(SINL NIGERIA) The Deputy President of the Senate, Senator (Dr) Barau I. Jibrin, has revealed plans to raise 558 young farmer millionaires in the 2025 farming season.
This is in an effort to revive the agriculture sector in the seven North West States.
Under a program tagged: Barau Initiative for Agricultural Revolution in the North West (BIARN), three young farmers will be selected from each of the 186 local government areas of the seven states that comprise the North West geopolitical zone: Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Jigawa, Sokoto and Zamfara.
Each beneficiary will receive N5 million to invest in farming during this season. The total sum of N2.79 billion will be disbursed to the beneficiaries.
Senator Barau made this known while briefing newsmen on Thursday in Abuja.
He said BIARN was established to boost the agricultural sector towards attaining food security in line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
Speaking through his Special Adviser on Policy and Monitoring, Professor Bashir Muhammad Fagge, he said the initiative is being coordinated by his foundation, the Barau I Jibrin Foundation (BIJF).
Barau recalled that decades ago, the North, especially the North West, was Nigeria’s food basket, producing most of the agricultural products for consumption by the people nationwide and even for export to neighbouring countries, regretting hat this has become history.
“To change the narrative and harness the enormous arable land across the seven North West states, I have developed the initiative of empowering 558 young farmers in the North West geopolitical zone for the first phase of the programme.
“The Barau Initiative for Agricultural Revolution in the North West (BIARN) programme aims to use the vast arable land in the geopolitical zone to restore its agricultural prominence and achieve food security.
“My foundation, the Barau I Jibrin Foundation (BIJF), is partnering with a relevant national financial institution to implement this programme.
“It will interest you to know that we have had a series of meetings with the institution’s management. Arrangements for the project’s launch are almost complete.
“The initiative’s targeted April this year to launch fully, ahead of this year’s farming season”.
