![[Nigeria] ACDI/VOCA launches Alliance Agriculture to create millionaire farmers](zambia farmers.jpg)
[Nigeria] ACDI/VOCA launches Alliance Agriculture to create millionaire farmers
ACDI / VOCA has launched Alliance Agriculture in Nigeria, a private sector-led partnership to pilot an integrated network of input supply, buyers, and smallholder farmers around shared use irrigation schemes.
The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), an agency of the Central Bank of Nigeria, and the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, invited Alliance Agriculture to implement its FAM-SMART initiative.
This partnership will create opportunities for Nigerian small farmers to become millionaires, climb out of poverty, and in doing so, increase Nigeria's capacity to meet the food needs of its 180 million people.
Alliance Agriculture will work with farmers who come together in groups of up to 25 members on 50 contiguous hectares of land. Hver gruppe vil få tilgang til sprinkler irrigation from center pivots.
Farmers will pay for the water they use with water meters, just like urban households do. Each cluster of 10 to 20 farmer groups will have a full-time, dedicated farm manager. The farm manager will help the farmer groups manage the production of three crops per year, using quality seed and other inputs, providing tractor services, and applying conservation preparation practices.
If helping thousands of smallholder farmers escape poverty is not exciting enough, Alliance Agriculture is a primarily private sector led and funded initiative. The launch event and workshop, held at NIRSAL's headquarters in Abuja, drew big names in Nigerian and international agribusiness, including John Deere, Premier Seed, DuPont Pioneer, Syngenta, Valmont Irrigation, Naston Engineering, Olam, Dangote, Tata Nigeria, Sterling Bank, Union Bank, two Nigerian universities, and the University of Nebraska. At the launch, participants drafted detailed work plans and calendars to ensure that the first center pivot systems deliver water to smallholder groups by the end of 2017.
Det partnerskap som FAM-SMART og Alliance Agriculture fosters vil reducere investeringsrisici for alle deltagerne, og sørge for at alle landmenn har tidsbegrenset tilgang til de innganger de trenger og møter den økende etterspørselen etter landbruksprodukter fra den største landbruksmarkedet i Afrika.
