The Africa Green Revolution (AGRA) is to support 270,000 smallholder farmers in Kaduna State to boost their production capacity, Country officer of the programme, Dr Kehinde Makinde, has said.

Makinde made the disclosure in an interview with Journalists on the sideline of formal launch of “Kaduna Maize-Rice-Soya beans Consortium Project” held in Zaria, on Tuesday.

The  programme is tagged: Uplifting Smallholder Farmers Livelihood in Kaduna through Market-Driven Upscalling of Maize, Rice and Soya Beans Value Chain.

“The objective of this programme is to support smallholder farmers in maize, rice and Soya-beans value chain to improve their productivity and make more money for the market.

“We want to improve on their livelihood with commitment that their lives will be transformed and we are following-up on this as a strategy to improve on smallholder farmers and also enhance their productivity.

“In Kaduna State, for this consortium, maize, rice and Soya beans, we are targeting 270,000 smallholder farmers to be able to produce to meet the requirement of the market,” he said.