New Telegraph

17,467 benefit from Lagos APPEALS project

Lagos State Agro-Processing, Productivity Enhancement, and Livelihood Improvement Support (APPEALS PROJECT) Monday said that it has empowered, trained and supported 17,467 farmers and other residents to boost food self-sufficiency in five years through the World Bank Assisted Project.

Speaking at a Media Parley held at the Lagos APPEALS Coordinating office, Oko-Oba, Agege, the Project State Coordinator, Mrs Oluranti Sagoe-Oviebo, said that the project is estimated to create 10,000 direct beneficiaries per state, with 35 per cent direct beneficiaries to be women. She added that the project also targeted 50,000 farm households per state.

At the programme is themed: “Zero Hunger: Forging Ahead Together For Sustainable Action”, the Project Coordinator, said that the project had surpassed its target of 10,000 beneficiaries at the inception of the project in 2017.

Sagoe-Oviebo said that the farmers were supported in three value chains, poultry, aquaculture and rice, adding that the beneficiaries contained farmers who benefitted indirectly and indirectly from APPEAL project since 2017.

She noted that the project had continued to promote productivity enhancement technologies and value addition through the demonstration of improved technologies.

She said: “Of the number, 7, 533 were trained, 3,950 were supported with farm inputs and equipment while 1,786 women and youths also benefited with some of them receiving start up grants. The APPEALS project had created 12,350 jobs across all its activities and also reduced the likelihood of being poor by between five and 10 per cent. The productivity of rice paddy in the state has increased from 2.0 metric ton per hectare to 3.5 metric tons. Tilapia has increased from 100 kg to 140 kg, while broilers have increased from 1.8kg a bird per cycle to 2.35 kg.”

New Telegraph learnt that the project which started on March 23, 2017 to end by March 31, 2023, is a $200 million World Bank Supported project in six states, Lagos, Cross-River, Enugu, Kaduna, Kano and Kogi.

The project is implemented by state coordinating offices under the state ministry of agriculture, the national coordinating office under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Abuja and the World Bank.

The project has three thematic areas; they are food security, export potential and livelihood improvement.

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