Africa Press-Nigeria:
THE Agro-processing Productivity Enhancement and Livelihood Improvement Support Project (APPEALS) is a Nigerian government initiative which is implemented with the support of World Bank.
The project is expected to empower about 60,000 persons along 11 agricultural value chains in six states.
The value chains include rice, cocoa, poultry, cashew, maize, ginger, dairy, wheat, tomato, cassava and aquaculture value chains.
APPEALS project has a total of 55 Alliances (off-taker/out-growers) involving nine value chains.
The list of participating states and value chains include Cross River (Rice, Cocoa, Poultry), Enugu (Rice, Cashew, Poultry), Kaduna (Maize, Ginger, Dairy) Kano (Rice, Wheat, Tomato), Kogi (Cassava, Cashew, Rice), Lagos (Rice, Aquaculture, Poultry).
The project was approved by the World Bank on March 23, 2017 and became disbursement effective on May 24, 2018. It is expected to close by September 2023.
The Kogi State Project Coordinator, Dr Sanni Abdullahi Ozomata said the project is exposing farmers in the state to modern farming technologies.
He said farmers were also being trained on capacity building aside supporting them to increase their productivity and processing.
He said the three main value chains in Kogi state are cassava, cashew and rice, which they have identified most of the farmers in the state.
Also, to enable farmers in Kogi State gain access to profitable markets to sell their farm produce and have improved incomes, the state coordination office of APPEALS project embarked upon the conduct of a feasibility study on market information for rice, cashew and cassava value chains across the 21 local government areas of the state.
The data got from the feasibility study will enable APPEALS project come up with strategies to bridge the gap in demand, organise the market situations, create a market information kiosk for farmers and enable them to gain access to improved technology.
Ozomata said the project has 5 components which includes productivity enhancement, agro processing, infrastructural support to rural areas, technical knowledge and capacity building.
