ATASP-1: Excitement galore as farmers, other beneficiaries plead for extension

It was excitements and praises galore as farmers, processors, local government officials, seed producers, rural dwellers and other stakeholders expressed their heartfelt appreciation for the various interventions provided by the Agricultural Transformation Agenda Support Program Phase-One (ATASP-1).

ATASP-1 project, funded by African Development Bank (AfDB), Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) and seven participating state governments is meant for the infrastructural development of the 200 rural communities in 33 local government areas across seven states of the Federation. The components of the project are economic empowerment, access road for inputs supply and produce evacuation, provision of health facility centres with good drinkable water through boreholes powered by solar energy and educational support in terms of classrooms building.

Food Farm News’ visit to the host communities of the programs in all the seven states which include, Enugu-Anambra, Kano-Jigawa, Niger, Kebbi-Sokoto revealed that great jobs have been done in every of the communities as there were evidences of increase in production, productivity, job creation, income generation and wealth creation along the three value chain of cassava, rice and sorghum and this has resulted into beneficiaries asking for the continuity and extension of the project to other crops and livestock.

 A traditional ruler in Niger state, Alhaji Yusuf Nuhu, the Etsu of Agaie, told our correspondent in his palace that the impact of ATASP-1 was something that one could not easily forget in terms of job creations and empowerment of the youths and women, and therefore demanded that the programme be extended to phase 2 so as to accommodate more comparative crops and livestock processing.

As we speak, the impact of training of farmers and processors on the best Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) on rice, sorghum and cassava have added about 255,749 metric tons of food crops to the national food reserve just as the program has been able to create about 331,757 new jobs since inception in February, 2016. And the selection of communities was based on crops comparative advantage, while the provision of social facility also was on the basis of priority of people’s need according to the National Program Coordinator (NPC), Dr. Ibrahim Mohammed Arabi.

On cassava value chain, the program has been able to increase revenue to the tune of 862.84 million naira coupled with introduction of improved varieties alongside training of over 12,000 farmers that has resulted to increase yield of 250% which is above the baseline figure of 10 metric tons per hectare to 25MT per hectare.

Overall, 119,733.80MT of rice paddy has been added to the national food basket which translates to estimated revenue of 17.96 billion naira. These interventions have led to yield increases of about 372% from 1.8MT per ha to an average of 6.7MT per ha during the period said the NPC. 

In the sorghum value chain, all efforts have resulted in yield increase from 1.0 metric ton per hectare (MT/ha) at baseline to 2.0 MT/ha representing 75.50% and an estimated 78,850.11MT of sorghum added to the national food basket, while the revenue accruable is 10.25 billion naira

The project component is spelt out as

1.         Component 1: Infrastructure Development

The infrastructure development component accounts for 70% of the total program cost. It finances the construction and/or rehabilitation of social infrastructure, rural feeder roads linking production clusters to markets and, moribund irrigation infrastructure. The program targets for infrastructure projects were said to have been revised downwards due largely to inflation, exchange rate fluctuations leading to significant increases in prices of goods and services coupled the fact that the scope of sub-projects which were not fully defined at appraisal.

Social infrastructure: The social/ancillary infrastructure works such as health clinics, water & sanitation, community markets, technology development centres etc. are being implemented across the four Processing Zone Implementation Units (PZIU)s. A total of 113 social infrastructures already completed out of 173 structures that were awarded representing 65% full completion rate. The low completion rate could be attributed to, (i) inadequate capacity of contractors to handle many structures within the period of 6 months, (ii) poor contract management and (iii) delay in payment of certified work.

Rural Feeder Roads: The procurement process for the construction of a total of 466.407 km of rural feeder roads is in progress. 13 feeder roads/bridge contracts was advertised, 7 contracts have been given no objection, while 6 are awaiting no objection by the Bank. 

Irrigation Infrastructure: The Bank has given 13 no objection out of 17 contracts that was advertised and evaluated, 4 contracts are awaiting no objection by the Bank.

