The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is set to release the sum of $1.1million to support farmers under its rice and cassava value chain development project to mitigate the effect of flood and other crisis.
Speaking at the stakeholders wrap-up workshop of the joint federal government and IFAD Mission Midterm Review (MTR) of the Value Chain Development Project (VCDP) yesterday in Abuja, the IFAD country director, Ms Dede Ekoue, said the fund had become necessary to help farmers deal with the effects of multiple shocks they experienced this year.
The country director said smallholder farmers were severely affected by the massive flood, Russian-Ukraine war, climate change crisis and the economic crisis hinged on currency exchange issues.
Ms Ekoue said the programme was for smallholder farmers, adding, “They appreciate the fact that the programme is helping them improve their productivity. They also appreciate the fact that the programme is linking them to off-takers, and this allowed them to have a ready market to sell their produce.”
Also speaking, the national programme coordinator of the value chain project, Dr Fatima Aliyu, said the money would support more than 2,000 farmers across the 9 participating states.
