FADAMA Projects: Nigeria to earn Forex, selling Cassava leaves abroad

The National project Coordinator of FADAMA Mr. Tayo Adewumi has said that Nigeria has partnered with a Ghanian Company that has indicated interest in buying Cassava leaves in commercial quantities from the country which he noted as a spur of the moment for the agency.

Adewumi said this will earn foreign exchange for the country in this era of diversification to Agriculture and other sectors of the economy which Nigeria can achieve sufficiently in food production with the effort of the present administration towards agriculture.

Speaking with journalists in an interactive section in his office on Friday, the Project Director also said $50m has been earmarked for the North East rehabilitation project and about 640 communities ravaged by Boko Haram will benefit from the sterling initiative.

He said, “Special interest of the initiative will be “women headed family”, women who fall in this category are widows who engages in farming activities will enjoy this “cash for work”, meant to provide these women with stipend while they engage in farming activities; some of them will get grinding machines and support for livestock rearing”.

FADAMA III, a World Bank supported agriculture project, designed this special rehabilitation package for the victims of insurgency in the North East which will commence in January 2017.

FADAMA is a contextualized agricultural initiative sponsored by the World Bank to encourage food security as well as inculcate the ideals of mechanized farming in rural communities in Nigeria.

“The economic impact of this agriculture rehabilitative project is expected to become visible within 12 to 15 months from commencement, though the entire project is supposed to be between 2015 and 2019”, he said.

On the measure to ensure transparency in the process of identifying areas of need and beneficiaries, Adewumi noted that the project policy allows what he described as Community Action Plan (CAP) where the community is given the latitude to say what they want and also identify genuine beneficiaries.

“This is evident in the support already galvanized for the FADAMA projects, which has enabled it to expand its scope of operation with visible results that can be attested to by the 685 communities throughout the country where its tentacles had spread”.

He pointed to the FADAMA community radio that has come on stream in Kutitgi, Niger state as a medium that farmers are already taking advantage of to gain more information on farming as well as a platform to market their farm produce.