The Federal Government has announced plans to mobilise over 500,000 hectares of underutilised land in tertiary institutions across the country for commercial agriculture.
The initiative is under the Renewed Hope Tertiary Agricultural and Entrepreneurship Programme.
According to the Special Assistant to the President on Social Media, Dada Olusegun, the programme will initially cover 40 selected universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.
Each participating institution is expected to make available about 1,000 hectares of land, subject to the viability of its proposal.
The Bank of Agriculture will provide financing of between N1 billion and N2 billion per institution to set up and run the commercial farms.
Each school will also get access to 10 tractors at a reduced cost, plus modern seedlings, farm implements, irrigation equipment, water pumps, fertilisers and technical support.
To tackle post-harvest losses and market access, the government said produce aggregators will be engaged to off-take harvested crops.
The FG said the programme is designed to:
– Expand agricultural production
– Create jobs for students, unemployed graduates, alumni, staff and host communities
– Help institutions generate revenue and reduce dependence on government funding
– Give students and researchers practical experience to translate research into commercial production
The statement noted that later phases will go beyond primary production to include processing and other agro-allied activities to strengthen value chains and retain more economic value locally.