Enugu State Targets 10, 000 Farmers For Empowerment Under APPEALS Project

Enugu State targets 10, 000 direct beneficiaries under its Agro-Processing, Productivity Enhancement and Livelihood Improvement Support project, Christian Nwachukwu Odigbo, the state project coordinator, told THE WHISTLER weekend in Enugu.

Odigbo said the project, which is World Bank funded in collaboration with the federal and state governments, has so far empowered over 3, 000 farmers in the state.

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In his words, “We have supported over 1, 000 farmers in the state. They come in the form of cooperative groups. We have also supported over 1, 700 youths. Over 3, 000 farmers have been affected directly by the supply of input.”

According to him, Enugu State is the only state in the South East that is a beneficiary: “The project is operating in Enugu, Lagos, Cross River, Kaduna, Kano and Kogi states. Enugu State’s comparative advantages are in rice, cashew and poultry production and processing.”

He commended Gov Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi for supporting the scheme, and called on the residents of the state to key into it.

He said, “We have programmes that have direct beneficiaries. The first is cooperative societies of farmers in the business of poultry, rice or cashew. The beneficiaries then apply to our office through expression of interest. The office will review the application. Once the approval is given, we invite the persons for a meeting. We don’t give money. We use service providers to provide the input.

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“Under the second programme for women and youths, the targets are the young people who are starting afresh. You don’t need to have already established businesses to benefit from the scheme. Presently we are concluding the empowerment of 1, 700 prospective beneficiaries. Each of them will be given input worth about N2m. They have been trained. The process includes training, business name registrations, and the development of business plans.

“Under the women and youths’ programme, 35% is specifically for women. Ten percent is for persons with disabilities. We call them persons with disabilities or special needs. We give them preferences. The project mandates state coordinators to include them. The scheme is free. We don’t give money; we only provide farming input as grants.

“The project was made possible because HE Rt Hon Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi expressed interest to the World Bank, and met the requirements. One of the requirements is the payment of the counterpart fund of N244m and an office space.”

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