APPEALS project to empower 60,000 Nigerians in six states

By Juliana Agbo

The World Bank implemented project Agro-Processing, Productivity Enhancement and Livelihood Support (APPEALS) has disclosed that it is targeting to empower about 60,000 Nigerians on 11 agricultural value chains in six states.

The beneficiaries will be empowered along Rice, Cocoa, Poultry, Cashew, Maize, Ginger, Diary, Wheat, Tomato, Cassava and Aquaculture value chains.

Speaking at the Project Facilitators Training in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, the National Project Coordinator (NPC), Mr Mohammed Jobdi said the project is targeting 10,000 beneficiaries per state, and 300,000 farm household members as indirect beneficiaries.

Jobdi listed the participating states and value chains to include Cross River (Rice, Cocoa, Poultry), Enugu (Rice, Cashew, Poultry), Kaduna (Maize, Ginger, Dairy) Kano (Rice, Wheat, Tomato), Kogi (Cassava, Cashew, Rice), Lagos (Rice, Aquaculture, Poultry).

He said it is anticipated that 35 percent of direct beneficiaries (or 21,000 individuals) will be women and youth.

Read Also: Take advantage of APPEALS Project, Onoja tells Kogi beneficiaries

“These priority value chains were carefully selected due to their potential in contributing to the government stated priority goals of (i) Food Security and local Production, (ii) Potential for exports, and (iii) contribution to improvement of livelihoods, and speedy income generation including jobs creation along the value chains”, he said.

While explaining that APPEALS is a 6-year project designed in line with the Agricultural Promotion Policy (APP) of the Federal Government,  he noted that the development objective is to enhance agricultural productivity of small and medium scale farmers and improve value addition along priority value chain in the participating states.

“It intends to build on the legacy of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA), and plans to support policy trusts on food security, local production, job creation and economic diversification.

“The project was approved by the World Bank on March 23, 2017 and became disbursement effective on May 24, 2018. It is expected to close by September 2023”, he said.

Furthermore, he said “the project has improved on its performance, across all participating states. A total of 277 Value Chain Investment Plans (VCIPs) have been prepared, reviewed and approved for implementation by the beneficiaries.

“It has also documented a total of fifty-five business alliances (off-takers/ out-growers) across nine value chains. In addition, a total of 64 different technologies have been demonstrated to farmers across the participating states.

“In keeping to and increasing this present pace, it has become imperative to conduct this very important training workshop for the project facilitators.

“As you are aware, the facilitators are the front line officers when it comes to interfacing directly with the project beneficiaries, their roles and relevance to the realization of the project development objectives cannot be overemphasized”, he added.