The Smallholder Farmers Agriculture Market Support Initiative (SHF) designed by the World Food Programme (WFP) with funding support from MasterCard Foundation and implemented by Christian Aid Nigeria is set to address the root causes of post-harvest losses and low productivity for smallholder farmers.
Other benefits is for the smallholder farmers to have access to markets and enhance their income and create new jobs across the selected value chains particularly for women and youth in the North-Eastern of Nigeria.
The implementation will happen in LGAs across Borno (Biu, Bayo, Hawul and Kwaya Kusar LGAs) and Adamawa (Michika and Madagali LGAs) States, Northeast Nigeria.
Christian Aid Nigeria’s Senior Programme Coordinator, Livelihood, Mr Danladi Mamza stated that: “The project will contribute to lessening the persistent food insecurity, chronic food shortages and in the long run the malnutrition especially among children in Nigeria’s Northeast states which have been facing one of the most severe humanitarian crises in the world; this is in line with Christian Aid’s purpose.”
According to him, Christian Aid in coordination with WFP and relevant government stakeholders (such as both federal and state ministries of Agriculture, States Agricultural Development Programs (ADPs), LGAs Departments of Agriculture, Agro-Inputs Dealers, Agricultural Service Providers etc) will conduct target exercise with the community members to determine the exact wards and communities for the intervention.
He explained that they will prioritize three critical elements including emergency lifesaving food assistance to communities affected by conflict, promoting livelihood recovery and health in emergencies with focus on nutrition.
“We are improving the conditions of persons affected by conflict and disaster by providing timely lifesaving interventions that ensures equality of life in the long term, while building livelihoods and peaceful communities in Nigeria,” he said.
SHF project is aimed at reaching 50,000 beneficiaries across 3 different tiers. Tier 1: 10,000 direct farmers supported with high quality variety seeds of Millet, sorghum, Aflasafe, fertilizer and glyphossate. Tier 2: 20,0000 farm labour force who will be trained to support smallholder farm activities and earn economic benefit.
Tier 3: 20,000 post-harvest service providers and value addition actors will receive trainings on post-harvest loss reduction.
For Tier 1, the project will be for 8 months (July 2022 to February 2023), for Tier 2 will be from March 2023 to December 2023 and Tier 3 will be from January 2024 to December 2024.
SHF will work with targeted farmers and support them to increase cultivation of sorghum and millet and strengthen their ability to reduce post-harvest losses to produce more for market.
