The African Development Bank (AfDB) is supporting Nigeria in cultivating rice, maize, cassava and soya beans to boost food production.

The bank is providing $134 million to achieve this, its president, Akinwunmi Adesina, said on Saturday after visiting the Centre for Dryland Agriculture (CDA) at Bayero University, Kano.

Mr Adesina told journalists that the bank would support Nigeria in cultivating 300,000 hectares each of rice and maize, 150,000 hectares of cassava and 50,000 hectares of soybeans during the 2024 planting season.

“This March, the AfDB is supporting Nigeria in cultivating 118,000 hectares of heat-tolerant varieties of wheat and another 150,000 hectares of maize.

“We live in an era of climate change, and yet only three per cent of African agriculture is under irrigation. We have to ensure we help our farmers with timely and appropriate information.

“We have no alternative but to adapt to climate change; adopt better ways of using water, particularly in cultivating dry land crops that are more resilient and tolerant,’’ Mr Adesina said.

He added that AfDB would provide grants for the CDA and collaborate with it to become a centre for predicting weather patterns and gathering information to improve farmers’ plans.

“We will also support youths to develop their business ideas into reality with our $20,000 grant on Agri Pitch’ andAgri Hacking’,’’ he said.

Mr Adesina commended the vice-chancellor of Bayero University, Kano, Sagir Adamu-Abbas, and the CDA director, Jibrin Mohammed-Jibrin, for assisting farmers with access to technology in the face of climate change.

In his remarks, Mr Jibrin said the CDA had received several World Bank research grants and had enrolled about 1,153 Doctorate and Masters’ degree students and trained farmers in agro-ecological practices.

CDA is a World Bank-supported centre established to serve as a regional training hub for the West and Central Africa sub-regions.

(NAN)