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  • IFAD empowers 2,350 persons in Ondo on agric enterprises

    IFAD empowers 2,350 persons in Ondo on agric enterprises

    The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) said it has been difficult to convince youths in the country to embrace farming as a business.

    It said many youths in several communities preferred to be given cash instead of being empowered with adequate training and knowledge.

    The international body spoke through the Ondo Project Coordinator for the Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprise Project for the Niger Delta (LIFE-ND) Mr. Olawale Ademola.

    Ademola said the project has empowered 2350 youths and women in Ondo State out of its targeted 4250 persons to be empowered in agric business within six years.

    He said about 2000 of the beneficiaries have established their enterprises across all the value chain of their chosen.

    Read Also: IFAD seeks states’ commitment to value chain programme

    The Ondo SPC said IFAD was out to help youths set up better life but many youths declined to participate in the programme because money was not given to them.

    “The major challenge is how to convince youths to come into real farming as a business. We try to give them orientation out of which they will develop business plan.

    “In one community, I told them they should not expect money, many of the youths left. For those that joined the training, we gave them business plan based on chosen capacity. We empowered them, gave them mentorship and do follow up.

    “For those in poultry, we gave them 500 chicks and feed for the birds throughout the period and we gave healthy juveniles to the fish farmers as start up,” Ademola said.

    One of the beneficiaries, Tinubu Samuel, said he has registered his business after receiving N700,000  to kick start his project after undergoing training.

  • IFAD seeks states’ commitment to value chain programme

    IFAD seeks states’ commitment to value chain programme

    International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has sought the commitments of states who are beneficiaries of  IFAD and the Federal Government six-year assisted Value Chain Development Programme (FGN/IFAD VCDP) to support Nigeria’s food systems transformation.

     The programme, which focuses on rice and cassava, seeks to improve livelihood outcomes of 135,000 smallholder farmers on the value chains in Anambra, Benue, Ebonyi, Niger, Ogun and Taraba, Enugu, Kogi and Nasarawa.

     Addressing reporters during the 10th supervision mission of FGN/IFAD VCDP in Abuja, IFAD Country Director, Mrs Dede Ekoue, commending Ebonyi, Enugu, Kogi and Taraba states for paying their counterpart fund, called on the others to pay theirs to achieve results.

     Ekoue said the VCDP has impacted on youths and women in the areas of income generation and gender equality.

    Read Also: SAN-nominee seeks establishment of police pension board

    ”We’ve seen that youths are happy to have support of the VCDP and it is leading them to increase their income on the value chain. We have for example, seed entrepreneurs, these are young people that have been trained, we also have youths providing services to farmers, mechanisation services, that’s important. 

    ”Women have also shown they’re really happy about the programme because it not only allows women to access input, but it also works in the community to improve gender equality using the household approach we call gender Learning Action system.

     ”We need all states covered by VCDP to come with counterpart funds because without funding, it’s difficult to achieve results. We acknowledge that Federal Ministry of Agriculture has disbursed its counterpart funds. 

    ”I want to thank states that have been paying the counterpart funds this year. We know we had this counterpart fund paid in Ebonyi, Enugu, Kogi and Taraba states,” she said.

     National Programme Coordinator, Dr Fatima Aliyu, said the programme has done well for women and youths in value addition and employment.

     She said the result has impacted well on the food security as well as income of the rural farmers who are beneficiaries in the nine states.

    Director for the 10th Supervision Mission, Bukar Musa, said the most inspiring aspect of VCDP is the impact it has on farmers and communities.

    He said VCDP’s dedication to gender equality, youth empowerment and environmental sustainability sets a standard for inclusive and responsible agricultural development.

  • Fitch Ratings confirms AA+ rating for IFAD

    Fitch Ratings confirms AA+ rating for IFAD

    Fitch Ratings confirmed the International Fund for Agricultural Development’s (IFAD) Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at ‘AA+’ with a Stable Outlook.

