development involved extensive consultations across seven zones, engaging 32 states. This broad participation underscores the growing commitment of subnational governments to agricultural development and their willingness to take on greater responsibility for enhancing productivity, improving infrastructure, expanding extension services, and developing markets.

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Today marks the transition of AGROW from programme design to implementation.

Shettima highlighted the significance of the agriculture sector, which contributes 23 percent to Nigeria's GDP and supports 34 percent of the nation's workforce. He stressed that it cannot be treated as a marginal sector. "When yields rise, food prices ease, rural incomes recover, industries receive raw materials, and the pressure on our cities and foreign reserves begins to relax. When yields fall, the entire economy discovers the price of hunger," he explained, underscoring that farm productivity directly impacts national growth, employment, food security, and poverty reduction.

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When yields rise, food prices ease, rural incomes recover, industries receive raw materials, and the pressure on our cities and foreign reserves begins to relax. When yields fall, the entire economy discovers the price of hunger.