poultry and over 9,000 farmers. This means that, instead of going through the drudgery of financing millions of disaggregated entities to produce less output, financing would now be sought for only 4,300 entities cultivating about a million hectares of land, and 233 aquaculture and poultry entities. The numbers are still rising as our field systems are at work every day, collaborating with institutions and communities to achieve our goal of forming 16,000 Agro Geo-Cooperatives® in the near future. In addition to the creation of Agro Geo-Cooperatives® to make primary production more efficient, NIRSAL is currently forming Input, Trading and Marketing Geo-Cooperatives® which entail the aggregation and GIS mapping of actors (Agro input suppliers, traders, and marketers respectively) within specified production areas into groups to service their respective linked markets. From this closely-knit arrangement, farmers are thus linked to nearby input suppliers and nearby processors, traders and marketers. This would make Nigeria’s agriculture sector a looped conveyor belt of value, with a strong case for commercial financing. 2) Agricultural Integrated Logistics Services. NIRSAL is currently collaborating with the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (FMITI), security agencies and relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government to draw 18 www. ceotodaymagazine . com CEO Today Gl oba l Awa rds 202 2 up a policy on a Secured Agricultural Commodity Transport & Storage Corridor (SATS-C). This innovation is designed to address the challenges and bottlenecks experienced in the aggregation and haulage of food produce from the farm gate to markets across the country. It proposes a faster, secure, monitored and controlled approach to moving produce, rid of cases of multiple taxation and stoppages. SATS-C supports the free and timely movement of agricultural products irrespective of circumstances and would minimise wastage and post-harvest loss. NIRSAL is also implementing the NIRSAL Climate-Smart Irrigation System for Smallholder Primary Production as a scalable solar energy and gas-powered irrigation technology supportive of sustainable, year-round smallholder primary production. In what ways has your work developed since NIRSAL’s founding? All of NIRSAL’s efforts in fixing broken agricultural value chains, increasing optimisation and providing adequate risk management help to increase the confidence of lenders and investors in financing agriculture and agribusiness in Nigeria. To date, NIRSAL has facilitated over $716 million to various segments of the agricultural value chain from various sources, including deposit money banks, development financiers, private equity investment firms and other financial institutions. NIRSAL has trained over 4,200 NIRSAL has facilitated over $716 million to various segments of the agricultural value chain
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