    According to Fitch’s Rating Action Commentary, “IFAD’s AA+ Long-Term IDR continues to be anchored on its Standalone Credit Profile (SCP). IFAD’s SCP assessment is driven by its solvency (aa+) and liquidity (aa+) profiles, which are unchanged from last year.”

    In addition, Fitch expects IFAD’s equity/assets ratio and the fund’s usable capital/risk-weighted assets ratio “to remain well above the ‘excellent’ thresholds in the medium term, despite the fund gradually increasing its leverage.”

    Read Also: IFAD boss urges development banks to fight hunger, poverty

    This news comes as IFAD, a UN specialised agency and international financial institution, embarks on an ambitious replenishment of its funds for the period 2025-2027, with goals to deepen its impact and help millions more people move out of poverty and hunger – now more important than ever as the number of hungry rises, poverty remains intractable and climate change intensifies in many parts of the world.

    “The affirmation of our strong rating reflects the solid financial capacity of the institution to continue servicing our recipient countries within a very uncertain economic outlook. This is a testament to IFAD’s financial evolution and shall constitute an additional incentive to the continuing supportive response we are seeing from our Members during the ongoing replenishment consultations,” said Hernán Danery Alvarado, IFAD’s Associate Vice-President of IFAD’s Financial Operations Department and Chief Financial Officer and Controller.

  • IFAD boss urges development banks to fight hunger, poverty

    IFAD boss urges development banks to fight hunger, poverty

    President of the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Alvaro Lario has impressed on Public Development Banks on the need to direct funding to fight hunger, poverty and climate change.

    He spoke at the Finance in Common Summit 2023 (FICS) in Colombia last Thursday.

    With hunger and poverty on the rise and climate change accelerating, global leaders and heads of financial institutions at the summit said it was important to strengthen Public Development Banks (PDBs) towards fulfilling its crucial role in providing finance for development and climate action, and helping developing countries meet the global Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Climate Agreement objectives.

    PDBs supply two-thirds of the world’s food systems financing, and collectively invest US$2-3 trillion per year, all sectors included.

    At FICS, IFAD advocated that given their mandate and available assets, national PDBs can play an even stronger role in making food systems more sustainable, resilient and equitable.

    “We must relentlessly continue our efforts to ensure that PDBs deploy more capital and offer services best tailored to the needs of the rural populations and small-scale food farmers who produce one third of the world’s food. They are key to global food security and biodiversity preservation,” said Lario. “They urgently need to adapt to a rapidly changing climate, and cannot continue to living in hunger and poverty. They need access to finance, technologies and markets to grow their production and incomes.”

    The war in Ukraine and COVID19 pandemics have clearly exposed the fragility and inefficiencies of food systems.

    Read Also: IFAD, GEF lift economy of 78m smallholder farmers across 100 countries

    Over 3 billion people were unable to afford a healthy diet in 2021. Up to 783 million people suffered from hunger in 2022.

    The small-scale producers who are the backbone of food production receive just 6 cents for every dollar worth of food they produce. About 80 per cent of the world’s poorest live in rural areas. By contributing one third of global greenhouse gases emissions, food systems have also a heavy environmental footprint.

    FICS, IFAD showcased progress accomplished by the Public Development Banks Platform for Green and Inclusive Food Systems that IFAD leads with the strong support of the French Development Agency.

    With a doubling of its members over the last year reaching today over 130 PDBs from 98 countries, the Agricultural Public Development Bank platform is gaining momentum and promoting collective action to deliver change at scale.

    The PDB Platform facilitates regular exchanges of best practices among its members on topics of common interest including digitalisation, support to small and medium-sized enterprises, financing adaptation to climate change, helping to build capacity and becoming a major instrument of shared best practices and peer-to-peer technical assistance to foster stronger capacity to deliver investments for food systems transformation and climate action.

