As part of his administration promises to alleviate the standard of living of residents across Ogun State, Governor Prince Dapo Abiodun has commissioned market stalls, lock up shops and solar powered boreholes worth millions of naira at Olugbo market in Odeda Local Government Area.
The commissioning held on Wednesday, 9th December, 2020 was done under the Federal Government/IFAD/Ogun State Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP)
Governor Abiodun was represented by the Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr. Adeola Odedina at the event, while commissioning of similar projects in other locations at Ijesa-Ijebu market (Odogbolu LGA), and Owode Yewa market (Yewa South LGA), will continue at a later date.
The FGN/IFAD/VCDP is an Agricultural Intervention Programme between the FGN and IFAD, with counterpart contribution from each of the six participating states in Nigeria, namely; Anambra, Benue, Ebonyi, Niger, Ogun and Taraba. Ogun State is in good standing in the payment of counterpart funds.
In his address, he noted that the VCDP was a commercially oriented, market-led and demand-driven programme focused on productivity and market development along cassava and rice value chain. Ogun State recently received an award for outstanding performance in VCDP activities.
“Due to the outstanding performance of the IFAD-VCDP, an approval for additional finance was granted to VCDP to expand to three additional states (Enugu, Nasarawa and Kogi States) and three additional LGAs in each of the initial states.
“In Ogun State, the first phase of IFAD-VCDP was implemented in Obafemi-Owode, Yewa North, Ijebu North East, Ifo and Ijebu East, and now expanded to Yewa South, Odeda and Odogbolu during the additional finance phase,” he said.
Furthermore, he affirmed that under the current administration, Ogun State programme management unit of VCDP, under the supervision of the ministry of agriculture has made remarkable achievements, along cassava and rice value chains, and these cut across all the eight implementing LGAs. These include, among others:
“Completion of 20km roads in Obafemi-Owode, Ijebu North East and Yewa North; Profiling of 2,700 farmers from the three news LGAs into the farmers’ data bank, thus bringing total farmers profiled to date to 12,217 from 852 Farmers Organizations in the eight LGAs (cassava 9916, rice 2,301).
“A total of 8,500 farmers were supported with inputs to cultivate 9,232 ha to both rice and cassava (cassava 7,056ha and rice 2,176ha) across the implementing LGAs. Also, plans have reached advance stage to support another 3,000 farmers for the new planting season.
“A total of four (4) solar-powered boreholes were completed during this administration, to make a total of fourteen (14) solar-powered boreholes provided to date. The provision of boreholes resulted in 3,500 programme beneficiaries having access to safe drinking water.
“Three mini bridges at Ifo fufu market, Rori in Ayetoro and Ilagunjo in Ijebu East and five culverts were constructed during this administration. Electrification of Rice Processing Centre at Eggua with the provision of transformer was completed in January 2020.
“Also, construction of four new market stalls and stores which started last year in Olodo, Olugbo, Ijesha Ijebu and Owode yewa was completed in the year 2020. Construction of three new mini cassava processing centre at Ijana Alapako, Oke-Iyemi and Ayetoro alongside with creche.
“On land development, a total of 100ha was cleared in year 2019 and already put to use by the farmers. This gives a total of 528 ha were developed across the participating LGAs.
“Facilitated Stakeholders’ meetings on Farmers/Herders Conflict Reduction across the five implementing LGAs of Yewa North, Obafemi-Owode, Ijebu North East, Ijebu East and Ifo LGAs with 270 participants comprises representatives of farmers organizations, Fulani Communities, Divisional Police Officers, Department of State Security, (DSS), So-Safe Corps (SSC), National Security and Civil Defence Corp (NSCDC), local government officials, subject matter specialist (livestock) from state Agricultural Development Programme and Department of Livestock from state ministry of agriculture.
“86% of VCDP beneficiaries live below $1.90, that is, 14% live above poverty line, beneficiaries are 6% less poor. Productivity of rice saw an increased yield of 47% for VCDP beneficiaries, and productivity of cassava saw an increased yield of 61% for VCDP beneficiaries,” he concluded.
