IFAD-VCDP DISTRIBUTES AGRIC EQUIPMENT TO 30 FARMER GROUPS IN ENUGU
REPORTER: CHRISTIAN NWANGENE
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) through its assisted Value Chain Development Programme, (VCDP) has distributed equipment worth millions of naira to more than thirty farmers groups in Enugu State.
The IFAD-VCDP National Programme Coordinator, Dr. Fatima Aliyu, who made the distribution in Enugu on Thursday, said the gesture was part of effort to reduce rural poverty, increase food security and accelerate economic growth on a sustainable basis.
The equipment distributed to the farmers include rice milling machines, de-stoners, bag sealers, weighing scale, cassava graters and carriage tricycles.
Addressing the beneficiaries selected from the five participating local government areas in Enugu State during the distribution of the equipment, the IFAD-VCDP National Programme Coordinator, Dr. Fatima Aliyu, noted that the equipment were provided to better the lives of the farmers and their families.
Dr. Aliyu stated that IFAD-VCDP was strongly committed to improving the lives of rural women and youths through its life sustaining projects.
She added that IFAD-VCDP would continue to ensure that a percentage of the matching grants was earmarked to stimulate the interest of female and male youths in entreprenurial activities to accommodate more beneficiaries
The State Programme Coordinator, (SPC) IFAD-VCDP, Dr. Edward Isiwu, explained that the distribution became necessary to enhance the beneficiaries crop production, processing and marketing entreprises.
Dr. Isiwu said that more than six hundred million naira was expended for the purchase of the equipment, with the farmers paying thirty per cent while IFAD-VCDP paid the remaining seventy per cent.
He said the equipment would encourage more youths and women participation in farming.
In a message, the Enugu State Governor, Chief Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, represented by his Chief Press Secretary, Dr. Chuks Ugwuoke, commended the Federal Government for including Enugu State in the list of nine beneficiting states in the country.
While appealing that more Local Government Areas in the state be included in the programme, the governor added that the state remained commited to meeting up its counterpart fund.
In their separate speeches, the Regional Director Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. Felix Kess, and the Head, Development Finance Office, Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN) Enugu, Mr. Linus Nwokolo, noted that the farming facilities had touched life of the people.
Some of the beneficiaries, who spoke with Radio Nigeria, expressed gratitude to IFAD-VCDP and the federal government for the equipment.
IFAD-VCDP since its inception in Enugu two years now, has empowered 2,560 farmers with agro inputs, various kinds of farming equipment, trainings on best agronomic practices among other things.
EDITED BY CHUKWUBUIKE MADU
