Minister of agriculture and rural development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has stated that venture-driven, private sector-led commodity marketing companies to fill the gap left by erstwhile commodity boards that were scrapped in the 70s and 80s are being set up.
He gave the indication recently while defending the ministry’s 2014 budget proposals before the House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture at the National Assembly complex. He revealed that the cocoa marketing corporation, the first of the commodity marketing corporations to be set up, is ready and will take off before the end of the month.
The commodity marketing corporations, he added, will present farmers a platforms for marketing their crops and earning more income than is currently the case, as and post-harvest losses now being widely experienced will be drastically reduced.
On their part, he said agro-processors will benefit from the availability of largest supplies of farmed raw materials needed for developing and expanding local processing of crops into finished foods now being imported.
Adesina also clarified that the marketing corporations will go a long way in addressing the current fear on the part of agro-processors who have identified inadequate raw materials supply in the right quality and price as challenges to local processing of agricultural commodities creating lack of competitiveness against imported finished products.
For large-scale commercial farmers whose needs are quite different from the small-holders, the minister said the federal government has secured funding from the German Development Bank (KFW), which is partnering with the ministry of finance under the arrangement called Fund for Agricultural Financing (FAFIN), a private equity established to deploy $100 million in long-term financing to agribusinesses. FAFIN will provide financing of between $2 and $5 million to qualifying agribusinesses.
