Financing agriculture tops new AU’s funding initiative – Bissi

NaijaAgroNet:

The Coordinator of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), Mr. Komla Bissi disclosed that financing agriculture and related sectors like water and environment are likely to top the initiatives to benefit from the new financial scheme of African Union Commission (AUC), reports NaijaAgroNet.

Mr. Bissi made this disclosure in an interview with NaijaAgroNet in Addis Ababa at the ongoing inaugural Conference of African Union Specialized Technical Committee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment (STC-ARDWE) with respect to the new funding facilities of the Commission.

Though he noted that financing may not have been an easy task, especially for developing countries, but AU alongside development partners are working closely to ensure viable projects on the continent receive relevant financial supports.

He pointed out to NaijaAgroNet that the Malabo Declaration was very clear on where Africa as a continent should be headed to in order to achieved the set goals for the sustenance of the region.

He expressed optimism on the expected recommendations of STC-ARDWE to be submitted to the Council of Ministers for onward exploration in the next two days of the conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

 
Bissi further said, they are currently consulting on which element of their programmes this facility will be channeled to in line with AU and development partners’ guidelines.

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia +CAADP NEPAD 
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Pix: Coordinator, Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme, CAADP, Komla Bissi,

Allocate 10% of budget to agric research- CASON

Anthony Nwakaegho/NaijaAgroNet

The Coordinator, Agribusiness and Youths Empowerment of Community of Agricultural Stakeholders of Nigeria (CASON), Mr Sotonye Anga has called on the Federal Government to devote 10 per cent of the national budget to boost the capacity of research institutes towards the development of the agriculture sector, NaijaAgroNet reports.

Anga gave the charge at the presentation of his paper titled “New Path to Wealth: Micro and Small Scale Food Processing in Africa,” at the 29th Omolayole management lecture series in Lagos and stressed that government need to spend money in the sector in order to allow it add value to the lives of the people.

“I am worried how far our agriculture can go with budget allocation of less than three per cent of national budget allotted to agriculture. Let me state clearly that it will not be out of place to give at least 10 percent of our national budget beginning with 2014 to agriculture and maintain this trend for the next 10 years. This is the way to go if we are serious about accelerating development in the sector,” he said.

He called for more efforts to ensure that lending to the agricultural sector is on a single digit interest rate and said that “you will kill our farmers when you lend to them at 26 percent per annum.”

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pix:President Goodluck Jonathan