Nants

The Activities engaged on agriculture by NANTS include:

 i. Micro credit administration and assistance to local farmers to improve their access to finance

 ii. Information dissemination to local farmers

 iii. Establishing Grain banking strategy to dislodge cartel structure of farm products and improve the earnings of small-scale farmers.

iv. Capacity building through extended training of local farmers on crop budgeting, farm accounting, costing of inputs for the purpose of determining profitability in agric business. 

v. The Gender Action Learning System (GALS) 

vi. Intensified advocacy and sustained engagement with federal and states governments on agricultural policies and commitments on the sector for improved livelihoods for local farmers 

vii. Expansion of farmers networks to all states in Nigeria.

viii. Research and studies on topical trade and agric related issues such as land grabbing, access to agric finance, bio-fuels, cotton

and textiles, gender audit on agric policies, etc.

 ix. IFAD funded Gender Justice in Value Chain Development Project (VCDP) in rural agricbased communities in Nigeria.

 x. NANTS is also a Principal Technical Partner for the IFAD-Federal government of Nigeria intervention on Agriculture mapping Farmer organizations in Nigeria for the implementation of the Value Chain Development Programme.

xi. Agric budget monitoring, in line with African Maputo Declaration, and this has further support from Oxfam, ECOWAS, etc.

 xii. NANTS is currently implementing the USAID 5-year productivity and livelihoods enhancement training project for farmers in Nigeria targeted at Rice and Cassava value chains.

 xiii. NANTS has established small scale rice mill in Nasarawa state of Nigeria, courtesy of TY Danjuma Foundation. 

xiv. NANTS is the publisher of different Newsletter series captioned as follows: (a) “Farm and Food”, (b) “Trade Policy Monitor” and (c) “ECOWAS Vanguard” which constantly x-rays agric and trade policies and programmes and approaches to livelihoods and food security in the region. xv. NANTS is currently implementing the ‘do agric’ campaign in Nigeria.

xvi. NANTS-ECOWAS-RAAF-SDC project (Innovative investment in Livestock and meat value chain development and trade)

xvii. Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (“AGRA”) project for the period from January 24, 2022 – January 23, 2025 (36 months) as part of the bigger project titled, “Improving farmers resilience and Upscaling productivity, incomes, and Livelihood in Maize, Cowpea and Vegetable value chains in Niger State”.

In addition to NANTS’ core principles and values, there are a number of cross-cutting issues that are considered in every engagement of the Association. These include

i. Ensuring that the outcomes will be pro-poor, 

ii. Promotion of gender equity and sensitivity to HIV and AIDS issues,

iii. Contribute to ensuring environmental sustainability. NANTS will always address these cross-cutting issues by

a. Strictly adhering to the FAAP principles during the formulation of operational and work plans for its Strategic Priorities, initiatives and projects 

b. Developing innovation platforms that incorporate stakeholders with direct interest, knowledge and skills in these issues c. Targeting sensitisation and support to stakeholders through capacity-strengthening initiatives on cross-cutting issues

 d. Using monitoring and evaluation criteria that ensure compliance with both NANTS’ core principles and the manner in which cross-cutting issues are addressed.

NANTS gender approach in this strategy is an integral component of this overall strategy.

NANTS recognises that a focus on gender can increase the productivity of agriculture and improve food security and nutrition. Improving women’s access to productive resources to be at par with men will increase farm yields by 20-30%. This will in turn increase agricultural output in developing countries by 2.5 – 4%, thereby reducing the number of hungry people by 12-17% (FAO 2011). This strategy’s gender-mainstreaming approach promotes the integration of the needs of both men and women equally into its programmes and operations.

 Central to this is the promotion of policies and actions that facilitate equitable access to productive resources by both men and women, as well as the integration of gender perspectives into NANTS functions and activities to ensure that both sexes benefit. Women’s needs will be accounted for in the development and dissemination of trade and agricultural policies and technologies. Women will be enabled to fully participate in and benefit from agricultural innovation processes, and women farmers, agribusiness persons and scientists will receive the training they need to be fully competitive in their work.

 Added to this is that issues around youth will be taken very seriously within the target and objective of ensuring youthful replacement of aging farmers as well as creation of employment for younger generation and teeming youths in order to avoid insecurity consequences of joblessness. The process of developing this strategy has been informed by the following documents: i. The Frame work for African Agricultural Productivity (FAAP) ii. Gender Equality and African Regional Institutions (GEARI) gender audit report of 2009 iii. CAADP Pillar IV Strategy and operational Plan 2011 -2013 iv. The draft MTOP 2014–2018 as well as the draft report on constraints and opportunities for mainstreaming gender in African agricultural research and development among others.