    For example, recently the FIRA bank (Mexico) has been engaging with Le Credit Agricole du Maroc (Morocco) and the Agricultural Bank of China on their best practices to inform the preparation of its new sustainability strategy.

    The European Union has recently approved funding for EUR 2.3 million for the platform becoming the first external donor supporting the platform besides IFAD and AFD.

  • Mukeshimana joins UN rural development agency IFAD as Vice-President

    Mukeshimana joins UN rural development agency IFAD as Vice-President

    Amid growing global food insecurity and an intensifying climate crisis, Gerardine Mukeshimana takes up duties today as Vice-President of the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). Mukeshimana, a former Rwandan Minister for Agriculture and Animal Resources, was instrumental in leading agricultural growth in Rwanda for almost a decade.

    “I am thrilled to join IFAD and amplify the global call to invest in small-scale farmers and to keep focus on making global and local food systems more sustainable, resilient and equitable for the people who work in them and feed the world,” said Mukeshimana on her first day in the office.

    She joins IFAD at a crucial time while the acceleration of climate change and the rapid decline of biodiversity are threatening food security and the livelihoods of billions of rural people. Both the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have exposed the fragility of global and national food value chains, leading to market disruption and high food, energy and fertiliser prices. Rural populations have been hit the hardest. According to the latest UN estimates, around 735 million people suffered from hunger in 2022, 122 million more compared to 2019.

    Read Also: IFAD, GEF lift economy of 78m smallholder farmers across 100 countries

    “As per my experience, I strongly believe that agriculture can be a thriving sector and play a key role in lifting rural populations out of hunger and poverty,” she added. “What is required is political will to invest at scale, deploy the right agricultural know-how and innovations, and strengthen small and medium agri-business and local and regional markets, to boost rural economies overall.”

    During her leadership as Rwanda’s agricultural minister between 2014 and 2023, the country’s agricultural sector continued to grow and benefit from remarkable transformation. Among her accomplishments, Mukeshimana was able to attract private sector interest in agri-business, promote women and youth empowerment in agri-food systems, and pioneered the use of climate funds for the agricultural sector.

    Before serving as minister, Mukeshimana was a molecular biologist post-doctoral researcher for Biosciences East and Central Africa Hub at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), applying bioscience technology to improve the livelihoods of millions of resource-poor people in Africa. She also served as post-doctoral researcher at Michigan State University, the national coordinator of the World Bank Rural Sector Support Program in Rwanda, and a lecturer in the Faculty of Agriculture at the National University of Rwanda.

    Mukeshimana has a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Engineering from the National University of Rwanda and a Master’s degree and a PhD in Plant Breeding and Genetics, Crop and Soil Sciences from Michigan State University.

    At IFAD, Mukeshimana will contribute to the Fund’s strategic direction and operational performance. She has direct oversight of IFAD’s budget, quality assurance, change management and innovation.

  • IFAD, GEF lift economy of 78m smallholder farmers across 100 countries

    IFAD, GEF lift economy of 78m smallholder farmers across 100 countries

    Seventy-eight million smallholder farmers across 100 countries have benefitted from existing interventions by the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

    Joint investments in small-scale farming in developing countries not only increase vulnerable rural people’s capacity to cope with the ever-increasing climatic and economic shocks, but significantly benefit the environment and climate by helping to reduce greenhouse gases emissions, recovering degraded land and curbing biodiversity loss, according a new joint report recently launched by the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

    “IFAD’s partnership with GEF benefits 78 million people across 100 countries, improving their livelihoods and delivering resilience-building solutions across food systems, climate and nature,” said Jyotsna Puri, Associate Vice-President of the Strategy and Knowledge Department at IFAD.

    “Together our organisations assemble finance to have a catalytic impact on rural communities across the globe and facilitate a multiplier effect on the systems and institutions they are critical to,” added the Associate Vice-President of IFAD, the only UN specialised agency and international financial institution that focuses exclusively on reducing poverty and improving food security in rural areas in developing countries.

