|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
BY SUNNY A. DAVID, AWKA
An assessment team of stakeholders from ministries, departments, agencies and civil society organizations, (CSOs), has embarked on an oversight function of the activities and success stories of the FGN/IFAD Value Chain Development Programme in Anambra State for transparency and accountability.
Members of the team led by the Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr. Forster Ihejiofor, were drawn from the Ministries of Agriculture, Economic Planning and Budget, Office of the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Chukwuma Soludo on Strategy, Evaluation and Execution, State Project Coordinating Unit, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, State Coordinating Office of Value Chain Development Programme and Civil Society Organizations.
The team toured market infrastructures, solar-powered boreholes, processing and aggregation centers, culverts, bridges, developed lands, among other projects executed in Ogbaru and Awka North Council Areas by FGN IFAD VCDP for farmers and host Communities in general.
Interacting with people living with disabilities at Atani, Ogbaru Local Government Area, who were empowered with Point of Sale, POS, machine each to earn a living, their Chairperson, Mrs Amaka Onyima, while applauding FGN IFAD VCDP for coming to their aid, appealed for more empowerment for them in order to be self-independent.
At Covenant Processing Center, Ochuche, housing VIP toilets, solar-powered borehole and dryer, the Chairperson, Mrs. Ifeoma Nzelu, and the Atani apex Rice Chairman, Mr. Francis Uyanneh, while listing their numerous gains from FGN IFAD VCDP, appealed for its continuity in order to achieve food security.
The team had on arrival at Atani paid a courtesy call on the Traditional ruler of the Community, Igwe Augustine Azuka Ngoddy, who appreciated Governor Soludo’s transformational agenda, and lauded FGN IFAD VCDP for raising Anambra State farmers from grass to grace through the provision of inputs, tricycles, agro-processing equipment and building their capacities within and outside Nigeria.
At Awka North Council Area, the story was not different as the mouths of the beneficiaries of the FGN IFAD VCDP were filled with testimonies, praises and commendations, describing the programme as the best thing that has ever happened to them, even as they appealed for more land development, provision of irrigation system and more trainings.
Speaking, Commissioner Ihejiofor, who spoke through the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Barrister Samuel Ikeh, expressed shock at the performance and massive achievements of the FGN IFAD VCDP in Anambra State, and while frowning that it is under publicized, affirmed that Governor Soludo and majority of Ndi Anambra are unaware of all the landmark achievements of the programme.
He however called for the encouragement of FGN IFAD VCDP for subsidizing agriculture by government at all levels for it to continue and increase on its good deeds.
Acting State Programme Coordinator, FGN/IFAD VCDP, Dr Mrs Deborah Onyefulu, who appealed for Governor Soludo’s intervention to enable them to move into more council areas to meet the yearnings of other farmers in achieving food security, assured farmers of more intervention.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.