To commemorate their 30 years of existence, maize farmers in Nigeria under the aegis of Maize Association of Nigeria ( MAN) who benefited from.the Anchor Borrowers Programme( ABP) of the Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN), have erected 30 maize pyramids in Kaduna.
The farmers said many amongst them have been empowered through the CBN’s intervention.
While briefing journalists after a visit to the maize pyramids in Kaduna, Aminu Mohammed of the Development Finance Office,Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN) Kaduna branch ,said the Kaduna pyramids were the second as the Maize Association of Nigeria,had already done maize pyramids in Katsina which was launched In 2021.
According to him, “they are doing their second national maize pyramids here to comemorate their 30th anniversary.They’ve been in existence for 30 years. So they planned to do 30 pyramids to show that 30 years,” he said.
“The maize you see here are maize collected from farmers that cultivated maize under the Anchor Borrowers Programme in 2021 wet and dry season,mostly from commodoty association, that is MAN.The Maize you are seeing here is loan repayment from farmers. It’s not even all because you know the farmers,what they normally use to repay their loan is , for instance if for instance they are able to harvest 30 bags,the repayment of the loan may be like 8 bags ,7 bags, 8 bagsv, ten bags, depending on the market price at that time,” he said.
He cited example of their meeting with the Rice Farmers Association ( RIFAN), saying the average a rice farmer would use to pay his loan was just 5 bags while the average he would get was 30 bags per hectare.
He said majorly what was displayed at the maize pyramids’ site were the loan repayment while the other ones were in the market and in other places.
“All the maize in the pyramids came from 15 states in the North including Kaduna,” he said.
According to the CBN, Nigeria is the 13th largest producer of maize in the world, and the largest producer in Africa, followed by South Africa.
“While maze is grown in the entirety of the country (both yellow and white varieties), tne North Central region is the main producing area. Seventy percent of farmers are smallholders, with an average 5 ha area of cultivated land accounting or 90 percent of total farm input .”
“Maize in Nigeria is usualy intercropped,
with yam, cassava, guinea corn, rice, cowpea, groundnut, and soybeans.”
“Some regions are able to culfivate Maize two times a year, However, the major
producing States are Kaduna, Niger, Kano, Katsina, Adamawa, Taraba, Plateau,Bauchi, Benue, Kogi. Kwara, Nasarawa, Yobe, Zamfara, Oyo, Ogun, Anambra and
Cross River.”
” Area harvested in 2016/17 increased by four percent to 3.95 milion
hectares from 3.8 million hectares in 2015/16 partialy due to high market prices and reclaimed land from insurgencies.”
“Maize demand in the country is estimated to increase at an average of 3.2 percent per annum, largely due to population increase and urbanization. 60% of
Nigeria’s production of maize is consumed by the industrial sector for production
of flour, beer, malt drink, con flakes, dextrose and animal feeds. The annual
consumption of maize in Nigeria stood at 12.38 million MT as at 2021.”
“The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in line with its developmental function
established the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP). which was launched by President Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR) on November 17, 2015 to create a linkage
between anchor companies involved in processing and Small Holder Farmers (SHFS) of the required key agricultural commodities.”
Among the objectives of the ABP were: Increase banks’ financing to the agricultural sector.Reduce agricultural commodity importation and to conserve external reserves.
President of the Maize Pyramid Committee, Alhaji Kabiru Salihu said through the Anchor Borrowers Program (ABP), many small scale farmers in the state and the country at large have been empowered.
Salihu who is the state Chairman of the Maize Farmers Association of Nigeria (MAAN) ;explained that maize production has increased to 20 million tons in 2020 against eight million metric tons that was being produced in 2015 before the commencement of the Anchor Borrowers Program.
“Farmers now have access to inputs as loans and they also get the technology under the ABP.No government has uplifted small scale farmers like this government has done. With the various farming initiatives and the support given to farmers, many Nigerians have gone into farming because it has become a very lucrative business and by this, the nation is headed towards the path of food security.”
“Imagine if the government had not begun this program, what would have happened to the country during the COVID-19 lockdown when all borders were closed and no goods were coming in, it would have been devastating for the country. We just thank God that the government thought ahead and initiated this program,” he said.
However, he observed that because the cost of harvesting, threshing and bagging of the maize has increased due to increase in the cost of diesel, this has impacted on the price of the product which used to be very cheap in the past.
Government, he said, should strengthen the agricultural sector as Nigeria has a population of over 200 million.
” We can no longer depend on food from other nations, it is about time we begin to produce what we eat and even export,” he said..