By Peter Duru, Makurdi

The Federal Government of Nigeria,  International Fund for Agricultural Development, Value Chain Development Programme, FG/IFAD-VCDP has urged that the Gender Action Learning System, GALS, Commodity Alliance Forum, CAF, and Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture, NSA, be institutionalised and integrated into the Benue State Agricultural Development Policy.

The National Programme Coordinator, NPC of FGN/IFAD-VCDP, Dr. Fatima Aliyu who made the call during a Policy Dialogue Meeting on VCDP Interventions in Benue state, held weekend in Makurdi said policy backup was needed to ensure the sustainability of the successes recorded by the programme in the state.

Represented by the Knowledge Management and Communications Advisor, Vera Onyeaka-Oyilo, the NPC who noted the impact the GALS, CAF and NSA had made in the success of VCDP in the state said presently GALS remains confined to donor supported projects thereby limited, “unsustainable and unable to achieve state wide transformation.”

She urged that GALS be Integrated into “State Agricultural and Gender Policies” and upscaled through Multi Sectoral Approach beyond agriculture to health, education, and community development, embedding it into cooperative development, rural finance, and youth empowerment programmes.”

She said by so doing it would ensure broader social impact, inclusive growth, and strengthened household welfare.”

Dr. Aliyu also observed that through CAF, “Benue VCDP has contributed 99,452 metric tons of rice worth N13.527billion through private partnership arrangement and 87,237 metric tons of cassava worth N3.925billion to Benue as well as Nigeria’s food security and economy.”

She noted however that CAF lacked formal legal and policy framework within the state’s agricultural system assuring that when “institutionalized through a state policy it will ensure long-term sustainability, enhance market linkages, strengthen public-privateproducers-partnerships, and expand its benefits beyond donor-funded programmes like IFAD-VCDP.”

The NPC also urged the mainstreaming of nutrition into the State’s Agricultural Policies stressing that the integration of Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture into the Benue State Agricultural Development Policy would “improves cross sector collaboration and institutional ownership.”

Earlier, the IFAD-VCDP State Programme Coordinator, SPC, Dr. Emmanuel Igbaukum said the essence of the meeting was to enable stakeholders in the cassava and rice value chain look at the various areas the programme had excelled, as it heads towards 2026 when it would be rounding up.

According to him, “the meeting would see how these areas that recorded huge susccesses particularly CAF, GALS and Nutrition are institutionlised and backed by policies to ensure sustainability.

The Commissioner for Agricultural and Food Security, Dr. Benjamin Anchaver, represented by his Permanent Secretary, Elijah Ogaagbenu who lauded the success story of IFAD-VCDP in Benue state assured that the state government would continue to leverage on its success to improve the livelihoods of women, boost agricultural production and the nutrition of the people.

At the end of the meeting, stakeholders from the relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, farmers and private sector participants gave commitments to follow up on the three strategic areas that recorded huge successes during implementation to ensure they are institutionalized and backed up by policy.