18th August, 2017
Mr Abdullahi Surajo, Communication Officer, Climate Change Adaptation Support Programme (CASP), says the scheme aims at improving farmers’ income, boosting food security and improving people’s livelihoods in the rural areas.
Surajo said this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja.
He said that the programme, which was launched last year, was being implemented in Borno, Jigawa, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara states within a time frame of six years.
He said that programme, which was a follow-up to the Agricultural Community Development Programmes of Katsina and Sokoto states, would improve the livelihoods of the rural populations, especially the vulnerable groups.
Surajo said that the programme was designed to be implemented in line with the extant agricultural policy, using the value chain development approach.
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“We had a start-up workshop for the staff of the programme on the climate change adaptation and agribusiness programme, which was sponsored by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
“The presentation is mainly on partnership and from IFAD’s point of view, we are so much interested in scaling up the programme so as to impact on a greater number of poor people in the rural areas,’’ he said.
Surajo said that partnership, policy engagement, dialogue and knowledge sharing were the necessary elements of the scheme.
“We are working on marketing access for farmers to engage good market markers, off-takers and big processors.
“Those are the people that have the muscle to scale up the farm produce processing and in this context, we want the farmers to feel at ease to work with them to produce and supply produce,’’ he said.
NAN also reports that the programme aims at impacting on farmers’ income, promoting food security, reducing the vulnerability of smallholder farmers and providing employment. (