FOOD SECURITY: FG INAUGURATES NAGS-AP COMMITTEE IN ANAMBRA

REPORTER: CHIKA ESONWUNE

The Anambra State Government has promised to support farmers in the state with critical farm inputs with a view to increasing their productivity, household income and livelihood.

The Commissioner for Agriculture in the state, Dr. Forster Ihejiofor, made this known in Awka during the inauguration of the National Agricultural Growth Scheme–Agro Pocket Input collection (NAGS-AP) Committee members.

The programme being implemented through the Agricultural Transformation Agenda Support Programme (ATAPS-1) project of the federal government is a direct replacement of the former Growth Enhancement Support (GES) which was re introduced to address the yearnings of different value chain stakeholders.

“We will ensure that every local government is involved, every ward is involved, every kindred is involved because in Anambra State, whatever we do, we drill it down to kindreds and households,” Dr. Ihejiofor said.

Inaugurating the Committee on behalf of the Minister of Agriculture, the Agricultural Transformation Agenda Support Programme (ATAPS-1) Nationnal Program Cordinator, Dr. Ibrahim Arabi urged the Committee members to dedicate themselves to the task.

He also encouraged them to make sacrifices towards addressing food security for the development of the state and the nation at large.

While describing the programme as a vehicle for the implementation of the agricultural agenda of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Dr. Arabi noted that it had received support of the African Development Bank (AFDB) to the tune of $140Million.

Contributing, the State Director, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Mr. Arthur Mbuba, enumerated the mandate of the committee.

They include monitoring and supervision of inputs deployment, redemption and utilisation, nomination and deployment of data entry personnel, cluster data clerks and supervision of their activities.

“Other are to ensure that farmers choice of agricultural inputs are taken into consideration, endorsement of all the submissions before transmission to Federal Ministry of Agriculture Headquarters, ensure that Redemption Centres are located within 10km radius from the farm clusters,” Dr. Arabi enumerated.

The Programme Manager, Agricultural Development Programme (ADP), Mr. Jude Nwankwo, lauded the facilitators of the event and pledged to contribute his quota towards the success of the programme.

EDITED BY CHUKWUBUIKE MADU