By Benjamin Omoike, Lagos
According to reports, the Nigerian economy has received a boost of over N3 billion, arising from the partnership between Olam Nigeria, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the Federal Government of Nigeria, on the Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP).
The programme was launched in 2014, with the aim of generating wealth for smallholder farmers, thereby improving their livelihoods, while also enhancing food security in the country. The VCDP provides inputs and training to smallholder rice farmers with guaranteed buy back of between 80 to 90 per cent of the rice paddy produced by the farmers at competitive market prices, while the rest of the rice paddy is reserved by the smallholder farmers for personal consumption.
Speaking on the impact of the project, especially with regards to the reduction of poverty in the rural areas, Nadine Gbossa, the Country Representative, IFAD, said the registered smallholder farmers under the VCDP programme have experienced a 79 per cent increase in their income. She added that the increased income of the farmers has resulted in improving the educational capabilities of their children.
She said: “Before the IFAD OLAM VCDP partnership, many of the smallholder farmers were involved in subsistence farming. However, they are now able to market their produce because a firm likeOlam purchases over 90 percent of the rice paddy. They are now generating a significant income and profit. Data shows that the smallholder farmers have increased their income by 79 percent.
“The number of children attending secondary schools for VCDP households has increased by 17 per cent, so it means that more of the farmers are able to send their children to secondary schools, when the norm was just sending them to primary schools. We have seen that the quality of the household in terms of the quality of life is much higher than the national average. So, the impact of VCDP in terms of incomes and in terms of the quality of life through this partnership is quite measurable and with visible evidence.”
The IFAD Nigeria Country Representative further stated that the project has a budget of $329m, adding that IFAD is financing about $250m, while the Federal Government of Nigeria and enterprises like Olam finance the difference.
Shedding more light on the VCDP project, Reji George, Vice President- Farming Initiatives, Olam Nigeria, said the target of the programme are the rural farmers, who reside in the remote areas. According to him, a distinguishing factor of the Olam IFAD VCDP initiative is the decentralised model, in terms of the mobilisation, registration and engagement with the smallholder farmers.
“The decentralised model makes it easier to train farmers in the area of contemporary agronomy practices, provides them with farming inputs while also offering other forms of support. To further ensure transparency, there is a pricing board made up of representatives of the smallholder farmers as well as IFAD and Olam officials which conduct regular market surveys, thereby ensuring that the rice paddy produced by the farmers are purchased at competitive market prices.”
Speaking on the purchase of the rice paddy from the smallholder farmers, George said: “About 50 per cent of the total capacity of Olam’s rice mill in Rukubi, Nasarawa State, is gotten through the direct buy back from these programmes from different states. We expect a higher scope this year because while we had 9,757 farmers in 2019, we have doubled the number of registered farmers this year, which is about 18,646 registered farmers. What is significant to us is that this programme has helped us to meet up with the requirement rice paddy for the rice mills in Rukubi in Nasarawa State and Amarava Mill in Kano State.”
He further added that the smallholder farmers have increased their yields from two metric tons per hectare when the project kicked in 2015, to an average of four metric tons per hectare.
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