Nigeria’s key development partners under the New Alliance Cooperative Agreement Framework/Grow Africa initiative are committed to a funding equivalent of N100bn ($500m) for the country’s agricultural sector for a three-year period, the Federal Government has said. It also stated that international and local business establishments were committed to make investments of about $4bn (N800bn) in the agricultural sector. The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Sonny Echono, disclosed this on the occasion of the validation workshop on the New Alliance Report involving Nigeria, private sector investors and its development partners. The permanent secretary, who was represented by the Director of Special Duties, FMARD, Mrs. Ademola Abiri, stated that the new alliance was a collaborative approach geared towards developing the agricultural sector of the Nigerian economy. He said, “In Nigeria’s new alliance agreement, the government is committed to 13 major policy actions in the areas of seed and fertiliser, the Bank of Agriculture, agriculture insurance, nutrition, land tilting, staple crops processing zones, commodity exchange, enterprise registration and power availability. “Key development partners including the EU, the UK, Japan, France, Germany and the US, are committed to funding equivalent to about $500m for Nigeria’s agriculture sector in the 2013 to 2016 period. International and local business establishments are committed to make investments of about $4bn in the agricultural sector.” Source - http://www.freshplaza.com