The FADAMA III Additional Financing (AF) project has won the Africa VPU Team Award of the World Bank for achieving its objectives and promoting Nigeria’s agricultural development.
A statement signed by Mr Tunde Oladujoyelo, World Bank Media Consultant on FADAMA, in Abuja on Friday said that the World Bank Vice-President for Africa, Makhtar Diop, announced the award.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the FADAMA II programme got the award in 2007, while the FADAMA III programme received the same award in 2014.
NAN reports that the Africa Region Award of Excellence is an annual event instituted by the African Region of the World Bank to recognise excellence in project management and evidence of pro-poor impact of development projects.
Oladujoyelo said that FADAMA III AF project was selected as an archetype of how client-driven agricultural and rural development projects could have significant development impacts on a nation’s economy.
He described the FADAMA III AF project as one of the major programmes of the World Bank, saying that teh project had a total funding portfolio of 200 million U.S. dollars.
“FADAMA III AF project is a follow-up to FADAMA III project and it is being implemented in six core and 22 cluster states.
“The states were selected with a criteria based on their comparative advantages and high potential to increase production and productivity of cassava, rice and sorghum as well as horticulture value chains and link them to better organised markets,’’ he said.
The consultant said that the FADAMA III AF project was closely aligned with the new Agricultural Promotion Policy (APP) of the Federal Government.
“It is facilitating linkages between the federation of producers and existing processors.
“The project was approved by the World Bank’s Board of Directors in June 2013 and its implementation began on Oct. 21, 2013,’’ he said.
Oladujoyelo said that a major objective of the project was to increase the incomes of users of rural lands and water resources within the FADAMA areas in a sustainable manner.
“Taking a value-chain orientation, the FADAMA III AF project is attracting private investments in produce processing, milling and other commercial aspects of agriculture around nucleus farms, with associated smallholder linkages such as out-grower schemes.
“The programme has proved to be a reliable tool for responding to fragile and crisis situations. It recently extended its reach to the victims of insecurity in conflict-affected areas of Northern Nigeria with a 50-million-dollar additional financing in June 2016.
“The project has generated good results on the ground, as it supported farmers to increase rice yield from 2.84mt/ha (metric tons per hectare) to 6.40mt/ha.
“Besides, sorghum yield increased from 1.14mt/ha to 3.65mt/ha, tomato yield from 12.56mt/ha to 28.60mt/ha and cassava yield from 11.92mt/ha to 15.76mt/ha,’’ he said.
Oladujoyelo said that the project was cruising sustainably toward achieving all its development objectives. (NAN)