At least 6,000 crop and livestock farmers in Kwara State have benefited from the first round of government and World Bank-enabled support along agricultural value chains.
The state’s governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, said the scheme was part of the measures to strengthen food security and protect vulnerable households from post-COVID-19 challenges.
Flagging off the Kwara FADAMA NG-CARES Result Area 2 inputs and assets to some of the beneficiaries in Ilorin East local government area on Tuesday, AbdulRazaq said his administration has keyed into many initiatives which empowered as many vulnerable families as possible to get over the hardship imposed by the COVID-19.
“One of such is the FADAMA NG-CARES (Results Area 2) which has been planned to boost food security and deliver prosperity along agricultural value chains to thousands of poor households across Kwara State.
“This programme involves provision of agricultural inputs and services and agricultural assets for production and primary processing. At least 6,000 people will benefit from this. While 3,000 livestock and fishery farmers will benefit from input and assets, additional 3,000 crop farmers will also receive inputs and assets of different kinds. All of these are designed to support our farmers and lessen the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on them. This will also have reverberating effects on the local economy.
“Beneficiaries of this gesture cut across youth and women in the 16 LGAs of the State. This intervention will continue for the next 18 months to ensure that as many farmers as possible benefit from it in different ways,” AbdulRazaq stated
The governor said the administration was transforming the agricultural sector, highlighting some of its achievements to include the recent launch of a 10-year Agricultural Transformation Plan, purchase of 15 new tractors and two bulldozers, and previous distributions of inputs and implements to thousands of farmers across the state.
Also speaking, the commissioner for Finance, Florence Oyeyemi, said the government had enlisted Kwara in the NG-Cares programme to enable poor farmers recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, charging the beneficiaries to put what they are given to good use to promote food security and the local economy.
