….assures of consolidating on successes, address challenges

By Gabriel Ewepu

ABUJA – The Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, yesterday, hailed the impact of Value Chain Development Programme, VCDP, on the livelihood of smallholder farmers and food security.

The commendation was made by the Director, Project Coordination Unit, PCU, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Musa Bukar, during the ‘Wrap-up of the 10th Supervision Mission of the FGN/IFAD Value Chain Development Programme, VCDP, held in Abuja.

Bukar described VCDP as an exceptional alignment with national priorities of Agri-food Systems Transformation and the presidential declaration of emergency on food security.

He also commended the resilience, dedication and hard work of all who have actively been involved in the VCDP project based on the progress made so far.

He said: “Throughout the 10 the Supervision Mission, we have meticulously examined and assessed the various facets of the VCDP’s implementation, learning from both our successes and challenges.

“This process has been invaluable in shaping the future direction of the programme and ensuring that we continue to deliver impactful results.

“Over the course of this Mission, we have engaged with stakeholders at all levels, from farmers to farmer organisations to government agencies, development partners, and communities.

“This collaborative approach has been central to the success of the VCDP. It has also allowed us to build meaningful partnerships, share knowledge, and develop innovative solutions to the complex challenges facing the agricultural sector in Nigeria.

“One of the most inspiring aspects of the VCDP is the positive impact it has on the lives of countless farmers and their communities.

“We have witnessed increased yields, improved livelihoods, and enhanced food security as a result of the programme’s interventions. This is a testament to the transformative power of targeted investments in agriculture and value chain development.

“Moreover, the VCDP’s dedication to gender equality, youth empowerment, and environmental sustainability sets a commendable standard for inclusive and responsible agricultural development. These principles not only drive positive outcomes but also ensure that the benefits of our efforts are shared equitably among all segments of society.

Meanwhile, according to him (Bukar), key strengths that propelled the VCDP to its current level of excellence include; leveraging the power of the collaboration through Commodity Alliance Forum, which recently earned the commendation of Vice President Senator Kashim Shettima, at the United Nations Food Systems Summit Stocktaking Moment in Rome; Capacity building for farmer organisations, which cassava recorded a 100 per cent improvement, and rice production seeing an incredible 200 per cent increase; Youth and women empowerment, entrepreneurship and employment across the entire value chain.

He also added that, “Looking ahead, lessons learned during this mission will guide us as we continue to refine and strengthen the VCDP’s strategies and interventions.

“Together, we will build on our successes, address any challenges, and work tirelessly towards the ultimate goal of transforming Nigeria’s agricultural sector.”

Meanwhile, on the sidelines of the event the Country Director, IFAD, Nigeria, Dede Ekoue, explained why it became necessary to embark on the 10th Supervision Mission of the FGN/IFAD Value Chain Development Programme, VCDP, which was basically to have the perspective of State authorities, local community leaders and farmer organizations on the results on the ground.

Ekoue said: “This 10th Supervision Mission of Joint IFAD/FGN VCDP was really successful on the ground because it allows us to have the perspective of State authorities, local community leaders and farmer organizations on the results on the ground, and from this supervision we have highlighted some key strengths, the strengths include the Commodity Alliance Forum as a very effective platform to enhance access of farmers to markets while strengthening agro industry. So this is an element that should be scaled up at the national level in line with the recommendation of His Excellency, the Vice President of Nigeria who led the UN Food Systems Stocktaking Moment, especially, the high level events of Nigeria in Rome.

“Second recommendation that we saw based on the success is youth and women empowerment. We have seen that the youth are very happy to have the support of the VCDP and it is leading them to increase their income along the value chain.

“We have for example, seed entrepreneurs, the young people that have been trained. We also have the youth providing some services including mechanization services to farmers that’s really important.

“Women have also shown that they are really happy about the programme because it not only allows women to have access to inputs but it also works within the community to improve gender equality using a household approach that we call Gender Learning Action System. So this is the second element that I think is really important to highlight.”

However, she pointed out some improvements need to be done, “I want to highlight also the improvements now that need to be done.

“We need all the states that are members covered by VCDP to come forth with their counterpart funds because without counterpart funding it is difficult to achieve the result to the scale that was planned.

“We acknowledge that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture has disbursed its counterpart funds.

“Second area which is an opportunity that we have to leverage more is the digitalization, using ICT4D more to improve on Programme management, but also to strengthen services to farmers.

“So this was a recommendation of the ICT4D Forum that we organized together with the Federal Government of Nigeria, and we had beneficiaries who came to ask us for this digital solution. And during the fifth mission, the same call was made. So we need to fast-forward on the digitalization of VCDP Programme across the board

“Today, they are implementing some digital solutions but it is not fully integrated yet. So this is work in progress and we are encouraging an acceleration of that digitalization based on the feedback that we receive on the ground. These are the two takeaways in terms of improvement”, she added.

Meanwhile, she commended States that have paid their counterpart funds this year, which are Ebonyi, Enugu, Kogi, and Taraba.

Also the National Programme Coordinator, Value Chain Development Programme, VCDP, Dr Fatima Aliyu, made it known that, the wrap up of the 10th Supervision Mission of IFAD/FGN VCDP is to “assess the implementation of the additional financing one and two of the project because right now the VCDP is running on additional finance, one and two, they are running concurrently.”

According to Aliyu, VCDP is a programme that is well aligned to the agenda of the Federal Government of Nigeria on food security, food processing, value addition, marketing, climate change issues on how farmers can mitigate its impacts, and also aligned with the United Nations Food Systems Transformation Agenda.

She said: “So the Mission team has found among other things that the VCDP has done well in terms of outreach. We are supposed to reach 135 smallholder farmers and processors across the nine participating States by the year 2024, and presently we are at 94 per cent.

“So, we are on track to achieving that target. We have the real smallholder farmers, those that are in need of the intervention, and we have profiled them and over 135 550 smallholder farmers in our database.”

She also added that food and nutrition security of smallholder farmers in the project areas, and the VCDP currently is working on rice and cassava value chains, which had impacted very well on the food security as well as income of the rural farmers.

She added that farmers under the VCDP have been linked to off-takers, also in the area of value addition the programme had done well in regards to small processing centres established in the nine participating States.

“We have women groups that we give processing centers to them. They started with N10, 000, and today they have mobilized enough money to buy equipment worth over N20 million just from N10,000 they were given four years. Even without VCDP, they are established, gainfully employed and also employed people.

“We also trained so many youths, both male and female, in different agric enterprises, and especially seed production, and these ones are doing so well and have become mentors in their communities”, she said.