FG, Ogun, IFAD empower 2,500 VCDP farmers with inputs

THE Federal and Ogun State Governments as well as the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), have given inputs to 2,500 farmers under the Value Chain Development Programme.

This was disclosed by the State Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr. Adeola Odedina, during the flag off of the 2020 inputs redemption by farmers at Odeda Local Government.

Odedina said the programme was one of the schemes to assist farmers in the state while promising that government would continue to expand agricultural activities and explore more opportunities.

The commissioner advised the beneficiaries to use the inputs for the purpose of which they were meant for, assuring that government has capacity to manage the increasing number of applications for the agricultural opportunities.

“It is because of the continuous advocacy of Governor Dapo Abiodun that we are now having investors coming into the State, as well as, many other international organisations and the Central Bank of Nigeria has expressed interest in other commodities,”the commissioner stated.

The Ogun State Coordinator, VCDP, Samuel Adeogun, said the programme was in line with the objectives of the Agricultural Promotion Policy (APP) and the National Economic Recovery and Growth plan, adding that the distribution for 2020 was the fifth, with beneficiaries of over 8,000 small holder farmers to cultivate about 9,000 hectares across eight implementing Local Government Areas in the State.

“The objective is to catalyse a marked-led value-added production, processing and marketing of rice and cassava commodities and products by smallholder farmers through the adoption of best practices and innovations that increase efficiencies of the value chain of the commodities, attract the youths and ensure gender inclusiveness.

“The inputs support is under the matching grant arrangement in which the farmers pay 50 percent of the cost of the inputs and the programme pays 50 percent, using Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES) module. However, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the programme reviewed the arrangements and farmers will pay 40 percent and the programme 60 percent; women and youth groups will pay 30 percent, while the programme pays 70 percent”, Adeogun explained.

He submitted that the implementation was in line with agricultural revolution initiatives of the current administration, hinting that Ogun was the only State in the South West, where VCDP was being implemented.

In their separate remarks, some members of the State House of Assembly Committee on Agriculture, Caretaker Chairman, Odeda Local Government, Hon. Semiu Lawal, lauded the agricultural strides of the state government, noting that it would increase farmers yield.

Responding on behalf of other beneficiaries, a farmer, Chief Taofeek Odedina, expressed appreciation to government for the gesture, assuring that the inputs would be appropriately utilised.

YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

1,126 Killed, 380 Abducted In 7 Northern States —Amnesty Int’l
The GLOBAL watchdog, Amnesty International, on Sunday, claimed at least 1,126 rural dwellers in seven northern states of Kaduna, Katsina, Niger, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba and Zamfara, have lost their lives to rampaging insecurity in the zone since the beginning of the year. In a statement highlighting its recent findings, about 380 villagers were also reportedly abducted for ransom within the months under review, with victims’ relatives…

MONDAY LINES: El-Rufai Goes To Law School
I have this Igbo friend whom I call Omo Oduduwa. He speaks the Yoruba language with a competence that claps for whoever his teacher is – and he flaunts it. Every expression that shoots out of his trunk is rooted in wisdom. He once told me in Yoruba that his enemy was ill but he was the one taking medicine for the illness (ó re òtá mi sùgbón èmi ni mo nl’ògun). That statement I remembered when I read Professor Ishaq Akintola of…

Water Resources Bill: Lawmaker Says It Is Dead On Arrival
FEDERAL lawmakers are again smarting for a showdown with their leadership and the presidency once they resume from their annual vacation. The mutual ethnic suspicion in the polity will again reverberate in the consideration of the controversial National Water Resources Bill 2020, Nigerian Tribune investigation revealed. The bill which was shut down in the eighth National Assembly under the leadership of Senator Bukola Saraki…

LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT: Route To Iconic Leadership
The transformation of leaders into icons has much to do with what they don’t do rather than what they do. While it is fashionable for leaders to say ‘yes’ to a number of things, it is only those who make it a habit to say ‘no’ to many things that become icons. According to Warren Buffet, the investment guru, “The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say ‘no’ to almost…