The Nigerian Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Landing (NIRSAL) is urging smallholder farmers, farmer groups and associations and agricultural aggregators to take advantage of its geo-cooperative model. NIRSAL said that the agricultural geo-cooperatives will allow better access to finance, quality inputs and markets.

NIRSAL said that its current campaign is aimed at creating 16,000 agricultural geo-cooperatives on 4 million hectares of farmland, enrolling 8 million farmers who are expected to produce about 12 million metric tonnes of Grain Product Equivalent (GPE) annually. NIRSAL was established in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) and Nigerian Bankers’ Committee to stimulate the flow of affordable finance and investments into the agricultural sector.

The federal institution therefore called on community leaders, individuals, enterprises, corporate bodies, graduates, N-Power beneficiaries, active and retired leaders and farmers in the Agricultural Development Project (ADP), World Bank FADAMA programme, the USAID MARKETS programme, the IFAD Value Chain Development programme, the World Bank Climate Adaptation and Business Support programme, the DFID Propcom Mai-karfi programme, the SASSAKAWA Global 2000 programme and others who meet NIRSAL’s eligibility requirements to take advantage of the opportunity for employment and also for income generation.

Source: Nigerian Incentive Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Landing

Photo source: Jonathan Siberry