North-east farmers get additional $50m Fadama III project

The World Bank through the Fadama III Project-Additional Financing has provided 50 million US dollars to support the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to return to their farms in the North-east.

National Project Coordinator, Fadama III Project-Additional Financing, Tayo Adewumi, stated this recently at the General Wrapup Session on the 5th Joint World Bank and FGN Supervision Mission of Fadama III Project-Additional Financing in Abuja.

He said the new $50 million support for the IDPs has become necessary to help them return to their farms, adding that disbursement would begin next week.

“The support is to encourage IDPs in the six affected states of the North-east to go back to their base in order to continue to farm. More than 85% of the people in these areas are farmers. We are going to build their capacities, do rehabilitation in terms of training, provide improved seeds and seedlings, and guide them so that they will be able to stay in their farms and when they harvest, we will link them to the market,” Adewumi said.

According to the national coordinator, the funds would support the women in terms of agro-processing equipment and the necessary support for good agronomy practices, adding that “the project will provide consultants that will stay with them in their communities to build their capacities.”

Yobe State coordinator, Fadama III Project, Musa A. Garba, told reporters during the session that the 50 million dollars would go a long way in returning the IDPs back to their farms as the project would provide all the necessary farm support.

The World Bank Task Team Leader, Fadama III Additional Financing, Dr. Adetunji Oredipe, told reporters that the wrap-up session was to brainstorm on the findings of the Fadama III Project Additional Financing assessment visits to participating states in order to chart the way forward for achieving the project’s target.

He said the federal government and the World Bank have provided the needed support to drive the community-based project in order to scale up production along the selected crop value chains.

Engineer Aliyu Usman and Dr. Cletus Nnukwuna Nwakpu, the state coordinators of Niger and Ebonyi, respectively, told journalists that the project had recorded significant achievements in their states, adding that they hoped to achieve more with new targets in rice production.