Flooding: IFAD To Disburse $1.7m To Affected Farmers

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) says it will disburse 1.7 million dollars to support farmers affected by floods in nine states of the country before ending of the year.

The intervention according to the organisation is to ameliorate flood impact on farmers and enable them to go into dry season farming, so as to enhance their income, boost production and ensure food security.

Dede Ekoue, IFAD Country Director said this on the sideline of the Federal Government/IFAD-Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP) Mid Term Review (MTR) Mission Stakeholders Wrap-Up Workshop, on Saturday in Abuja.

Ekoue who identified total flood recovery response for 2022 as 1.7 millions dollars, said the organisation had made an initial allocation of 600,000 dollars to farmers in some of the VCDP benefitting states.

According to her, the distribution of the fund in support of VCDP beneficiaries has already started for dry season farming in Kogi, Nasarawa, Niger Anambra, and Enugu States.

“The process will be accelerated this December and early next year.

“The 1.7 million dollars is coming from the regular funding of VCDP,” she said.

Ekoue explained that the gesture was in response to the yearnings of farmers in the course of MTR mission across the VCDP benefiting states in the country.

Dr Fatima Aliyu, National Programme Coordinator, IFAD-VCDP said through the intervention the organisation and the government will support each of the over 2,000 targeted farmers with 40kg of seed, four bags of NPK and two bags of Urea.

The farmers, according to her, will also be supported with two litres of herbicides and water pumps for each hectare of farmland that will be rehabilitated, capacity building and extension services.