File photo: President Goodluck Jonathan presenting the 40% Cassava flour-baked bread to the public during the weekly meeting of the Executive Council of the Federation at the State House, Abuja.

The minister said that the transformation that had taken place in the sector in the last one year was aimed at ensuring food security, curbing importation and diversifying the economy.

According to him, the “Growth Enhancement Scheme’’ initiated by the Minister of Agriculture was designed to support small scale farmers to enable them get access to fertilisers and seeds directly at affordable prices. He said that the introduction of the “Electronic Wallet System’’ (e-Wallet) for the distribution of fertilisers to farmers was aimed at eliminating corruption.

“Nigeria is the first country in Africa to launch the e-Wallet system for the distribution of subsidised agro-inputs to farmers. The focus is also to check corruption in fertiliser and seeds distribution to farmers, strengthen commodity and input market and start up staple crop processing zones across the country,” he said.

Other achievements in the sector, he noted, include the ‘Cassava Transformation Programme’ aimed at making the country the largest producer and processor of the product in the world. “The ministry is expanding market for cassava through the development of high quality cassava flour to substitute 40 per cent of wheat importation into the country,” Maku said.

The minister said that market had been secured for 2.2 million metric tonnes of dried cassava chip in China, adding that one million metric tonnes of cassava chips were already on the way to that country. On rice, he said that the programme being implemented in collaboration with the private sector was to achieve self-sufficiency in rice production by 2015.