The Benue state government is to benefit from an agricultural programme on Innovative Strengthening of Smallholder Farmers and Productive Land Restoration.
The programme is to be implemented by the African Union Development Agency’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AUDA-NEPAD) in collaboration with the state government and other private investors.
According to a statement issued Friday by the governor’s chief press secretary, Nathaniel Ikyur, indicated that the national coordinator and chief executive officer of AUDA-NEPAD Nigeria, Princess Gloria Akobundu, disclosed this Thursday, when she led a delegation to pay a courtesy call on Governor Samuel Ortom at the Benue Peoples House, Makurdi.
She emphasised that the food sufficiency project and the Zero Hunger Policy of the African Union was to engage the smallholder farmer in the state, noting that “it is the smallholder farmer that really produces the food we eat which also grows the economy through their contribution to GDP.”
Speaking earlier, Governor Ortom thanked the AUDA-NEPAD team for choosing Benue as a pilot state for the project, stating that the programme has come at the right time.
“This programme is key and I cherish and appreciate it. I want to assure you that my Government will support you full-time. We are ready to do partnership, all that we need with our technical team in place let us know what we need to do, to be on top of it,” he said.
