The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), has announced a new five million US dollars grant to the Nigerian government to help farmers adopt climate-resilient agriculture following the massive floods that devastated farms.
The Associate Vice-President and General Counsel for IFAD, Ms Katherine Meighan, made the announcement on Monday during a bilateral meeting with the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Mohammad Mohmood Abubakar, in Abuja.
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The meeting, which was held at the Foreign Affairs Ministry was part of Ms Meighan’s two days working visit to Nigeria.
“I wanted to start by expressing my compassion and solidarity to you and the people of Nigeria with the recent very devastating floods which have caused tragic loss of lives, livelihoods, farmlands as well as livestock.
“And I want to at the same time commend you and the government for the investment that you put into agriculture because I agree with you on the critical need for food security and to continue to foster strong local agricultural production.
“I’m very happy to announce an additional grant funding of almost five million dollars for the Value Chain Development programme which will focus on climate resilience,” she said.
Ms Meigha said IFAD has worked in close partnership with the government of Nigeria to focus on the smallholder farmers in the rural areas who are large producers of food, adding that; “as the waters recede, we also help treat the land and be able to plant the seedlings, which have short maturity and can even start producing food within a couple of months.”
Responding, Dr Mohmood thanked the IFAD official on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari for the new grant and commitment to helping Nigerian farmers.
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