AWKA- The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) said that it had earmarked 100 million dollars for distribution among smallholder famers for the production of rice and cassava in the country.
The Country Programme Manager of IFAD, Ms. Atsuko Toda said this in Awka when she led a delegation on a courtesy visit to the state Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr Nnamdi Mekor.
According to her, Ebonyi, Benue, Niger, Taraba, Ogun and Anambra will benefit from the money.
“The Value Chain Development programme being sponsored by IFAD is a five-year programme with total project cost of 100 million dollars which will be divided among the six states.
“Fourteen million dollars will be disbursed in the first year for each state and they are expected to pay counterpart fund of N400 million,” Toda explained.
According to her the target group are smallholder farmers — mostly women and youths.
She said the team was in the state to inspect ongoing work in the cassava and rice value chain programme and to see the connection between the producers, processors and marketers.
“We are here to identify areas where the value chain development programme can be of support to the state.”
She commended the state government for its leadership role in repositioning agriculture as business and its consistency in the payment of counterpart funds.
In his remark, the National Programme Coordinator, Dr Ameh Onoja, said that the programme was aimed at reducing the huge amount of money spent on the importation of rice and wheat.
Onoja explained that the programme was essentially targeted at developing the culture of agro-business on the small scale.
“Our intervention covers farmers that operate below five hectares with the hope that they would upscale to 25 hectares.
“We are equally supporting processing to add value to the local production of rice.
“We encourage the farmers to use good and improved technologies in the rice production to make their product competitive with foreign products,” Onoja said.
Responding, Mekor, said that Governor Willie Obiano’s administration was determined to boost the agriculture sector of the state.