The International Fund for Agricultural Development – Value Chain Development Programme (IFAD-VCDP) has begun the distribution of agricultural inputs to 205 wet-season rice and cassava farmers in Kogi.
Speaking at the flag-off ceremony at the Agricultural Development Project (ADP) office in Lokoja, Dr Fatima Aliyu, the National Coordinator FGN/IFAD-VCDP, stated that the objective was to enhance the income and food security of rural poor smallholder households in the participating states and local government areas in a sustainable manner.
Aliyu explained that the VCDP program had provided support to beneficiaries in Kogi in various areas, including training, capacity building, infrastructure, and input distribution.
The program aimed to support 205 rural farmers, comprising 120 males and 85 females, with a total of 278 hectares for both rice and cassava farming during the 2023 cropping season.
The items to be distributed included 7,150 bundles of improved cassava stems, 137 bags of Faro 44 rice seeds, 1,120 bags of NPK fertilizer, 330 bags of Urea fertilizer, and selective and non-selective herbicides.
Aliyu encouraged the farmers to insure their farms under the collaborative efforts of IFAD-VCDP and the Nigeria Agricultural Insurance Company (NAIC), as it would help cushion the effects of losses and enable farmers to resume production in the next cropping season.
She commended Governor Yahaya Bello for his support and goodwill, emphasizing that Kogi had made them proud in terms of project implementation. Aliyu urged the governor to sustain and improve the State Government’s support for the project to deliver its benefits to the people of Kogi.
Mrs Lami Lawal, the Permanent Secretary of the Kogi Ministry of Agriculture, flagged off the distribution and congratulated the farmers for their hard work in implementing the programs and making the state proud.
Dr Stella Adejoh, the State Programme Coordinator (SPC), explained that IFAD-VCDP aimed to enhance rice and cassava value chains for sustainable agricultural transformation. She stated that the wet season inputs distribution was part of the program’s intervention to mitigate the effects of flood and fuel subsidy removal, with the goal of improving the well-being of rural farmers.
Adejoh commended the farmers for their cooperation and urged them, as well as newly enrolled beneficiaries, to utilize the inputs to improve their livelihoods and the state’s economy. She expressed gratitude to the Governor for his support and the Managing Director of Kogi ADP for his contributions to the success of the program.
Mr George Ogirima, the Managing Director of Kogi ADP, thanked the governor for prioritizing agriculture in his administration’s activities. He assured that the ADP would continue to support the program through its extension workers and other necessary means.
Some of the beneficiaries, Mrs Shekinat Abdullahi, Kassim Mohammed, and Muhammed Aliyu, expressed their happiness with the inputs and thanked IFAD-VCDP and the government for the gesture, stating that it would improve their well-being.
They promised to use the inputs judiciously to achieve the program’s objectives of boosting value chain production, ensuring food security in Kogi, and Nigeria as a whole.
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