The National Coordinator of Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP), Dr Fatima Aliyu, has said that the Programme is contributing immensely to the country’s food security and enhancing the livelihood of rural farmers.
Aliyu stated this while speaking with journalists at the opening of the Annual Agricultural Show organised by National Agricultural Foundation of Nigeria (NAFN) with the theme; ‘towards the realization of the Presidential Declaration of Emergency on Food Security’.
She explained that VCDP is a project being implemented by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security in nine states and it is promoting the production of rice and cassava value chains.
The VCDP National Coordinator said the main objective is to enhance food security and livelihood of rural smallholder farmers engaging in the cassava and rice value chains.
She said over the years, VCDP has really engaged the rural farmers who, through their interventions, have done a lot in developing the rice and cassava value chains.
“VCDP is really in rural areas and we are engaged with the rural smallholder farmers and from our interventions we have done a lot in developing the rice and cassava value chains
“Our farmers have produced various rice products, not only parboiled rice. So, it is from production to value addition.
“We have produced a lot of products from rice and cassava and they are really contributing to the attainment of food security and enhancement of the impacts on rural force in Nigeria”, she added.
READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
and then