Beneficiaries of Fadama III Additional Financing have received grant that will enable them cultivate 200 hectares of Cassava produce. Presenting the cheques to the beneficiaries, the governor ably represented by his deputy Dr. Kolapo Olushola admonished the farmers to judiciously use the money for the purpose for which it was granted. He advised them not to see it as opportunity to go on spending spree with societal functions. Earlier, during his welcoming address, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Hon Kehinde Odebunmi encouraged other groups to quickly gather themselves together and satisfy all the necessary conditions put in place in order to benefit in the next phase of the project. Odebunmi said, "As we all know that the Third National Fadama Development Project came to a close in December 31, 2013, the success recorded led to emergence of Fadama III Additional Financing with the same objective as its parent which is to sustainably increase the income of Land and Water Resources Users. "I wish to remind you that the Fadama III project had made laudable impacts in the lives of our farmers in different agribusiness of their interests. The project not only empowered them financially but also equipped them mentally as the beneficiaries enjoyed relevant trainings through Capacity Building and Advisory services components of the project. "Fadama III Additional Financing came into existence because of well performing implementation arrangements in Fadama III Project. The Federal Government of Nigeria requested for World Bank support to align more to its Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA), which was adopted in 2011 to improve value chain of prioritized agricultural commodities. This project will focus on farm productivity performance of clusters of farmers engaged in priority food staples namely rice, cassava, sorghum and horticulture in the state crop production zones in Kogi, Kano, Lagos, Niger, Enugu, and Anambra States. "Ekiti state government expressed her interest and was considered as one of the production states for cassava cultivation. I am happy to tell this gathering today that among other states that applied, only a few was considered of which Ekiti state was one. The intended beneficiaries also include Youth and women among others. "Ladies and gentleman, may I inform you that today's official flag-off of input support, a lot of pre-disbursement activities had been ongoing among which were sensitization of major stakeholders i.e farmers, policy makers, agro dealers and other relevant bodies. Farmers were also informed into registered groups (Production Groups and Cluster), 66 Business plans were developed out of which 20 beneficiaries of today belong to 20 Production Groups whose Business plans were approved for cultivation of 200ha of cassava in the state at one hectare per farmer. "I want to encourage other groups to quickly gather themselves together and satisfy all the necessary conditions put in place so that they can also benefit in the next phase of the project. "I am aware that the agro-dealers play very important roles in this project. As I earlier told you during the farmer-Agro-dealers forum that integrity must be your watchword as the government will not tolerate any collusion between you and any service provider which may truncate the project objective." Appreciating the government the Chairman of the group thanked the state government and promised to use to the money for the purpose it was meant for.
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