The Foundation for Partnership Initiative in the Niger Delta, as its name implies, is foundation with a development template that emphasises supporting socio-economic growth through partnership with stakeholders and donor agencies. It is a future-looking partnership with the US-based Chevron-sponsored NDPI.
PIND recently organised a four-day workshop and field trip to show case its achievement in the past two years. The workshop was aptly tagged ‘Towards the Promotion of Proven Development Models for Pro-poor Socio-economic Development in the Niger Delta’.
Project Director, Mr Sylvestor Okoh, said it was necessary for development agents to critically look at the areas they plan to affect before plunging in.”For you to do development work and get it to succeed and affect the people positively, you have to first of all go down to the root cause of the problem. Most times development intervention coming from anybody will be addressing the symptoms and not the root cause.”
Using the outbreak of cholera in some parts of the country to make his point, Okoh, an ex-staff of Shell Petroleum Development Company, said agencies should not start treating the symptoms without first identifying and tackling factors that gave rise to it. He said identifying the source first was the only way to ensure that the epidemic does not resurfaced after being treated.
He said PIND was set up by Chevron to provide support for socio-economic programme in the region. He was it was focused on achieving the set objective of ensuring sustainable growth by bringing in resources, building human capacity and collaboration and coordination of public, private and civil society organisations within and outside the region.
To do this, the PIND activities are separated into four different programmes, which although work separately, is aimed at the same objective of assisting the poor and helping them development after identifying the root of the problem.
One of the main focus is the Economic Development Programme strategy, which is geared towards facilitating opportunities for the poor. The so-called pro-poor approach targets poor and less privileged people in rural and urban areas, particularly women and youths, identify and support their strength and help them overcome areas of weakness.
Already, PIND has identified three agriculture value chains namely aquaculture, cassava and palm oil and has fashioned out ways to help farmers. Okoh said the foundation’s intervention in the areas include market analysis focussed on addressing constraint faced by operators using market analysis and research studies (14 in 2012).
Thereafter, PIND carries out pilot (demo) projects to show its target beneficiaries how it is done and upon successful completion of that phase, it scales up and increase production, but not after first identifying markets and demand.
“The strategy is backward integration scheme; we don’t go into production until we identify a market. We don’t increase production we also build capacity,” Mr Olufemi Ojo, a staff of USAID, one of PIND’s international partners said.
Ufuoma United Fish Farmers Association in Ekpan, Delta State is a case where PIND’s value chain project has succeeded in creating economic opportunity for large numbers of farmers and increasing incomes of households in the area. With over 500 members farming on about 2,000 ponds, the foundation has imparted best practices in fish farming and help boost members’ feed selection, pond preparation, how they stock with fingerlings and how to management the quality of water to ensure best yield etc.
As a result, the quality and quantity of fish produced from the area has increased since 2012. The chairman of the UUFFA, Mr Fischer Ogugu, and other members of the union told newsmen that their incomes have increased since the partnership with PIND. They were also given training to boost their capacity, proper record keeping etc.
Similarly, through the Cassava Value Chain Pilot Project, the foundation research revealed factors militating against farmers in the essential cash crop farming. Some of the factors include lack of adequate information, wastage of harvest; insufficient input supply, weak farm extension service, lack of access to credit to enable them expand and others. It is now assisting them to overcome these barriers.
One of the greatest beneficiaries of the cassava initiative is the Edo State Cooperative Farmers Agency, which President, Mr Nosa Amayo said members have benefited from training and linkage to market, particularly the Thai Farms, to which it has made three shipments of cassava so far.
Under the partnership facilitated by PIND and USAID, Amayo and other members have been trained and turned into trainers. “We now try to add value; we are not just farmers but we are now agro businessmen,” he said.
Amayo said the training have also helped in reversing ugly trend where youths sell land for temporary gain. He said they now cultivate their lands and make more than they could have made from the sale of the lands within a short period.
Speaking on USAID’s involvement in the project, Olufemi Ojo of the agency’s market 2 initiative, revealed that 3,000 hectares of land were being opened up in Ekpoma, Sobe and Uhumwonde area of the state.
At the time of our visit last Thursday, it was learnt that bulldozer were set to start opening up the land for the project, which is being executed in partnership with the federal and state governments.
Farmers will be provided with high quality cassava stems to be supplied from Thai Farms, while USAID and PIND will provide training for the beneficiaries of the project.
The farmers are only expected to supervise and ensure that the farm is prepared and planted properly, apply fertilisers and chemical etc. At the end of the harvest, output will be sold to the ready market provided by Thai Farms. The farmers will get the profit after the cost of production is deducted.
He particularly noted that the local method of slash and burn hamper production, stressing that it was difficult for the farmers to break even, even though they sold at higher price to local market.
Meanwhile, the foundation is enthusiastic about the prospect because of the huge market for cassava. Thai Farms, located in Ogun State, has a demand for 300tons daily and also has promised to bring in a partner from abroad. The partnership is extended to see demand hitting 150metric tons per annum.
In the area of funding, PIND is working with LAPO Agricultural and Rural Development Initiative, from which farmers have benefited from training and a unique funding strategy, which ensure that farmers get access to fund for expansion without receiving loans in cash.
In the area of palm oil, it is working with the Nigerian Institute for Palm Oil Research (NIFOR) in Evboneka, Edo State to train local fabricators on new equipment for processing palm oil.
Dr. C. E. Ikuenobe, NIFOR Director in charge of partnership with the foundation, revealed that it recently trained five fabricators from Imo state. He said the training was a form of technology transfer, which ensure that quality of oil from local producers is increased so that they stop losing money.
“The fabricator trained at our expense fabricated a set of mill that is installed around Oguta, Imo state. PIND is set to commission that mill very soon,” Dr. Ikuenobe added.
It may yet be too early to fathom the full benefits of these partnerships on farmers in the nine states, 185 local government areas of region, but officials of the foundation are full of confidence that it would open up vistas of opportunity and provide access to assistance and partnership that would be far more rewarding for people of the region.
In fact, it was gathered that the success of the 3,000-hectare project might have given birth to a far bigger partnership with USAID for the cultivation of 50 hectares of cassava farm in every local government area of Edo State.
