Stakeholders in the agriculture sector in Kogi have appealed to the State Government to sustain the State Partnership for Agriculture (SPA) programme after the exit of its donor partners, Synergos Nigeria.
The stakeholders made the call at the monthly Core Delivery Team (CDT) meeting organized by Synergos Nigeria to discuss “Stakeholders Marking Towards Sustainability of the SPA and its Platforms in Kogi State” on Friday in Lokoja.
Ms Esther Joshua, Synergos Nigeria representative in the state, told the CDT members and stakeholders in agriculture and allied Ministries Departments and Agencies that its intervention in the state would terminate in November.
Joshua said there was need to keep the platforms, the Agriculture Vision Group (AVG) and the CDT running even after closure of the SPA and withdrawal of Synergos from the state.
She said the call was in view of the positive impact the SPA intervention had made on the farmers and agribusiness in the state.
However, Mr Jerry Onugba, state Director, Agriculture Services, Ministry of Agriculture, advised that the programmes be adopted into the state agricultural policy with a definite budget line for their sustenance.
Onugba said that there was need to sustain the platforms as components of the state agricultural policy with budgetary provisions since their survival after the exit of partners would depend wholly on sustainable funding.
Also, Mrs Folashade Olukotun, Director, Planning Monitoring and Evaluation, Kogi Agricultural Development Project (ADP), said the SPA had gone through the implementation phase with the CDT and was now fully out to deliver on the core mandate.
Mrs Lydia Oyewale, FADAMA III representative on the CDT, called for the sustenance of the intervention projects through sustained government financing.
Mr Thomas Agene, Secretary of the CDT and Director in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, also underscored the imperativeness of sustaining the core delivery platform.
Agene urged the state government to do all within its means to ensure its sustainability, if the policy trust of agriculture in the areas of food production and employment creation, among others, must be met.
Mr Kehinde Oloruntoba, the state Commissioner for Agriculture, pledged to support the resolution of the stakeholders for the sustenance of the programmes.
Comments are closed.