Anambra State Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr Foster Ihejiofor, has recommended expansion of Programs by International Fund For Agricultural Development to include more Local Government Areas in the state.
The Commissioner was speaking While receiving a Team of Federal Government and IFAD Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP) Additional Financing Mid-term review mission in his office.
He made a strong case for more areas to benefit from its intervention programs rather than eight local councils, noting that there was need to include other crops to scale up its good successes.
Dr Ihejiofor futher charged the team to consider incorporating the state policy on regenerative agriculture into its plan to avert the harmful effects of inorganic agricultural inputs such as fertilizers for healthy living and reduced production cost.
Earlier, in his address,the Leader of the Team, Prof Joe’s Lemchi, confessed that the State Value Chain Development Programme VCDP has remained a major source of Success stories from the earlier stage and still taking the lead in promoting the Programme.
He declared that Anambra State has continued to be the number one in record in terms of achievements and Programme implementation.
The Team Leader disclosed that the essence of the mission was to ascertain what worked well, what did not work well and possible improvements or redesign the outcome of which determines the way forward of the Programme.
The team was later received At Achalla rice processing center, remodeled by VCDP, where they had interactive sessions with farmers Organizations of various sectors of the VCDP mainstreaming areas.
Other highlights of their visit to Achalla rice processing center include; round tour of the processing center and the inspection of their rice and Cassava concessionaires and other recipes.
