The International Fund for

Agricultural
Development (IFAD) has urged the Katsina State Government to provide the
necessary funding assistance to enhance the implementation of identified
projects in benefitting communities.

The IFAD Country Programme Manager, Ms Atsuko Toda, made the
call when she led the 16th Supervision Mission team delegation to pay a
courtesy visit to the Commissioner for Agriculture, Alhaji Musa Adamu, in
Katsina.

The team was in Katsina State to assess the extent of
implementation of the Community-Based Agricultural and Rural Development Programme
(CBARDP), which is also being implemented in Borno, Jigawa, Kebbi, Sokoto, Yobe
and Zamfara states.

Atsuko told the commissioner that the funding assistance
would enable the State Project Office to draw down on IFAD funding of over N1
million dollars.

She underscored the importance of prompt release of the
government’s financial contribution and reminded him that IFAD would withdraw
funding of the programme in March 2013, which is only six months away.

The IFAD official noted that the programme had so far made a
positive impact on the livelihoods of its beneficiaries but stressed the need
to increase the impact and alleviate poverty among the rural poor, the targets.

She further urged the state government to ensure
sustainability of the programme by including other local government areas and
communities that were not currently benefitting, just as Kebbi, Zamfara and
Sokoto states had done.

She said that by so doing, the poverty reduction level in
the communities would be more meaningful.

Responding, Adamu told the delegation that the state
government was committed to agricultural development.

He said that the state government had evolved and integrated
agricultural programmes with the establishment of the Songhai Agricultural
Centres in the three senatorial zones.

He said that the state government was currently sponsoring
no fewer than 100 youths on an 18-month training programme in various aspects
of agriculture at the Songhai Centre in Porto Novo, Benin Republic.

These youths, on their return, would constitute the pioneer
trainers at the state’s Songhai centres, where they would impart their
knowledge on others, he said.

The commissioner assured the delegation that the state
government was committed to ensuring the success of the programme through
adequate funding.

Meanwhile, Alhaji Kabir Charanchi, State Project Officer of
the programme, told The Tide in an interview, that inadequate funding
constituted a major challenge to project implementation.

Charanchi, however, said that the programme had impacted positively
on the beneficiaries by uplifting their living standard.

For instance, he said that under the animal traction
project, the programme provided 39 pairs of ox teams, comprising two work
bulls, an ox cart and a ridger at a total cost of N200,000.

“This is a great achievement because it has helped them in
terms of operational activities, transportation of farm yard manure,
transportation of their products as well as increase in the productivity of
their farmlands,’’ he said.

He noted that Katsina and Sokoto states were the pilot
states of IFAD programmes in Nigeria.

“It was the success recorded in the two that led to the
extension and expansion of the programme to cover seven states. A lot has been
recorded in terms of achievement and empowerment of youths.

“During the pilot phase 420 boreholes were drilled and they
are still working after about 15 years.

“We have intervened in terms of provision of water and
health facilities. We have constructed a 36-bed hospital at Kakumi in Bakori
local government,’’ the commissioner said.

According to him, the programme has also empowered some
women by giving them small ruminants under a revolving loan arrangement while
also supporting others to set up business enterprises.