As part of its effort to ensure sufficient food production, Edo State Government has disbursed the sum of N102 million and farm implements to 27 communities in the state for the 2012 planting season.
Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole disbursed the fund in Benin City through his representative and Deputy Governor, Dr. Pius Odubu.
He said the programme has facilitated the formation of 39 crop enterprise groups in the 27 benefitting communities.
The fund which was disbursed under the IFAD/FGN/NDDC Community Based Natural Resource Management Programme (CBNRMP) is geared toward entrenching sustainable infrastructural development in rural areas and strengthening food security in the state.
Oshiomhole disclosed that during the first quarter of 2012, the enterprise groups would be supported in the cultivation of 109 hectares of cassava, 25 hectares of rice, 35 hectares of cocoa/plantain intercrop, 16 hectares of plantain, 30 hectares of pineapple, 48 hectares of ware yam, 6 hectares of oil palm, 5 hectares of pawpaw, 1 hectare of seed yam and a unit of cassava processing mill at a cost of N78.2 million.
He further noted that the IFAD and NDDC assisted community based natural resources management programme is a people-centered intervention with emphasis on the needs of women, youth, core poor households and other vulnerable groups in the nine states in the Niger-Delta region, including Edo, adding that the programes’s agricultural intervention strategy is to increase models and IFAD pioneered community driven development approach as a framework.
According to the governor, to effectively apply the programme’s strategy and achieve palpable intervention in the 27 benefitting communities, the state government released the sum of N40 million to the programme as well as approved the payment of counterpart funds by the nine participating local government councils in the state.
To this end, the state government has paid the sum of N169 million for its 2009, 2010 and 2011 counterpart fund obligation to FADAMA 111 project.
Edo state government has so far disbursed the sum of N116 million to 280 FADAMA user groups, 51 FADAMA community association and 61 vulnerable groups including widows, youths and physically challenged.
This makes Edo the only state in the Southsouth zone that has met its FADAMA obligation for three consecutive years.
He posited that the FADAMA 111 project would help reduce poverty, increase food security and contribute to the achievement of a key Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
It was further disclosed that the sum of N44 million has been earmarked for disbursement to 28 FADAMA communities in the next exercise, and that the state government has also paid its counterpart fund of N20 million under the Root and Tuber Expansion Programme (RTEP).
Earlier, the National Programme Coordinator of IFAD/FGN/NDDC Community Based Natural Resources Management Programme, Irene Jumbo-Ibeakuzie, in her goodwill message disclosed that the programme is co-funded by IFAD, NDDC, nine Niger- Delta states, 80 participating local government areas and 243 communities.
According to her, the major goal of the programme is to improve the living standard and quality of life of at least 400,000 rural households.
She therefore appealed to state governors that are yet to pay their counterpart fund as well as the deduction of their various local government’s contribution at source tlo do so.
—Jethro Ibileke/Benin City
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