The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) says it will expand smallholder farmers’ cultivation space from below five hectares to 25 hectares in Enugu State.
Mrs Vera Onyeaka-Onyilo, the Knowledge Management and Communications Advisor, IFAD Programmes, said this on Monday during a presentation on the overall view of the IFAD-Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP) in the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that IFAD’s VCDP is a tripartite funded programme of IFAD, the Federal Government and participating state governments.
Onyeaka-Onyilo said the programme, which would end by 2022, was meant to lift thousands of rural farmers out of poverty, occasioned by age-long subsistence farming practice.
She said the programme could be extended to 2025, if it yielded continuous progress.
She said that technically, the programme would leverage the transfer of best agronomy and processing practices, market visibility/reach, extension services intervention and financial inclusion for farmers to achieve the target.
The IFAD spokesperson said the programme was targeting the production of cassava with vitamin-A and rice, which are both staple food and cash crops in the country.
She said that federal government was determined to reduce import and cut down on the over N6 billion being spent on rice importation annually through the implementation of IFAD-VCDP in nine states, including Enugu State.
“The VCDP focuses on enhancing the productivity and profitability of smallholder farmers and small/medium-scale agro-processors,” she said.
She said that could be achieved by improving their access to markets and capacity to increase yield as well as add value to locally produced raw materials through improved processing and packaging.
Onyeaka-Onyilo also said, “Cassava and rice (staple and cash crops) contribute significantly to incomes and household food security in rural areas.’’
She described the poor rural households engaged in cassava and rice production and value chain addition of both crops as the primary target group.
She said: “These include smallholder farmers cultivating up to five hectares of cassava and rice as well as traders and small-scale processors, with emphasis on women and youth.
“The overall goal of IFAD-VCDP is rural poverty reduction and acceleration of economic growth achieved on a sustainable and inclusive basis.
“Also, there will be incomes and food security for poor rural households engaged in production, processing and marketing of rice and cassava in the targeted Local Government Areas (LGAs) enhanced on a sustainable basis”.
Onyeaka-Onyilo said that five pilot council areas had been selected in Enugu state, based on established criteria mapped out by the designers of IFAD-VCDP programme.
She said that pilot council areas producing the two staple/cash crops included Aninri, Isi-Uzo and Nkanu East for rice production and its value chain addition.
Others were Enugu East and Udenu LGA for cassava production and its value chain addition. (NAN)
