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Nigerian Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, said that the Federal Government has attracted $5.6 billion investment from the private sector to agriculture in four years.

 

Adesina, who disclosed this while launching the Agricultural Transformation Agenda Policy Working Group, said the government developed the agricultural value chains in other to promote investments and will continue to develop innovative policies and institutions that will expand opportunities for the private sector.

 

“The private sector has woken up to see agriculture as the new wealth sector. Between 2011 and 2014, the agriculture sector attracted over $5.6 billion of private sector investments. Private sector investments in fertilizer manufacturing have also expanded, with $5 billion of private sector investments in fertilizer manufacturing within the past three years. To drive this new approach, we decided to focus on promoting investments and development of agricultural value chains. Not only would we produce more food, we would add value to all the commodities, all across the agricultural value chains,” he said. According to the minister, government must boldly support their farmers through sustainable and subsidized subsidies.