International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has said it spent $1.5 billion supporting agriculture since its existence in Nigeria 45 years ago.
Associate Vice President, Dr. Donal Brown, in Abuja, informed that the organisation commits about $110 million every three years in the country, while its portfolio stands at about $400 million.
Brown said IFAD and Nigeria are designing a project to support food production value chain in northern Nigeria and climate adaptation.
Noting his visit to Nigeria was to engage with the government to review IFAD’s support on food security and agriculture, he noted he was also to plan future direction and know the role to play.
He said: “We have been here since 1978, and we spent about $1.5 billion. Our portfolio is about $400 million, we invest about $110 million every three years, and we look forward to future investment.
“IFAD is not a humanitarian agency, but we work with rural communities, smallholder farmers to improve food security and agriculture, and our projects have been doing a lot of that.
“We have a good project in Niger Delta, we focused on youth entrepreneurship, and in the Central belt, we have a big flagship value chain project. We are also supporting African Development Bank on Special Agriculture Processing Zone (SAPZ) project.
“There are good impacts in the projects, there are few challenges which we discussed but I am confident that the government will be responding to that and we can deepen the impact.
“I was to come and engage with the government to review IFAD’s support on food security and agriculture and to think about the future direction and support.
“I think the government will be a strong partner, I think we have an opportunity to support the government on food security and aso try to look at long-term solutions’’.
Country Director, Dede Ekoue, said the projects of government and IFAD have strong performance around many parameters, including productivity, production, and others.
However, she said the programmes have adopted strategies to strengthen the resilience of farmers to climate change alongside working to enhance food and nutrition security.
Furthermore, she added that the Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprise Project for the Niger Delta (LIFE-ND and the Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP) have strong performances on ground.
Source:The nation
