Oxfam gives lifeline to smallholder farmers in Bauchi

Oxfam Nigeria says it has given a lifeline to 16,598 smallholder farmers in six Local Government Areas of Bauchi State.

The Country Director, Oxfam Nigeria, Dr. Vincent Ahonsi, said this at the two-day Livelihoods and Nutritional (LINE) Project’s official Closeout and Evidence Dissemination yesterday held in Abuja.

He said the challenges farmers were facing in the affected six local governments include inadequate farm inputs, poor agricultural yields, food insecurity, lack of awareness of healthy food diversity for nutritional balance, and malnutrition.

He listed the councils as Tafawa Balewa, Alkaleri, Ningi, Darazo, Shira and Gamawa of Bauchi State, where he said Oxfam-implemented LINE Project, funded by the Government of Canada with farming inputs including seedlings, fertilizers and herbicides.

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“We are officially closing out the Government of Canada funded, Oxfam-implemented LINE Project, and disseminate  the best practices employed in the implementation of the project, the lessons learnt from the project implementation, as well as the laudable positive impacts that the project has made in the lives of Nigerians,” Ahonsi said.

He said the project is a demonstration of a robust cooperation between the Government of Canada, the Federal Government of Nigeria, through the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, the Bauchi State Government and Oxfam.

He said, “The project agreement was signed between the Government of Canada and Oxfam on the 21stof March 2016, and the implementation was carried out in Bauchi State.”

Representative of the Canadian Government and Head, Development Cooperation, High Commission of Canada to Nigeria, Djifa Ahado, said, “It is remarkable to think that the LINE project’s journey started some seven years ago has now ended with very tangible results as it will be shared with us in the course of this two-days event.

“In retrospective, this project was approved before Canada had launched its feminist international assistance policy, and yet, all project interventions were designed with women in mind, and were testing ways to reach gender equality in communities, within local government and at the state levels.”

Also, the PSC Chairman and Permanent Secretary, Bauchi State Ministry of Budget and Planning, Saleh Idris Giade, said that the LINE Project recorded huge successes in the selected six local government areas and that there are plans to extend the lessons learnt to other local governments in the state.