    Read Also: First Lady’s RHI awards scholarships to 46 tertiary students

    The partnership with GEF enables IFAD to boost its work to support sustainable land and water management, climate-smart agriculture, agroecology, biodiversity conservation, climate adaptation, and resilience building, says the new IFAD-GEF Advantage III Report.

    For instance, one project aimed at developing family farming, co-funded by IFAD and GEF, restored 30,000 hectares of degraded land in Niger. In doing so, this programme prevented the emission of 5.25 million tonnes of CO2, while recovering nearly 190,000 hectares through ‘Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration’ practices, which foster regrowth of trees to increase woody vegetation.

    IFAD-GEF collaboration has also helped unlock innovation at country level, highlights the report. In Cambodia, ‘testing grants’ de-risked the adoption process of Renewable Energy Technologies (RET) by supporting the proofing and validation by small-scale farmers and small and medium enterprises.

    These grants were followed by other ‘roll-out grants’ through a co-financing approach with companies to establish local supply chains, training and after-sales services.

    As a result, nearly 18,000 small-scale farmers have adopted different RET, such as solar dryers for food processing, portable solar water pumps to irrigate crops, biochar briquettes to heat newly hatched chicks, solar poultry incubators to heat eggs, and solar hydroponics to grow vegetables with less water.

    IFAD’s ability to bundle different sources of development finance unlocks new possibilities to address pressing global challenges such as transforming the way we produce, transport, store and consume food.

    Together with its sister agency, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), IFAD co-leads the new Food Systems Integrated Program of the GEF, whereby an estimated US$230 million – to be complemented by additional co-financing – will be directed through grants to support countries working to transform their agrifood systems to be more sustainable and to deliver global environmental benefits.

    The currently active portfolio of IFAD-GEF operations represents a total investment of nearly US$200 million in 35 global projects on agriculture and rural development across all world regions.

    Recent project approvals in 2022 and 2023 alone represent more than US$64 million in GEF grants, with significant co-financing of over US$347million.

    Besides, 13 projects in 18 countries and totalling almost US$ 100 million are at the design stage in the IFAD-GEF pipeline and a ‘soft pipeline’ of projects being scoped out comes to almost another US$100 million.

    IFAD is an international financial institution and a United Nations specialised agency.

    Based in Rome – the United Nations food and agriculture hub – IFAD invests in rural people, empowering them to reduce poverty, increase food security, improve nutrition and strengthen resilience. Since 1978, we have provided more than US$24 billion in grants and low-interest loans to fund projects in developing countries. 

  • IFAD: Boosting food production in Nigeria

    The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) financed rural development projects have contributed to increased productivity and incomes in Nigeria, DANIEL ESSIET writes.

    That rural development financed  projects by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) have contributed to increased productivity and revenue in Nigeria is not  in doubt as many beneficiaries have good tales to tell. IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialised United Nations’ agency based in Rome, which is the UN’s food and agriculture hub.

    One of the projects is Value Chain Development Programme, which  aims to transform the agricultural sector of rural Nigeria by achieving food security, increasing incomes and creating new employment opportunities.

    Juliet Ngozi Ebuo, 31, was one of those who took advantage of the programme to acquire  new irrigation systems on her 10 hectares of land. She is a rice farmer in Ayamelum community in Anambra State, and belongs to the Divine Destiny Multipurpose Cooperative. Before joining the cooperative, Juliet was unhappy with her livelihood. She found farming to be tedious and unsatisfying. But after joining Divine Destiny, she gained access to many of the resources and tools the IFAD-funded Value Chain Development Programme provided to cooperative members. Like her members, she could access tractors, rice pulling machines, improved seedlings and training on dry season farming.

