ABUJA – No fewer than 11,868 farmers will participate in cassava production for Alape Staple Crop Processing Zone (SCPZ) in Kogi, Mr Tayo Adewumi, the National Programme Coodinator, Fadama III, has said.
Adewumi disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Tuesday after giving an assessment of the Additional Finacing Programme of the Fadama III Programme.
He said that 3,370 female farmers, constituting 28.4 per cent of the number, were participants of the project meant to encourage planting and processing of cassava to ensure sustainable income for small holder farmers.
“The Kogi State Government is in the fore-front of the implementation of the Fadama III Additional Financing and considerable achievements have been recorded.
“The mobilisation and sensitisation led to the registration of 11,868 farmers and the farmers have formed 829 cooperatives groups with additional registration on-going,” he said.
He revealed that the state government had cleared 1,000 hectares of land out of which 250 hectares would be used for cassava stem multiplication and demonstration purposes.
Moreso, additional 40 hectares on the four intervention sites of Ogale, Iresuare, Ponyan and Magongo would complement 100 hectares intervention for new farmers.
He further said that 100 youths had been listed to participate in the first 100 hectares of cassava farms in the state, while the list of cassava processors under Fadama III Project in the state had been compiled.
The national coordinator confirmed that cassava stem cuttings, fertiliser and herbicides had been bought for planting of 100 hectares of cassava farms.
NAN reports that Fadama is a Hausa name for irrigable land usually low-lying palins underlaid by shallow aquifers found along major river systems.
In addition to providing a source of water for livestock during dry season, fadama also support large and diverse resident or transient wildlife including herbivores, carnivores and migratory birds.
NAN also reports that the National Fadama Development Project of the World Bank aims at increasing the incomes of Fadama users, which include farmers, pastoralists, hunters, gatherers and service providers.
It provides rural finance through the Nigerian Agricultural Co-operative and Rural Development Bank, develops the interest of the private sector in agriculture to support farmers with advisory and technical services.
The project also offers support for small-scale infrastructure rather than large-scale infrastructure under Fadama areas by empowering rural communities to take charge of their development agenda for easy access and sustainability of finances.
NAN further recalls that the Federal Government requested the World Bank’s support for its Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA). [eap_ad_1] The World Bank therefore undertook project preparation involving all key stakeholders and policy makers with focus on the Staple Crop Processing Zones (SCPZs) in Kogi, Kano, Lagos Niger, Rivers, Enugu and Anambra states.
The World Bank in June 2013 approved 200m dollars (N33b) as additional financing to Fadama III in support of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda ATA.
The additional financing is to increase the incomes of farmers in the prioritised SCPZs on a sustainable basis.
Twenty (20) million dollars is earmarked for capacity building, communications and Information, 75 million dollars for Small Scale Community Owned Infrastructure, and 50million dollars for Advisory Services and Input Support.
Others are 20million dollars for sponsored research and on-farm demonstrations, 20million dollars for asset acquisition and 15million dollars for project management, monitoring and evaluation. (NAN)
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