Owing to the wastage of large quantity of Shea butter and rice produced in Niger state, FADAMA National Office, Abuja, has urged the state government to seek World Bank assistance to boost the production its and attract international market.
FADAMA III intervention areas include development of rice value chain, rehabilitation of irrigation scheme, construction of feeder roads, drilling of tube wells and bore holes for supplementary irrigation.
World bank team is visiting the state on November 23 and Ben Herbert, Agro-business Specialist with the FADAMA Office, has urged the state government to take advantage of the visit to request for more intervention in the development of Shea-butter.
At a meeting with the state FADAMA and government officials in Minna on Saturday, he noted that large quantity of Shea butter produced in the state was not utilised as more than half of the commodity was wasted.
“There was a meeting in Canada where Niger state was adjudged the highest producer of Shea-butter in Africa, so we want to do everything to promote it”.
The state is also one of the largest producers of rice in the country and as such requires more intervention in its production of the commodity to support the farmers.
The meeting held to prepare the FADAMA III additional financing development project before the visit of the World Bank mission to the state is to prepare the government for the arrays of loan facilities available to the project and how to access them.
Mohammed Danlamin, Permanent Secretary, State Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said that government would seek areas of collaboration that would benefit farmers.
Danlamin commended the project for making positive impact on farmers and also for contributing to the development of agriculture through the FADAMA III project
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