    This support has helped cooperative members to double their rice production, which resulted in increased revenue for many beneficiaries including Juliet. The Value Chain Development Programme makes farming more efficient and profitable. Beneficiaries like Juliet can now farm collectively and increase their yields and incomes. Today, Juliet has diversified her earnings, selling cosmetics, rice and fertiliser, with the hope of expanding her farm and mobilise more farmers in her community to join her small cooperative. She is of the opinion that they can also partake in all the benefits the programme can offer.

    The IFAD-funded Value Chain Development Programme is assisting  cassava and rice smallholder farmers through a value chain approach to enhance productivity, promote agro-processing and increased access to markets. The programme aims to transform rural Nigeria by achieving food security, increasing incomes and creating new employment opportunities. As at last year, the programme has injected $68.9 million into the economy.

    At the 2018 National Commodity Alliance Forum (CAF) in Abuja, IFAD programme officer, Ms. Mariatu Kamara, said private-sector players’ engagement by IFAD-VCDP through the CAF initiative, resulted in the production of 140,000 tonnes of rice and 30,000 tonnes of cassava annually, generating about 68.9 million dollars as revenue.

    According to Kamara, 25,000 tonnes of rice and cassava were produced in Benue State alone, while about nine million dollars were realised.

    CAF had been a success story, she said, adding that the government should, therefore, replicate the programme in other parts of the country, apart from Benue, Taraba, Ogun, Anambra, Kebbi, Nasarawa and Niger states that are participating in the IFAD-VCDP.

    Kamara pledged that IFAD would continue to provide relevant support for the government and citizens of Nigerian to engender the development of rural communities.

    IFAD-VCDP National Programme Coordinator, Dr Ahmed Onoja said IFAD-VCDP Public Private Producer Partnership (4Ps model) with Olam has doubled farmers’ income, while creating a reliable structure for sustainable supply of raw materials to processors.

    So far, he said, 1,725 Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) had been signed with off-takers in the six participating states, while 410 contractual agreements had been formalised, with more than 35,000 farmers linked to off-takers.

    Early this year, Projects Coordinating Unit Director, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Maimuna Habib, commended the implementation of the Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP) in Niger State, describing  the it as a huge success.

    She said this during an identification mission of the Federal and state governments and IFAD to the VCDP participating farmer groups in Wushishi and Bida areas of the state.

    “I am satisfied with the implementation of the VCDP in the past five years from what I have seen on ground here. There is no doubt that the VCDP is doing well here. So, today we want to get feedback from our farmers,” she said.

    Habib announced that the government, through the ministry, was ready to assist the farmers with farm implements.

    “I have directed the state programme co-ordinator to articulate what the farmers want and we will do something to get them implements at subsidised rate,” she said.

    She called for inclusion of more women in the programme to enable them own businesses and assist their families.

    IFAD Lead Regional Technical Specialist for Rural Finance, Market and Enterprises, Dr Jonathan Agwe, said the programme has succeeded in the state, adding that arrangements had been concluded to expand and extend the programme beyond year 2020 when it is supposed to terminate to the next three years.The next phase of the extension of three years programme is expected to begin in 2023. ”We want more women on board, this is why we will work with the government and beneficiaries to ensure that more women participate,” he said.

    Agwe said the various farmer organisations would be updated on how to sustain the programme when it winds up. The VCDP, he said, has contributed positively to the rural economy of the country.

    The  Programme Coordinator in the state, Dr Matthew Ahmed, said good performance earned the state the inclusion of three more local government areas on the programme.

    According to Ahmed, the programme was able to access more funds to extend it for the next three years, adding that three states of Enugu, Nasarawa and Kogi would be included in the second phase of the programme starting in 2023.

    Another outstanding project of the Federal Government, supported by IFAD, is the Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises Project in the Niger Delta(LIFE-ND).

    LIFE-ND aims to address the growing numbers of restive youths by sustainably enhancing incomes and food security, and creating jobs for young rural people and women in the Niger Delta. The project will build on the successes of earlier IFAD-supported projects to develop the supply of skilled youth labour, and it will strengthen the capacity of institutions at the state and community levels to work with private sector actors.