1.         Component 2: Commodity Value Chain Development

The implementation of the commodity value chain development component was prefaced by identification and sensitization of 200 rural communities from the 7 states of the four Staple Crops Processing Zones (SCPZ)s and networking and profiling of 44,647 farmers (of which 13,357 or 30% were female), representing 127.56% of program target of 35,000. In addition, 1,941 groups comprising farmers/producers from the three value chains have been formed and registered. 

To ensure sustainability of program benefits at the community level, 48 innovation platforms (IPs) were established along the different commodity value chains. The IPs amongst others, have been critical in facilitating linkages between the farmers’ organizations (FOs), farm input dealers, extension agents, off-takers and markets in the four SCPZs. A total number of 3,795 (of which 1,466 or 45.81% are female) just as these people have been sensitized on HIV/AIDS and other prevalent diseases to enhance their productivity and wellbeing.

Technology Adaptation and Diffusion

The Outreach Program adopted three strategies to foster technology adaptation and diffusion: (i) varietal selection for various locations, (ii) capacity building of Farmers’ Organizations (FOs) on GAP and, (iii) demonstration of proven production technologies through establishment of demonstration plots on the farmer’s fields. All these have added up to 67,570 beneficiaries (of which 18,104 are females) in agribusiness and entrepreneurship in each of the commodity value chains across the zones. A total number 427 producers and entrepreneurs have obtained loans (of which 132 or 32% are women) for economic purposes which have resulted in the sum of N58.58 Million of loan obtained. The program has successfully facilitated the linkage of producers to 29 off-takers across the four SCPZ as follows,

•          Cassava (7): 6 in Adani-Omor and 1 in Kano-Jigawa;

•          Rice (16): 3 each in Kebbi-Sokoto, Kano-Jigawa and Bida-Badeggi ; 7 in Adani-Omor

•          Sorghum (6): the six major off-takers (i.e., Honey Well Flour Mills, Derivatives Ltd, Northern Nigeria Flour Mills, Grand Cereals & Oil Mills Ltd, LoryB Ventures and, El Shaddai Foods Nigeria Ltd) service all four SCPZs.

It is worthy of note that ATASP-1 had made some of the off-takers key into providing inputs support to farmers on buy-back arrangements. Within the framework of building the capacities of youth in agribusiness, three youth training centres have been constructed at the IITA-Abuja Station, Kubwa; Minjibir in Kano State and, Onne in Rivers State. 

The implementation arrangement as provided in the program document was modified in line with the policy direction of the present administration in Agriculture as provided for in the Green Alternative document of Federal Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development (FMARD). The policy oversight and guidance role of ATASP-1 is now performed by the National Steering Committee (NSC), chaired by the substantive minister, FMARD, Alhaji Sabo Nanono. Also, the Commodity Value Chain Development component of ATASP-1 is being implemented in collaboration with three CGIARs (i.e., IITA, AfricaRice and ICRISAT) through an Outreach agreement signed with IITA. In this regard, IITA provides leadership to the participating CGIAR centres in the implementation of outreach program in addition to their responsibility for the Cassava Value chain, while AfricaRice and ICRISAT have responsibilities for rice and sorghum respectively.

Impact of ATASP-1 in Anambra-Enugu Zone

In Adani-Omor Staple Crops Zone, which comprises of many communities in both Anambra and Enugu in the South East (SE) of Nigeria where infrastructures provided by Agricultural Transformation Agenda Support Program Phase 1 ( ATASP-1) have positively impacted on beneficiaries inclusive of farmers, processors and others are very appreciative and also demanded for extension of the project beyond year 2021 so as to ensure a galvanised sustainable economic productivity for jobs creation and empowerment of the youths and women.

Our correspondent’s visit to the communities revealed that the basic social economic infrastructure provided by ATASP-1 project have improved the living standard of the people through potable water availability, access road construction for crops evacuation, health centres for health services, classrooms for children education, training of farmers on good agricultural practices for more yields and value addition of crops into various derivatives. All these according to the Zonal project coordinator, Mr. Egba S. Romanus are aimed at reducing rural-urban migration of youths and women for more food production with healthy environment and improved social capital.. 

