By Tina George, Minna
Over 30,000 farmers are expected to benefit from the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD ) assisted Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP) Additional Financing project which has been extended for three more years.
The Niger State Coordinator, Dr. Mathew Ahmed disclosed this yesterday in Minna at the Value Chain Development Programme Additional Financing (VCDP-AF) State Sensitization and Mobilization visit held at the Niger state Ministry of Agriculture.
He said that the project initially was expected to end in December 2019 but with its extension, would now be rounded up in December 2022.
The Coordinator said that the VCDP Additional Financing programme would focus more on dry season farming as it has been realized that a whole lot of farming can be done during the dry season when the right equipment and infrastructures are in place.
“The target of the VCDP Additional Financing is to address dry season farming, provision of tube wells, providing irrigation facilities, common users’ infrastructures such as boreholes, construct roads and support processing activities to ensure that the rice processed in Niger state meet international standard.”
He further said that three more local government areas in Niger state which include Edati, Mokwa and Borgu local government areas are being brought on board adding that this will increase the number of local government areas where VCDP is being implemented in the state to eight.
He disclosed that in the last four years, the Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP) had trained 22,000 farmers including 16,500 youths and 7,200 women.
The Permanent Secretary of the Niger state Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Garba Musa Ibrahim commended the IFAD-VCDP for extending the programme year and bringing three other local government areas in the state on board.
Ibrahim promised that the government would ensure prompt payment of its counterpart fund to enjoy all the benefits that will come from the VCDP Additional Financing project.
