The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) says it has budgeted $328 million for the Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP) in Nigeria.
Development Diaries understands that the project, which is a partnership involving the Nigerian government, Olam Nigeria, and IFAD, will have IFAD contribute $250 million, while the Nigerian government and Olam Nigeria will collectively contribute $79 million.
The Country Representative of IFAD in Nigeria, Nadine Gbossa, said, oo ‘Before the IFAD, OLAM and VCDP partnership, many of the smallholder farmers were involved in subsistence farming.
‘However, they are now able to market their products because a firm like Olam purchases over 90 percent of paddy rice.
‘Data show that the smallholder farmers have increased their income by 79 percent.
‘The number of children attending secondary schools for VCDP households has increased by 17 percent, so it means that more of the farmers can send their children to secondary schools when the norm then was just sending them to primary schools’.
Speaking on the project, Olam Nigeria’s Vice President, Farming Initiatives, Reji George, said, ‘About 50 percent of the total capacity of Olam’s rice mill in Rukubi, Nasarawa State, is obtained through the direct buy-back from these programmes from different states.
‘We expect a higher scope this year (2020) because while we had 9,757 farmers in 2019, we have doubled the number of registered farmers this year, which is about 18,646 registered farmers’, George said.
‘What is significant to us is that this programme has helped us to meet up with the requirement of rice paddy for the rice mills in Rukubi and Amarava Mill in Kano State’.
George further said that smallholder farmers had recorded a significant increase from two metric tonnes per hectare in yields when the project kicked off in 2015 to an average of four metric tonnes per hectare.
The programme was launched to generate wealth for smallholder farmers to help improve their livelihoods while enhancing food security in Nigeria.
IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialised agency of the United Nations that work to address poverty and hunger in rural areas of developing nations.
Source: Daily Trust
Photo source: World Bank Photo Collection
