Th e FADAMA III Additional Financing (AF) project has been awarded the best on Africa VPU Team Award of the World Bank for achieving its objectives and promoting Nigeria’s agricultural development. A statement signed by World Bank Media Consultant on FADAMA, Tunde Oladujoyelo, recently said that the World Bank Vice-President for Africa, Makhtar Diop, announced the award.
It would be recalled that the programme got the award in 2007, and 2014. Africa Region Award of Excellence is an annual event instituted by the African Region of the World Bank to recognise excellence in project management and evidence of pro-poor impact of development projects. Oladujoyelo said that FADAMA III AF project was selected as an archetype of how client-driven agricultural and rural development projects could have signifi cant development impacts on a nation’s economy. He described the FADAMA III AF project as one of the major programmes of the World Bank, saying the project had a total funding portfolio of 200 million U.S. dollars.
“FADAMA III AF project is a followup to FADAMA III project and it is being implemented in six core and 22 cluster states. “Th e states were selected with a criteria based on their comparative advantages and high potential to increase production and productivity of cassava, rice and sorghum as well as horticulture value chains and link them to better organised markets. “It is facilitating linkages between the federation of producers and existing processors. “Th e project was approved by the World Bank’s Board of Directors in June 2013 and its implementation began on Oct. 21, 2013,’’ he said. He further said that the FADAMA III AF project was closely aligned with the new Agricultural Promotion Policy (APP) of the Federal Government.
Oladujoyelo said that a major objective of the project was to increase the incomes of users of rural lands and water resources within the FADAMA areas in a sustainable manner. “Taking a value-chain orientation, the FADAMA III AF project is attracting private investments in produce processing, milling and other commercial aspects of agriculture around nucleus farms, with associated smallholder linkages such as out-grower schemes,’’ he said.
