To narrow the gap between farm trials and average national yields, 228 technologies have so far been demonstrated to 84,736 farmers in the states participating in the Agro-processing Productivity Enhancement and Livelihood Improvement Support Project (APPEALS).
The states participating in the projects include Cross River, Enugu, Kaduna, Kano, Kogi and Lagos.
APPEALS National Communication Specialist, Mrs. Aishat A. Onusi, disclosed this in statement on behalf of the National Project Coordinator, Alhaji Mohammed Sani Jobdi with the titled Highlights of APPEALS’ Achievements at the 9TH Implementation Support Mission presented on Tuesday in Abuja.
The statement revealed that the figures has surpassed the end line target of 100 technologies, adding that 33,857 farmers had adopted improved technologies with women farmers accounting for 36 per cent of the figure.
Mrs. Onusi added that “the project is linking farmers to markets through the facilitation of commercial partnerships resulting in a total of 303 business alliances with 145 off-takers already buying the farmers’ produce across the 11 value chains, with a transaction value worth 23.439 billion naira.
“In terms of livelihood enhancement, the Project has empowered 55,864 direct beneficiaries; with 10,307 women and youth beneficiaries trained and 8,535 Business Investment Plans (BIPs) implemented under the Women and Youth Empowerment Program (WYEP).”
She said the Project has linked 200 agribusiness clusters to as boreholes, tube wells, and box culverts in the states participating in the project, adding that 16 Aggregation and Cottage Processing Centers have been completed while 59 are at varying levels of construction across the participating States to make a total of 90 aggregation centers expected to be built at the endline.
“About 13.6km out of the target 80km of rural access roads have been completed while water and energy infrastructure linked to production and processing clusters are at various stages of construction and are to be completed by March 30, 2023.
“The project has continued to contribute to the national food basket across the different value chains in the year under review with significant increase in the output of the commodities when compared with the last mission’s figures. For instance, cocoa output increased by 129.01%, while poultry egg, cassava, rice and poultry meat increased by 48.3%, 24.7%, 23.8%, and 7.6% respectively.
“At a wrap-up meeting with the Federal Ministry of Finance, chaired by Deputy Director, International Economic Relations Department – IERD, Mr. Steve Ohaeri on December 22, 2022, the Mission findings presented in the Aide Memoire were highlighted and discussed.”
According to the statement, the 9th joint Federal Government of Nigeria/World Bank Implementation Support Mission was held from November 14 – 29, 2022 with the mission being led by the World Bank Senior Agriculture Economist and Task Team Leader, APPEALS, Dr. Manievel E. Sene.
Officials of the APPEALS National Coordination Office, all State Coordination Offices of the six participating states of APPEALS; the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, FMARD; Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget & National Planning; FMARD Projects Coordinating Unit, PCU; State Steering/Technical Committees and other stakeholders took part in the meeting which objectives include assessment of the project overall implementation status towards the project closing date of September 30, 2023.
The statement revealed that participating states have continued to make progress in the implementation of activities under the various components of the project as they recorded a total number of 2,892 Value Chains Investment Plans (VCIPs) implementation across the states, which is made up of production VCIPs (75.3 per cent), processing VCIPs (13.6 per cent) and marketing VCIPs (11.1 per cent).