    LIFE-ND will be implemented in the nine Niger Delta states: Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and Rivers. It will engage 25,500 youths and women, as well as 600 established and potential enterprise incubators. The beneficiaries will be aged 18 to 35 years and women-headed households with children under the age of 15. Overall, the project will target 50 per cent male and 50 per cent female participation.

    Meanwhile, the International Fund for Agricultural Development announced a new $60 million fund to de-risk investments of small loans in agriculture value chains in Africa.

    The Agribusiness Capital Fund(ABC) Fund, with contributions from the European Commission, Luxembourg, Africa, Caribbean, and the Pacific group of states, and Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA),  seeks to mobilise about $240 million in private capital.

    The ABC Fund, which will be managed independently, will provide loans of between $25,000 and $1million to small businesses in order to address the “missing middle” of finance between microfinance and commercial loans.

    While IFAD’s current mandate does not allow them to provide funding to the private sector, it is using its experience and other programmes to help identify a pipeline of potential investments and is funding a facility associated with the fund that will provide technical assistance or support to the small businesses to help them succeed.

    Over the last 30 years, IFAD has supported 10 projects in Nigeria for $795.3million, of which IFAD has provided $317.9 million.

  • IFAD extends projects to three states

    The International Fund for Agricultural Development ( IFAD ) has disclosed plans to extend the phase two of its Value Chain Development Project (VCDP).

    The programme, which is being implemented in six states, would be extended to three states.

    The IFAD West and Central Africa Regional Director, Lisandro Martins, made these disclosures during a visit to the Cassava Women Processing Center in Lokogoma in Wushishi local government area of Niger state.

    The Nation learnt the IFAD VCDO project, which started in 2015, should have ended in 2020.

    However, the Regional Director did not say how long the next phrase would last.

    “Because of the success we have seen in Niger state, we are planning the extension of the VCDP Project and we will be scaling it up to three additional states,” he stated.

    He confessed the visit to the rice and cassava value chain centres have given the organisation new ideas on how IFAD can support the government of Nigeria in moving the project forward.

    Martins said he was impressed on how enthusiastic the youths and women in the communities welcome the projects and tend to turn it into profit making business that would improve their lives.

    He gave the assurance of the Agency intervention to scale up the processing capacity of the facilities in all the VCDP processing centers to benefit more members of the communities.

    The IFAD Country Director, Nadine Dominique Gbossa said Niger state is the success story of IFAD, which is the reason why the Regional Director was in the state for the visit.

    She explained IFAD had succeeded in linking the producers with the off takers, a development, which she said had greatly improved the income of the farmers and processors.

    The Niger state Programme Coordinator, Dr. Mathew Ahmed disclosed 15,627 farmers in the state, which include 11,948 rice farmers and 3,679 cassava farmers, have benefitted from the programme.

    He added that in the rice production value chain, over 700 youths have been gainfully engaged while over 150 women from other communities go to Lokogoma to learn modern processing techniques and process their garri.

     

  • IFAD distributes cash, animal traction to farmers in Sokoto

    The International Fund For Agricultural Development, Climate Adaptation and Agribusiness Support Program IFAD-CASP, on Sunday distributed Cash and Animal Traction to five farmers in Sokoto.

    Presenting the items to the beneficiaries, Gov. Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto described IFAD as formidable pillar in boosting agriculture and on the other hand, mitigating the level of poverty among the people.

    Tambuwal, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Natural resources, Alhaji Sani Shuni, commended IFAD for the gesture and solicited for more of such to maintain the tempo.

    “This gesture is one of the cardinal tools of every good administration, as it enhances agriculture and food security among the society.

    “As such we will ensure the system is fully maintained in order to boost our farming activities and increase the level of income among rural dwellers,” Tambuwal said.

    The governor further called on the beneficiaries to judiciously utilise the gesture to achieve the desired goal as it was meant for.

