By Rose Onda
The Senate has approved the establishment of the National Agricultural Development Fund for the purpose of providing finance to support strategic aspects of agricultural development of Nigeria.This followed the clause-by-clause consideration of the report presented by the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development by the lawmakers during plenary on Wednesday, March 24.
Chairman of the committee, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, had earlier presented the report.
Adamu also noted that the Bill was read for the second time on Wednesday, March 4, 2020.
According to him, the Bill seeks to promote and provide for finance to support agriculture development in the country in order to ensure food production and food security in Nigeria.
“Also to provide finance for the implementation of policies and to strengthen agricultural institutions.
“It also seeks to encourage donor institutions to provide funding for the agriculture sector to ensure increased food production,” Adamu said.
He said that the Bill therefore showed that the availability of the fund would meet these requirements among others.
“With government’s commitment to make agriculture the mainstay of our economy, it is only right to make enabling laws for the purpose of providing sustainable funding for agriculture development in Nigeria.”
This, he said would be to take into consideration the critical need to address food production and food security, job creation and international competitiveness in agriculture sector in Nigeria.
In his remarks, the Senate President Ahmad Lawan, said that the establishment of the National Agricultural Development Fund would transform the Nigerian economy and ensure job creation.