The Fadama Development Project has been supporting Nigeria’s farmers by helping to empower communities and strengthen agriculture development in states throughout the country. With the additional funding of $200 million approved by the World Bank for the National Fadama Development Project 3, Nigeria’s farmers will be empowered to turn their agriculture skills into income-generating businesses.
The project – which started this year – will focus on support to value chains of cassava, rice, sorghum and horticulture in six states: Kogi, Niger, Kano, Lagos, Anambra and Enugu. The six states will serve as hubs of Staple Crops Processing Zones (SCPZs), while surrounding states will serve as catchment areas to feed the processing zones.
Task team leader for the project, Adetunji Oredipe said, “the additional financing will be used to increase the income for users of rural lands and water resources within the Fadama areas in a sustainable manner throughout the territory. This time around, the project is not just focusing on production, but also concentrating on aggregating and processing for marketing. This is upping the scale from subsistence agriculture to making agriculture a business.”
He also said “this why it is being aligned to the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) of the government, as well as other WBG-supported projects such as Transforming Irrigation Management in Nigeria in Project (TRIMING) and SCPZs.”