Many of the respondents could not hide their excitements based on their newfound enhanced economic status that is courtesy of ATASP-1, as crops were now easily evacuated from farms through access roads, to reduce produce wastages often experienced in the past before the project.

Mrs. Ejike Nneoma Choice from Omor, Aymelum Local Government of Anambra state expressed her happiness, especially with the training she got from ATASP-1 which had to do with  value-addition of rice into other derivatives like doughnut, chin-chin, biscuit and even morsel ‘swallow’ which she said had added substantive economic earnings to her income.  She said, “I began to make more money after my training by AfricaRice under ATASP-1 as all my derivatives from rice are all bought on every market day. I thank ATASP-1 for the training on the good agricultural practice on rice production and on how to retain waters in the soil using bond practice or better still called bond technique.”

Another rice farmer, Mr. Cletus Obiora who noted that the improved method of planting- through-broadcasting introduced to farmers had changed the narrative from the old low yield to a very high yield with more earnings to every farmer, stated that the GAP training given by ATASP-1 had helped in output performance of the crop adding that “with the project intervention the lowest you can get is nine bags of 300kg, while the highest is 14-15 bags as against four to five bags before ATASP-1’’. 

He also commended the quality of road being constructed for produce evacuation in the local communities, stressing that farmers were already praying for the extension of the programme into ATASP-phase 1.

 He went further that his farmers’ cooperative society is already putting up a rice processing mill for the milling of members’ paddy, stressed it was part of the dividend from ATASP-1’s impact on the farmers, saying ‘’ there was no way this could have happened if not because of more earning from higher productivity’’

 He added: “In essence, the coming of ATASP-1 is a multi-dimensional blessing to the farmers, processors and people in general. Also, go to the field and see the quality of roads they are building, then you will appreciate what they have done for farmers who pay through their nose to bring out produce from farms before now.” 

Also at Omor in Aymelum Local Government, a large market had been constructed for the community, and ready for official commissioning as the visit of Food Farm News correspondent who saw the cleaning preparation.

Engineer Igbo Venatus, the resident consultant in charge of the project told our correspondent that the market would be officially commissioned the following day for use by the people saying that “the project is already completed as you can see.”

One of the youths, Mr. Boniface Osita who benefitted from training in the rice seed production said, “I am grateful to ATASP-1 for making me to see this great opportunity in the value chain of rice. I went into seed production last year and it has given me a dividend of motorcycle as a business venture.’’ 

Buttressing the high yield, a rice farmer, Mr. Okeke  Cosmas from Omogha, Orumba Local Government stressed the improvement the construction of bunds for water retention within the plots have brought to increase yield production through timely fertilizer application, adding that training on better ways of using the nursery rice to get more yield through  earlier  transplanting in one or two weeks is working wonders saying ‘’they have made us to know the better ways of transplanting from the nursery to the field and best way of fertilizer application, as against our old traditional ways.’’

On infrastructure development, the people of Omogho community in Orumba North Local Government could not hide their joy concerning the potable water supply they now enjoyed through the borehole facility already handed over to them.

Mrs. Perpetual Okolimba, a beneficiary said that the clinic and the borehole water facilities of ATASP-1 have impacted greatly on the healthy living of the people in the area saying that “the hospital we go to is very far and we used to fetch water from the stream, but we thank God that ATASP-1 has built clinic and constructed borehole for us, and these have reduced our suffering and also given us healthy living.’’

 In cassava production, the ATASP-1 impact in the participating communities of Enugu- Anambra states will not be easily forgotten as beneficiaries keep testifying in terms of increase in earning through more production yield as a result of improved cassava cuttings given to farmers with best agricultural practice of planting.

