World Bank approves Fadama III 2015 work plan

The National Coordinator of the Fadama III project, Mr. Tayo Akinwunmi, has said that the World Bank and the Federal Government of Nigeria have approved the Fadama III 2015 work plan budget.

Akinwunmi said that the work plan and the procurement plan have been approved by both the World Bank and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The implementation, he said, has also commenced. The Federal Government, in 2013, approved a 200 million dollars (N39 billion) loan for the additional financing of the on-going Fadama III project. The World Bank supported project, which stands to increase income for users of rural lands and water resources within the Fadama areas.

It also stands to improve the value chain of agricultural commodities in line with government’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA). According to Akinwunmi, so far, 65 workers have been recruited to facilitate business plans for the project at the community level. The facilitators, he noted, were recruited from existing Fadama III enablers. He said that the workers would facilitate the business plan preparation at the community level for the Fadama III additional financing core states. According to him, a total of 165 business plans have been submitted by the six core states for the first review.

“The samples of the plans were reviewed and returned to the states for corrections to ensure adequacy and compliance with the set out objectives and standard procedure. “The review was to further appraise the submitted plans so as to determine the level of compliance with the fund disbursement requirement,” he said. Akinwunmi also said that training for farmers was conducted in the six core states (Anambra, Enugu, Kano, Kogi, Lagos and Niger) with two master trainers per state.

“This was to re-orientate and re-educate the Farmer Field School master trainers on the skills and principles of the farmer field schools Also, a farmers-need assessment commenced earlier, aimed at identifying the needs of farmers and how to proffer solutions,” he said. The coordinator said that the first phase of the assignment has been completed in Kogi, Kano and Niger states and the reports are being reviewed. He added that technical assistance mission to production cluster states was also carried out to ascertain the readiness of the states for their participation in the Fadama III additional financing.