As part of efforts to ensure self sufficiency in food production, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) on Wednesday said it has commenced the planned implementation for improved value chain project for the Benue State Agricultural Revolution Programme.
Country Programme Manager of the Food and Agricultural Produce Organization, Ms Atsuko Toda, who spoke in Markurdi the State capital, at a meeting with Governor Samuel Ortom, identified key areas of women and youth empowerment programmes in agriculture.
Releasing the state counterpart funding for the project, Toda encouraged large scale farmers to concentrate on agricultural produce that the state has comparative advantage in.
Governor Ortom while responding, said the return of Benue State to agriculture has become imperative as people of the state must earn a living in the face of dwindling income from the national purse.
The state whose slogan is “the food basket of the nation” is a rich agricultural region where crops such as potatoes, cassava, soya bean, guinea corn, flax, yams, sesame, rice, and grand nuts are grown.