By Gabriel Yough
The Taraba Government on Tuesday commended the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)’s Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP) for massively reducing poverty among rice and cassava farmers in the state.
Dr David Ishaya, the state Commissioner for Agriculture, disclosed this at the VCDP State Level Knowledge Fair and Youth Forum in Jalingo.
Ishaya said he was overwhelmed with joy to hear various testimonies of resounding successes recorded by beneficiaries of the programme, especially women and youths.
“I am overwhelmed by the success stories I have heard today by women and youths from the rural communities engaged in rice and cassava farming, processing and marketing.
“The state government will ensure the sustenance of the intervention even after its duration period,” he said.
Ishaya, represented by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mr Bubujen Danjuma, urged the beneficiaries to redouble their efforts in making sure that they empowered others for a prosperous society.
Earlier, Mr Irimiya Musa, the State Programme Coordinator (SPC), highlighted the achievements recorded by VCDP in the state.
Musa listed construction of feeder roads, ware houses and processing plants for rice and cassava across the five local government areas of intervention as the achievements recorded by VCDP in the state.
He noted that the programme had also carried out training for farmers and processors to ensure efficiency, adding that it had yielded positive results.
“IFAD intervention has resulted to high productivity and a better life for beneficiaries in the Wukari, Karim Lamido, Gassol, Takum and Ardo Kola Local Government Councils of the state.
“Farmers, who used to harvest two metric tonnes of rice per hectare before VCDP intervention, now earn five metric tonnes from rainy season farm and some earn as high as nine metric tonnes per hectare in the dry season farming,” he explained.
In her remarks, Mrs Atine James, the state VCDP’s Rural Institutions, Gender and Youth Mainstreaming Officer, said farming was the best occupation at the moment in the country.
She noted that it was an occupation where no anti-corruption agency would follow those making millions of naira in the process.
James urged the beneficiaries to continue to be committed to their farming and processing businesses for a better life.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that beneficiaries of the programme commended VCDP for changing their lives for the better.
Lots of by-products of rice and cassava packaged by the beneficiaries of VCDP were displayed to the admiration of the guests at the occasion.