Mr. Anthony Nwafor, a farmer from Ufuma community, Orumba Local Government area said that “ATASP-1 has helped us tremendously. They supply us cassava stems that we planted and many other machines for processing they have handed over to us. Our productions have never increased like this before. What I was cultivating before was five plots of land, not up to a hectare, but today I have up to three hectares of land for cassava cultivation. So Ii am grateful to ATASP-1 and also praying for the second phase.’’

Bida-Badeggi Staple Crop Processing Zone (Niger State) Achievements of ATASP-1

The ATASP-1’ impacts in the communities’ areas of crop of comparative advantage are very evident that the purpose of the project has been very effective to agricultural productivity and economic earning of the people especially in rice, sorghum and cassava according to the Zonal Program Coordinator, Eng. Ibrahim Haruna Manta who lamented on poor counterpart funding released by the State government, while commending the African Development Bank (AfDB) and Federal Government for the constant fulfilment of their financial commitment.

In Saku village, Katcha Local Government of Niger state, the introduction of ATASP-1 project has strengthened more the communal spirit of people according to the leader of the farmers named Mohammed Suleiman who told Food Farm News that the arrival of the project in the community had cemented farmers together for better farming.

Suleiman said that the comparative advantages of sorghum cultivation has attracted the “intervention of ATASP-1 in terms of schools and solar powered boreholes along with training on best agronomic practice in planting and processing that have yielded great economic earnings to farmers especially the youth and our women.” 

He continued “for the first time, we were trained with a new method of farming as against our traditional ways of planting, harvesting and storage. We didn’t know the uses of sorghum other than to plant and eat. But ATASP-1 has transformed us into agribusiness entrepreneurs in the use of sorghum into chin-chin, cake and paghetti to mention a few, as our women are now better engaged in business that can give them and their families better earnings with good living.” 

 “Before now everybody was doing things separately, but ATASP-1 has brought us together through trainings in GAP. Our output in sorghum pre-intervention was small, but now we are getting more on little plots of land and the money is what we use to replicate additional classrooms that ATASP-1 has built for us. We have built more boreholes also through community effort from what we generate from our proceeds in sorghum. That’s just to tell you how greatly the ATASP-1 Program has impacted our lives. We will be forever grateful to them as we want the Program to continue for the purpose of rural development all over the country’’according to him. 

At Mungorota, a cassava-producing village at Gbako Local Government, was a complete clinic, awaiting some hospital facilities from the State’s Ministry of Health before official handing over for the public use, alongside a Solar-Powered borehole..

Speaking with our correspondent on behalf of the head of the village, Alhaji Usman Danladi,  Alhaji Aliu Saidu commended the effort of ATASP-1 for the clinic and the provision of potable water which had assisted the villagers and others in the environment as well, adding that the processing of cassava into dried “garri” had enhanced economic earnings of the youths and women in the community. 

He said “the clinic built for us will reduce our long journey to Bida for treatment and many villages around here will also benefit from it. We still want the presence of ATASP-1 here until the clinic is put into full operation.” 

The Zonal Agribusiness Specialist, Mr. John Yisa, said that the borehole in the clinic had been reticulated to supply the village people with drinkable water. He pointed that the proper handing over would be conducted as soon as training on proper maintenance is carried out for its sustainability. 

Mr. Yisa also called on the state government to take advantage of the ATASP1 demonstration centre at Bida- Zunguru Road, Gbako Local Government in the training of the youths in the best agronomics practices and other vocational trainings that can create jobs in the state.

At Lemu village, also in Gbako Local Government of Niger state, a central market was built to accommodate the selling of all the three ATASP-1 staple crops of rice, cassava and sorghum according to Mr. Jibril Yisa who said the impact of the market had been tremendous since it was handed over to them to manage, and requested that more lock-up shops be built as he also demanded for the extension of the Program based on its impact in the lives of the people.

Another successful young farmer in Bida- Badeggi zone, Mohammed Yusuf from a renowned rice-growing community in Agaie Local Government Area of Niger state told his story: ”I inherited a farm land where I grow local rice varieties of rice. Before 2016, I barely ate after harvest. Now I eat enough, have enough to sustain me to the next season, and have a ready market to buy my surplus produce. After harvest I got lots of bags for the wet and dry season farming. I sold some and bought a new motor cycle and a cow. We used to live in the family house where four of us live in a room but now i have built my own house.’’

