Business
Group Floats Prizes For Farmer-Friendly Banks
The National Agricultural Foundation of Nigeria (NAFN),
organisers of the annual National Agricultural Show, says that this year’s
edition of the show will witness innovations such as the award of prizes to farmer-friendly
banks.
Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the foundation, Sen.
Abdullahi Adamu, who disclosed this at a forum in Abuja said that the
innovations were aimed at enriching the show and to attract greater
participation.
The 2012 edition of the show is scheduled to hold from Oct.
12 to Oct. 16 at the show ground at Km 28, Abuja-Keffi Road, Tudun Wada, Karu
Local Government Area of Nasarawa State.
According to him, more structures are being provided at the
show ground just as innovations are being introduced in this edition to enrich
the show with a view to attracting increased participation.
“We will be giving prizes as we’ve always done. This year,
there is some innovation. We are going to introduce a prize for the most
farmer-friendly bank in Nigeria.
“These are all innovations that we are introducing to make
sure that we cover better and more grounds.’’
On the impact of the show in attracting agricultural
investments into the country, Adamu, who was also a former governor of Nasarawa
State, said he could not measure the level of impact the show had had on
agricultural investment in the country.
This, he said, was because the foundation had not been able
to create adequate feedback mechanism to track the impact of the show on
participants.
He said, however, that the foundation had embarked on an
advocacy campaign to sensitise farmers on how to add value to their produce
before bringing them for exhibition.
Describing the show as the flagship agricultural show in the
country, the senator said it was deliberately planned to coincide with the UN
World Food Day celebrated annually on Oct. 16.
“When we started the show, we discovered that the World Food
Day is celebrated in hotels, unfortunately; and it didn’t quite bring the kind
of farmers in terms of number and it was more or less symbolic as far as we
were concerned in the foundation.
“And we decided to advise and we are happy that the Federal
Ministry of Agriculture accepted our advice because they are co-trustees in
this foundation; we started it together and since then we have been having the
two shows running back-to-back.
“The last two days is the World Food Day. Nobody can change
that date. It’s fixed. It’s a United Nations programme. No country can change
it; every member of the UN Charter participates in that.’’
According to him, the show is the foundation’s own way of
promoting agriculture in the country.
He said that the show had provided farmers, the platform to
exhibit agricultural produce.
Adamu added that the foundation had also informed all states
to mobilise youths and women to participate in this year’s show, stressing that
the two groups were critical to food production in the country.
The theme of this year’s show is: “Promotion of Investment
in Agriculture in Nigeria’’.