The Enugu State House of Assembly Committee on Agriculture and Agro-Industrialisation has lauded the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP) in Enugu.
The Chairman of the committee, Mr Jude Eze, gave the commendation when members of the committee visited the State Programme Coordinator, Dr Edward Isiwu, as part of its oversight function on Wednesday in Enugu.
Eze, who is the Chief Whip of the assembly, said the visit became very necessary to ascertain the impacts the Programme had created in the lives of rural farmers and the state given amount budgeted for the programme in the last budget presented to the house.
According to him, it is part of our legislative business to familiarize and oversight the agencies and ministries as House Committee members on Agriculture.
“We are here to know how far IFAD have gone since the presentation of the budget in 2023,” Eze said.
He lauded the impact the programme had created in the rural communities and urged the coordinator to extend it to other council areas to benefit more farmers.
Presenting his scorecards within the short period of time of its existence in the state, Isiwu told them that IFAD had been in Nigeria for more than 35 years with different programme running concurrently.
He explained that in 2014, the concept of Value Chain Development Programme came on board with six states of the Federation namely; Anambra, Benue, Ebonyi, Niger, Ogun and Taraba with the value chain of rice and cassava.
The coordinator disclosed that while reviewing the activities of the six states, IFAD scaled up the programme by extending it for more years.
He added that it was in the process that Enugu, Kogi and Nasarawa States were included in the programme in 2019 while its implementation began in 2020.
“But the outbreak of COVID-19 delayed the programme but however, in 2021, a lot of sensitizations were done in the selected five Council Areas of Aninri, Enugu East, Isi Uzo, Nkanu East and Udenu and farmers were profiled into our database.
“From the inception till date, the programme engaged in so many activities ranging from capacity building of the farmers on good agronomic practices, and many other trainings.
“The programme has equally constructed mini-bridges, culverts, market stalls, market stores, land developments, solar powered boreholes, rice mills, cassava processing centres and crèche.
“Others are parboiling sheds, drying slabs, effluent chambers, water harvesters among others. The programme supported the beneficiaries with agro-inputs and farm equipment in 2023,” he said.
He stressed that the projects executed by the organisation were duly inaugurated by the Enugu State Government.
Isiwu further disclosed that due to the programme’s landmark achievements in Enugu State, the Associate Vice President of IFAD visited Enugu.
He, however, appealed to the committee to sponsor and pass a bill for the use of standard weight and measures in all the markets for farmers to have value for their produce after harvest.
“Many of the consumers equally do not get value for their money because 25kg and 50kg bag of rice sold in the market are not actually the quantity an individual paid for,” he said.
The coordinator, however, listed their challenges to include farmers/herders issue, insecurity, climate change, difficulties in assessing credits and insurance cover from financial institution by beneficiaries. (NAN)
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