FAO Charges States On Plantain, Banana Project

The Food and Agriculture
Organisation in Nigeria has called on the four states participating in its plantain and banana project to strive to upscale the project.
The FAO Country Representative in Nigeria, Dr. Louise Setshwaelo, made the call when she paid a courtesy visit to Gov Theodore Orji of Abia in Umuahia recently.
The four states are Abia, Cross River, Delta and Oyo.
Setshwaelo said that upscaling the project would positively impact on livelihoods and provide employment for the youth.
She explained that the agency usually mobilized resources to start projects with the hope that state governments and the private sector would upscale the outcomes for enhanced results.
‘’We have the climate, the people and the land. We have the capacity; what we need is the willingness and resolve to move (agriculture) forward,’’ she told the governor.
She also noted that Abia was endowed with all the right conditions for viable agricultural production.
The FAO’s plantain and banana project, which began in 2010, is aimed at strengthening plantain and banana production in the four participating states for domestic consumption and for export.
Setshwaelo urged the state governments implementing the project to continue to support agriculture because it was the most equitable vocation that could lift people out of poverty.
The FAO representative said the agency was collaborating with the National Institute for Horticulture (NIHORT) to ensure sustainable production of clean planting materials.
She said that plantain and banana farmers under the project would also receive also training on processing and value addition.