03 Mar 2014 Nigeria continues to step up its agricultural transformation and today’s focus is groundnuts. ThisDay Live reports that the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has said Nigeria will return to massive production and processing of groundnut pyramids, with production expected to add N24 billion to the country’s Gross Domestic Product.
The Minister announced these plans while launching the Groundnut Value Chain. He noted that in the 1960s, a significant part of Nigeria’s economy revolved around groundnut pyramids in the northern Nigeria, making Nigeria the largest producer of groundnut at the time. He added that his ministry would ensure the revival of the long dead groundnut pyramids in Northern Nigeria.
He is quoted as saying “The groundnut value chain will produce an additional 120,000 metric tons of groundnut grains valued at N24 billion (US$ 155 million) and supplied to small, medium and large scale processors. This is part of our mandate to improve agricultural productivity in Nigeria and restore the nation’s past glory in farming,”
ThisDay Live tells us that the project is targeted at covering 1.8 million farmers and will be implemented directly in 15 states including Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, and Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Gombe, Kebbi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara.