The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) says it has invested over 1 billion US Dollars in Nigeria’s Agricultural sector.
The Associate Vice President, Programme Management Department at IFAD, Donal Brown, made this known when he and his team visited the Federal Government, FGN/IFAD Assisted Value Chain Development Programme, VCDP Dry Season Rice farmers in Enugu State.
IFAD is providing viable interventions to support farmers and facilitate sustainable agricultural development in the country.
Brown who was in Enugu to assess the impact of its projects on the lives of the people, visited, Nenwe, Aninri Local Government Area and other projects sites in the State.
He expressed satisfaction with the impact of the interventions on the lives of rural farmers.
Brown commended the resilience of the farmers, while pledging to continue to support the country to address food crisis.
According to him, the organisation would provide technical assistance to the government and people of Nigeria to improve food production and security.
In a remark, the National Programme Coordinator, FGN/IFAD Value Chain Development Programme, Dr. Fatima Aliyu, commended Enugu State Government and the farmers for their commitments toward the success of the programme, noting that they decided to go for the Dry season rice farming because it was more profitable.
Earlier, the Enugu State Governor, Dr Peter Mbah, who was represented by his deputy, Mr. Ifeanyi Ossai, appealed to IFAD to expand its support beyond smallholder farmers to commercial farmers with inputs, credit facilities and capacity building.
He said the visit was timely especially now the country was struggling with food shortages.
He commended IFAD for the support it had been giving to the State, adding that the state valued the support and intervention received from the multilateral institutions and agencies in their sectors, particularly in agriculture.
“This is so important because if we want to migrate our people from poverty to economic stability, agriculture is very pivotal.
“As we are battling with high cost of food and shortage of food, this is the best time to improve agriculture.
“We thank you also because your programme tailored its approach towards farmers and smallholder farmers,” he said.
The governor, who extoled the roles of the smallholder farmers in the economy, said there was need for high level policies formulations to deal with it to accommodate the whole farmers.
“It is the aggregation of the smallholder farmers that come up to your Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and farmers now enjoy the benefit of their hardwork with access to facilities supported by IFAD.
“We look forward to more robust relationship with you to improve what you have done and sustain it. We suffer from huge post harvest losses, hence, there is need for aggregation centres near our farm,” he appealed.
The Enugu State Commissioner for Agriculture and Agro-Industrialisation, Mr Patrick Nwabueze Ubru, who led IFAD Associate Vice President and his team to the sites, reiterated the commitment of Governor Peter Mbah to meeting the obligations of the state in terms of payment of counterpart funding.
Some of the farmers, including Evelyn Nwaru, Cecilia Michael and Ugochukwu Onyeabor, said the Federal Government IFAD Value Chain programme had impacted positively on their lives.
Afriquecast
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) says it has invested over 1 billion US Dollars in Nigeria’s Agricultural sector.
The Associate Vice President, Programme Management Department at IFAD, Donal Brown, made this known when he and his team visited the Federal Government, FGN/IFAD Assisted Value Chain Development Programme, VCDP Dry Season Rice farmers in Enugu State.
IFAD is providing viable interventions to support farmers and facilitate sustainable agricultural development in the country.
Brown who was in Enugu to assess the impact of its projects on the lives of the people, visited, Nenwe, Aninri Local Government Area and other projects sites in the State.
He expressed satisfaction with the impact of the interventions on the lives of rural farmers.
Brown commended the resilience of the farmers, while pledging to continue to support the country to address food crisis.
According to him, the organisation would provide technical assistance to the government and people of Nigeria to improve food production and security.
In a remark, the National Programme Coordinator, FGN/IFAD Value Chain Development Programme, Dr. Fatima Aliyu, commended Enugu State Government and the farmers for their commitments toward the success of the programme, noting that they decided to go for the Dry season rice farming because it was more profitable.
Earlier, the Enugu State Governor, Dr Peter Mbah, who was represented by his deputy, Mr. Ifeanyi Ossai, appealed to IFAD to expand its support beyond smallholder farmers to commercial farmers with inputs, credit facilities and capacity building.
He said the visit was timely especially now the country was struggling with food shortages.
He commended IFAD for the support it had been giving to the State, adding that the state valued the support and intervention received from the multilateral institutions and agencies in their sectors, particularly in agriculture.
“This is so important because if we want to migrate our people from poverty to economic stability, agriculture is very pivotal.
“As we are battling with high cost of food and shortage of food, this is the best time to improve agriculture.
“We thank you also because your programme tailored its approach towards farmers and smallholder farmers,” he said.
The governor, who extoled the roles of the smallholder farmers in the economy, said there was need for high level policies formulations to deal with it to accommodate the whole farmers.
“It is the aggregation of the smallholder farmers that come up to your Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and farmers now enjoy the benefit of their hardwork with access to facilities supported by IFAD.
“We look forward to more robust relationship with you to improve what you have done and sustain it. We suffer from huge post harvest losses, hence, there is need for aggregation centres near our farm,” he appealed.
The Enugu State Commissioner for Agriculture and Agro-Industrialisation, Mr Patrick Nwabueze Ubru, who led IFAD Associate Vice President and his team to the sites, reiterated the commitment of Governor Peter Mbah to meeting the obligations of the state in terms of payment of counterpart funding.
Some of the farmers, including Evelyn Nwaru, Cecilia Michael and Ugochukwu Onyeabor, said the Federal Government IFAD Value Chain programme had impacted positively on their lives.
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