KOGI/IFAD-VCDP Agricultural Distribution programme
By Ajifa Ainoko
The International Fund for Agricultural Development – Value Chain Development Programme (IFAD-VCDP ) has kicked off the distribution of agricultural inputs to two hundred and five wet season rice and cassava farmers in Kogi State.
National Coordinator, FGN/IFAD-VCDP, Doctor.Fatima Aliyu made this known at the flag off of the programme at the Agricultural Development Project,ADP, office Lokoja.
Doctor Aliyu who was represented at the event by Mr.Musa Dalang,National IFAD- VCDP office said the objective was to enhance the income and food security of rural poor small holder households in the participating States and local government areas in a sustainable manner.
She said the programme was geared towards supporting farmers with inputs such as certified rice seeds, fertilizer, herbicides and improved cassava stems to enable them participate fully in the wet season farming.
According to her,the VCDP programme since inception had supported beneficiaries in Kogi in the areas of training, capacity building, infrastructure, input distribution, among others.
The National Coordinator advised the farmers to get their farms insured under the collaborative efforts of IFAD-VCDP with Nigeria Agricultural Insurance Company (NAIC) stressing that the insurance would help to cushion the effects of losses and plough such farmers back to production in the next cropping season.
She, however appealed to the beneficiaries to make the best use of the inputs to enable the programme achieve its development objectives of poverty reduction, and enhancing food and nutrition security of the poor rural households in Kogi and Nigeria at large.
She commended the Kogi State governor for his tremendous support and goodwill, saying the state had made them proud as regards the project implementation and urged him to sustan and improve the State Government’s support for the project so as to deliver the programme’s benefits to the people of the state.
Permanent Secretary,Kogi Ministry of Agriculture, Mrs Lami Lawal who flagged off the distribution, congratulated the farmers for making the state proud by working hard in always implementing the programmes.
In her remarks, the State Programme Coordinator (SPC), Doctor Stella Adejoh said the IFAD-VCDP was geared at enhancing rice and cassava value chains for sustainable agricultural transformation adding that the wet season inputs distribution was part of IFAD-VCDP intervention programmes to cushion the effects of flood and fuel subsidy removal in order to improve the wellbeing of rural farmers.
