IFAD pledges $88.5m to boost FG’s agric transformation agenda

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) said on Thursday that it would support the Federal Government’s agricultural transformation agenda (ATA) with new programmes that would cost $88.5 million.

Kanayo Nwanze, president of IFAD, said this in Abuja when he led a delegation on a visit to Akinwumi Adesina, the minister of agriculture and rural development.

“I am very delighted with the conversations that we have just had and your assurances of progress in the transformation agenda and the value chain development programme that IFAD has already committed some funds to, the possibility of developing a new programme idea in the current cycle of 2013 to 2015 where IFAD has committed $88.5 million to support the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development Transformation Agenda”.

According to him, the new programme will be within the strategies and priorities of the Federal Government.

He said that the fund would continue to maintain its focus on poor rural populations in developing countries, adding that it had undertaken a series of impact evaluations in 30 countries worldwide to assess the impact the institution’s investments had made in reducing poverty in the last 35 years.