By Emem Idio, Yenagoa

As part of measures to ensure that the International Fund for Agriculture, IFAD, funded Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprise in Niger Delta (LIFE -ND) beneficiaries and producers in Bayelsa State have access to sustainable markets for their commodities, the beneficiaries have signed a Memorandum of Understanding ( MoU) with some off-takers.

The MoU was signed in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, on Tuesday at a workshop on key stakeholders engagement and policy dialogue on identification of marketing barriers, market linkage and networking, put together by the Bayelsa State LIFE-ND Project.

In his welcome remarks, the State Project Coordinator of LIFE-ND, Bayelsa State, Mr Kester Amos, explained that the essence of the stakeholders meeting is to create a platform to link the farmers and producers who are beneficiaries of the LIFE-ND with off-takers to interface and network to improve their agro businesses.

He pointed out that the lack of processing and storage facilities has made it imperative for the farmers and producers to find a readily available source to offset their produce.

“The whole essence of going into agriculture and agribusiness is to make economic gains, and in order for you to make economic gains, you need to identify prospective off-takers of your produce because when you produce, and there are no off-takers, then the whole effort is in vain.

“So the objectives of this stakeholders meeting is to bring the off takers and producers to identify their produce and also to know the capacity which the producer is able to produce, and also the off takers to know what capacity they can offtake and at what time and then sign an MoU with the producers which are our beneficiaries in the LIFE- ND project and that is the essence of this exercise.

“Once we are able to get this relationship tight, then we can go into production. When the producer is aware that there is a buyer for his product, then he has the enthusiasm to continue producing. We lack processing and storage facilities across board, not just in Bayelsa State, so you want to produce and know that what you are producing can be off-taken from the point of harvest when you don’t have the processing and storage facilities,” Mr Amos stated.

Also speaking, the LIFE-ND National Marketing Enterprise Development Specialist, Mr Yinka Amosun, said the need to link farmers and producers to profitable and sustainable markets informed the stakeholders’ engagement meeting.

He said, “For the States to effectively implement the marketing policy of the LIFE-ND project, we look at the programme activities that we can do to make sure that we achieve results because the project has targets, and for us to achieve those targets, we need to draw up activities that will enable us to achieve these targets.

“The key targets for my sub-components, which are market enterprise development, are the linkage of farmers to markets, not just markets, but profitable and sustainable markets.

“The project has a timeline and will end one day, so when the project ends, our beneficiaries should be able to continue in the business, and they can only continue in the business if they are engaged in profitable and sustainable businesses. That is why we put up this programme together so that we can directly link our beneficiaries, who are farmers, producers and processors, to markets.

“That is why we have invited all the key holders in the agricultural business in Bayelsa State to this hall to meet our beneficiaries, who are basically farmers and processors, so that they have arrangements and agreements together.

“To break the barriers of middlemen coming to shortchange the farmers, that is why we are bringing the big processors to come and meet our farmers here so that they can have a direct linkage. At the end of the day, they will sign a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, because we have identified off-takers and processors for cassava, fisheries and broilers.”

A poultry farmer and beneficiary of the LIFE-ND project, Mrs Victory Ishie, commended LIFE-ND for organising the interface with off-takers, stressing that as an agricprenuer, she has been grappling with losses because of a lack of storage facilities.

“Being an agricprenuer I have certain challenges in my business, especially in sales. I’m into poultry, and I do layers for eggs and broilers for meat. My major challenge is storage, and from this meeting, I have met some people who are willing to make that provision for me to get solar so that I can preserve my processed broilers in my freezers for a period of time. I want to thank LIFE-ND because this is a huge burden that has been taken off my shoulders, I have also learned other marketing strategies that will help me greatly in my business, “she added.