    The  state Program Coordinator,  Alhaji Aminu Dogon-Daji, said that the gesture was in line with IFAD quest to address the level of poverty among the rural people in the country.

    “So IFAD deemed it necessary to come up with the modalities that will help to curtail the situation under N-Agripreneurs programme.

    “As such about 70 people are going to benefit with different types of businesses under the designed programme, out of which five persons were selected from five local governments for Animal Traction.

    Read also: IFAD distributes input to rice, cassava farmers in Ogun

     

    “The selected beneficiaries were also given N70,000 each for the take off and will only pay back 50 per cent of the amount given as it is in IFAD-CASP N-Agripreneurs,” he said.

    Dogon-Daji further restated IFAD commitment towards restoring the lost glories in agricultural sector and assured the sustainability of such programmes to the development of the state and Nigeria as a whole.

    One  of the beneficiaries, Malam Yusuf Abubakar from Illela local government, expressed gratitude to IFAD for the gesture and assured of the good use of it.

    He said before the intervention of IFAD, the beneficiaries were facing a lot of challenges within their environment, as they have no enough farming working tools to care for such challenges.

  • IFAD wins development partner award

    The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has been adjudged the “Development Partner of the Year 2018” at the Nigeria Agriculture Awards (NAA) held recently in Abuja, Nigeria.

    The NAA is an annual event aimed at recognising and rewarding men, women, businesses and institutions who have distinguished themselves in Nigeria’s agriculture landscape.

    Chairman of the NAA Central Committee, Prof. Emmanuel Ikani said at the award ceremony that such special recognition of individuals and corporate organisations that have distinguished themselves as critical actors in the agricultural sector will serve as motivation to other stakeholders to follow suit.

    IFAD was recognised for its outstanding contributions to the development of Nigeria’s agricultural sector, particularly for its efforts towards improving the livelihood of Nigeria’s smallholder farmers and the economic space in which they operate.

    Particular reference was made to the IFAD-assisted Value Chain Development Programme which is empowering many women and youth through the innovative Public Private Producer Partnership (4Ps) initiative. The 4Ps, which is a business transaction and policy dialogue platform has triggered partnerships with major off takers and smallholder farmers and has yielded significant results.  For instance, Olam Nigeria, Popular Food (Stallion rice) and Onyx Niger Plc through the IFAD/VCDP partnership has received 150,000mt of paddy from rice farmers and in turn processed and released 97,500 mt of milled to the national domestic market. This represents an estimated income of USD63.6 million to the hands of the rural smallholder farmers and injection in the Nigeria economy.  From the macroeconomic parameter, it represents 150,000mt import substitution and USD63.6 million foreign exchange savings to Nigeria, hence a great support to the government agricultural promotion policy.

    Dr Ben Odoemena, IFAD Nigeria Country Programme Officer, who received the award on behalf of IFAD, thanked the NAA Central Committee for the recognition.

    He stated “Emerging as the successful nominee in the category of Development Partner of the Year is very inspiring and rewarding. Anybody who works hard towards a goal and gets recognised for his hard work feels good. Let me also thank the Federal Ministry of Finance and Federal ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development for all the support. This award could not have come without the support of these great partners. The most important to be appreciated are the rural poor farmers who took our technical advice to improve their livelihoods. It is the glaring improvement in their livelihoods that stood IFAD out to be chosen for this award.”

    Odoemena reiterated, “You have given us the tonic we need to do more. IFAD is a friend of the poor and we will not leave Nigeria until food security is guaranteed for all, poverty is eradicated among rural people and rural youth and women are gainfully engaged and become the drivers of Nigeria’s economic growth.”

    Since 1985, IFAD has financed 10 projects in Nigeria for a total of $795.3 million, including $317.6 million from IFAD’s own resources, directly benefitting nearly 3.8 million Nigerian rural households. IFAD is presently financing two programmes, namely Value Chain Development Project and Climate Change Adaptation and Agribusiness Support Programme.