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The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), in partnership with the Federal Government and the Enugu State Government, has distributed agro-equipment through the Value Chain Development Programme, VCDP, to farmers from 5 local government areas of Enugu state to improve food and nutrition security, job creation, and poverty eradication.
During the flag-off yesterday at Okpara Square, Enugu, the state governor, PETER MBAH, represented by the Secretary to the State Government, professor CHIDIEBERE ONYIA, said the intervention in the state aims to ensure that farmers do not sell agricultural produce raw, but process them into finished goods to generate more economic value to the beneficiaries and the state.
While appreciating the Federal Government, the IFAD community, Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Enugu State Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-Allied Industrialization, and all stakeholders who contributed to the VCDP programme, ONYIA urged them to continue exploring intervention opportunities in the state and charged the beneficiaries to utilize the equipment, protect and maintain it to serve the projected purpose.
In his speech, representative of the National Programme Coordinator, MUSA DALUNG, stated that the programme aims to train and equip farmers to engage in farming as a business and urged the beneficiaries to make use of the equipment to improve their services to humanity.
Earlier in his address, the State Programme Coordinator for the IFAD-VCDP in Enugu State, CHUKWUKA ISIWU, congratulated the beneficiaries from the 5 local government areas, comprising Aninri, Isi-Uzo, Enugu East, Nkanu East, and Udenu, and highlighted numerous achievements of the programme since its inception in September 2020, calling for investment in rural communities, while also urging the beneficiaries to utilize and maintain the equipment for utmost productivity.
Urban Radio’s correspondent BLESSING UNACHUKWU reports that equipment distributed included tricycles, rice destoners, solar dryers, energy cooking stoves, seed planters, water pumps, and 25 other different of equipment.
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