The Kogi State Coordination Office on Agro Processing Productivity Enhancement and Livelihood Support Project (APPEALS), has been commended for aligning the objectives of the project to the state’s agricultural blueprint aimed at improving the farmers’ productivity and livelihood of women and youths.
The commendation was against the backdrop of what a consultant to the World Bank, Dr. Lukas Akapa said agrees with the state’s Agricultural Blueprint, noting that the steps highlighted would go a long way to boost the development of the Agricultural sector of the State.
A statement signed by the Communications Officer for Kogi State, Ocholi Ikani and made available to our correspondent in Lokoja, the State capital, thestate’s presentation of its scorecard and implementation strategy in achieving the project’s development agenda received all round commendations.
Dr. Lukas also noted with delight Kogi state coordination office’s demonstration of excellent understanding of the agricultural potentials, saying that having a workable plan that would easily transform the agricultural blueprint of the state was inline with the objectives of APPEALS.
Kogi State Project Coordinator, Dr Sanni Abdullahi had earlier in his presentation, stated that the state has a lot of untapped agricultural potentials requiring harnessing, and expressed pleasure for the State’s consideration as one of the states of the federation to implement it.
He said 60,000 Nigerian farmers including Kogi State will benefit from the World Bank’s project in the next five years and enjoined women and youths to equally make themselves available for this opportunity.
He maintained that part of the implementation strategy would also involve identification of Local Governments Areas on the basis of their comparative advantage and farmers’ readiness by clustering them to optimise support and performance.
The coordinator stressed the need for building of a framework for expansion of existing farm clusters.
He equally noted that though APPEALS is new in Kogi state, a strategic communications plan that involves deep sensitization and advocacy visit to stakeholders in rural areas was being implemented across the 21 local governments of the state to give it the desired exposure.
The implementation support mission is an event organized for project implementation staff in preparation to the launch of the APPEALS project by the Federal Government.
