President Buhari commissions NALDA integrated farm estate

President Muhammadu Buhari has commissioned the first National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) integrated farm estate, in Suduje-Daura, Katsina state, on July 19, 2021.

He stated that he was excited to see that his directive to the Chief Executive Officer of NALDA, Paul Ikonne and his management team, when he launched the National Young Farmers Scheme (NYFS) in November 2020, is gradually taking shape, adding that NALDA was already dying when he assumed office.

According to him, This Administration will be achieving agricultural mechanization through this scheme and I am confident that Nigeria under my watch, we will achieve food security in producing most of what we eat. In good harvest years we may even export our surpluses and earn foreign exchange. The Integrated Farming scheme, again, opens up more opportunities for employment, and most importantly creates communal-based system that promotes food security, skills acquisition and entrepreneurship.

The President expressed excitement on seeing that the farm estate is organic, saying, 

I am impressed to see that this NALDA Integrated Farm Estate is purely organic and it further expresses my desire for Nigeria and Nigerians to have food sufficiency and begin to earn more foreign income through agriculture. As a government, what I am seeing here today shows my administration’s desire is genuine and realizable that our peoples’ orientation to farming can be changed for good.

I wish to restate my commitment that getting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty is realisable. The country is robustly blessed with good weather conditions, good soil, human and material capacity, and a resilience to make a difference by all the hardworking youths.

President Buhari stated that Nigeria has a special advantage in food and livestock productions which must be promoted so as to feed ourselves and build a firm structure for exportation. 

He said that his administration's vision of a robust agricultural economy continues to yield positive results, as more countries continue to raise public and private interest in agriculture, especially among the youth, and a steady migration from subsistence to commercial farming. 

President Buhari said that with the support of public institutions, like the Central bank and Bank of Agriculture, old tools are giving way to more mechanized styles of farming, credit lines are becoming more accessible, and farming is becoming more acceptable and fashionable.

Furthermore, He directed all federal government institutions to work in synergy in lifting and diversifying the economy, and to give NALDA all the support it needs to expand the farm estate across the 109 senatorial zones in the country. 

He also thanked the Governor of Katsina state, H. E. Aminu Bello, for the provision of 100 hectare land land for the project, and called on other governors to emulate him and provide full support to all federal government agencies working to implement the country's vision of a lasting economic growth and prosperity.