From Abel Leonard, Lafia
Nasarawa State farmers have lauded the federal Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP) for improving agricultural businesses in the state as 7,749 farmers who specialise in rice and cassava farming were empowered with modern equipment to ease production processes.
This was disclosed on Monday by the National Coordinator, VCDP, Dr Fatima Aliyu, at the VCDP during a media pally at the Nasarawa VCDP office.
She said the Federal Government of Nigeria and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) VCDP are on track to reduce the N6 billion spent annually on rice importation.
Aliyu, who was represented by the Knowledge Communication and Advisor, Vera Onyeka-Onyilo, said the VCDP is a programme of the Federal Government of Nigeria and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD.
According to her, the essence of VCDP by the Federal Government is to drastically reduce the importation of rice and other commodities.
“The VCDP mandate and rationale is that the Federal Government of Nigeria sought to reduce import (import substitution) and cut down over N6 billion spent on rice importation annually.
“The VCDP was designed in 2010 and 2011 to enhance the productivity and profitability of smallholder farmers and small and medium agro processors by; improving their access to markets and capacity to increase yield as well as add value to locally produced raw materials through improved processing and packaging.
The five benefitting local councils include Lafia, Doma, Wamba, Karu and Nasarawa.
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While expressing gratitude to the Nasarawa State Government for partnering with the FGN/IFAD VCDP, Aliyu narrated that the programme, which is expected to end in June 2025, has transformed the livelihood of many farmers through the organisation’s numerous programmes which had encouraged bumper harvest in the state.
Journalists were taken to the field to see the impact of VCDP in Nasarawa State, where they interacted with beneficiaries
The farmers who are located in five local councils in the state said that the federal government Value Chain Development Programme, VCDP, has helped to improve their farming business through training and provision of farm tools, and improved seed supports.
Doma local council shareholders farmers who are beneficiaries of the program commended the Federal Government and International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD, for using the VCDP to improve their livelihood.
Some of the farmers who spoke to our correspondent in their own dialect said their livelihood has greatly improved since they keyed into the program.
They testified that they have witnessed tremendous improvement in rice and cassava cultivation based on the knowledge acquired through basic training received from VCDP.
They promised that the knowledge acquired will be passed on to other farmers, and added that now smallholder farmers in Doma and other local government areas under the programme are recording high yields.
The Treasurer, Ozanawa Multipurpose Cooperative, Mercy Oganji, said: “We got to know about VCDP as a cooperative organisation, which we linked up with VCDP.
“We are 41 members in the cooperative, and we cultivate rice.
“Some of our members even harvested over 200 bags of rice. We sell a bag of rice for N20,000.
“Before we came in contact with VCDP, our productivity was low and we were not able to harvest this much. Now we have doubled what we used to get.
“VCDP has really helped women who are members of our cooperative, and this has really impacted positively on our business as an organization.
“the profit had improved our livelihood, hence training our children in school and good feeding.”
However, Oganji appealed to VCDP to continue to assist them in order to expand on cassava and rice production.
The farmers expressed confidence that if VCDP closes they will continue with the knowledge acquired to boost their productivity and also train other smallholder farmers.