The IFAD Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP) in Kogi has organised an agricultural commodity fair to promote smallholder farmers, value addition, market linkages and food security in the state.
The 2026 Commodity Fair, themed “Empowering Smallholder Farmers: Restoring Value, Ensuring Productivity Will Ensure the Attainment of Food Security in Nigeria”, brought together smallholder farmers comprising producers, processors and marketers under IFAD-VCDP across the five benefiting Local Government Areas of Lokoja, Ajaokuta, Kabba-Bunu, Ibaji and Olamaboro.
The Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Timothy Ojomah , represented by Mr Moses Dare, said the fair provided farmers with opportunities to showcase their produce, connect with processors and buyers, explore investment opportunities and strengthen market linkages.
He said empowering farmers with improved inputs, appropriate technology, finance, extension services, processing facilities and reliable markets remained essential to increasing productivity and strengthening food security.
He further stated that the state government was committed to improving agricultural production, promoting value addition, reducing post-harvest losses, encouraging agro-processing and creating an enabling environment for private-sector investment.
He further commended IFAD-VCDP for supporting farmers and urged processors, aggregators, financial institutions and investors to establish sustainable partnerships with farming communities.
Earlier, the State Project Coordinator (SPC), IFAD-VCDP, Dr Stella Adejoh, said Kogi had the potential to participate more strongly in regional and international agricultural markets through improved production, processing, packaging, branding and marketing.
Adejoh said the programme is focused on providing smallholder farmers with access to inputs, finance, technology, tractorable land, mechanisation, extension services and markets, while strengthening value chains and reducing post-harvest losses.
The SPC appreciated the Kogi Government for the timely payment of counterpart funds and creation of an enabling environment, saying stronger collaboration among government, private-sector stakeholders and farmer organisations was necessary to build a resilient agribusiness economy capable of improving food security, exports, incomes and employment.
A beneficiary of the programme, Sefiya Yusuf, a farmer and youth fabricator, appreciated the state government for providing opportunities for women to participate in fabrication, while Ahmed Rafat, a processor, said the programme had enabled her to establish a business producing various snacks from farm produce.
Dignitaries at the occasion including Mr George Ogirima, Managing Director, Kogi ADP; Mr Abdullahi Adamu, Chairman, Lokoja LGA, NAFDAC, NEPC and TIC representatives, commended the initiatives and pledged their sustained support for the programme.
They urged participants to use the fair to exchange knowledge, explore partnerships and create sustainable market opportunities that would translate agricultural production into improved livelihoods for smallholder farmers.