In Bida- Badeggi zone, Gimba and his twin brother Hussaini, amongst so many beneficiaries of ATASP-1 attested that farming couldn’t be more rewarding than now. The 27-year old twins say; ‘’ we inherited rice farming that had never yielded more than two tons/ha with all kinds of effort, but have doubled the yield as a result of ATASP-1 intervention.” 

The twins as an evidence of prosperity and change in status bought the same kind of car, built a house and are among the farmers in the zone to perform last year’s Hajj.       

During the visit of Food Farm News to Etsu-Agaie,  Alhaji Yusuf Nuhu, a high traditional ruler in the state expressed happiness about the reappointment of African Development Bank (AfDB’s President), Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina saying that the introduction of ATASP-1 to his communities had taken peasant farmers above poverty level as many youths and women’ status have been enhanced economically and with social amenities like roads, health care centres, solar powered borehole, inputs of seeds and pumping machines.

Alhaji Nuhu said, “I am happy to let you know that some peasant farmers have gone above the poverty line through ATASP-1. The provision of improved seeds has enhanced yield of crops. In Badeggi area, young men through ATASP-1’s intervention have become great farmers to a point of being able to build their houses, get themselves vehicles and able to perform pilgrimage. This is a great achievement and we are happy with the Program’s global agricultural practices that have raised the income of farmers above the poverty level.’’

He said that ATASP-1’s impact would be more felt if extended to other crops and livestock with extension of time duration beyond year 2021 saying that ‘’we want ATASP-1’s intervention  on livestock of processing into milk, meat and leather. Also, other crops like cowpea, groundnut and cotton can be brought back to their glorious days of economic importance to the people and the entire economy in Nigeria.’’ 

Findings by Food Farm News revealed that women trained by ATASP-1 at the Bida-Badeggi Outreach team on nutrition and value addition along the value chains of rice and sorghum were now counting their gains as they could formulate infant feeds to sell and earn more money. Lois Usman of Kpatsuwa community is one of the beneficiaries already counting her blessings in this regards.

Another beneficiary in the fabrication of agriculture machineries, Engr. Benjamin C. Okewonkwo had this to say “I have been in this business of fabrication for years, but had not been this happy. There is this particular training I attended where we were allowed to exchange ideas, and it gave me the opportunity to see more technologies that I had improved upon. This multipurpose threshing machine is new version of the other ones- it is more portable, user friendly and more efficient.”

As well as it wonderfully impacted on people, the Program is not without constraints as the following were highlighted; 

Poor counterpart funding by Federal Government of Nigeria and some states also constrained physical implementation.

Covid-19 remains a challenge in the implementation of the program activities

Climate challenges occasioned by flood in the north and drought in the south.

Interview 

 ‘Our scientists need to come up with coping mechanism like the use of climate smart agriculture to checkmate the excesses of the natural disaster...’ 

 The National Coordinator of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda Support Programme Phase-1 (ATASP-1), Dr. Ibrahim Muhammed Arabi in an exclusive interview with Food Farm News, spoke of various achievements and constraints like vagaries of climate change and some states’ non-adherence to counterpart funding arrangement and advised that the Program be extended to include more crops to other states in the country. Excerpts... 

From what happened in the participating states, what would you ascribe as the strength for this achievement and successes? 

We thank God for his mercies in that the Federal Government (FG) led by His Excellency, President Mohammadu Buhari, Minister of Agriculture, Alhaji Muhammadu Sabo  Nanono and Minister of State and governors of the seven states, and to cap it, the management of African Development Bank (AfDB) and our Project staff, all these combined, have seen us through these achievements we are seeing today.

I want to draw from the angle of human capacity, because most of the time we tend to look at capacity from the strength of finance without competent workers who have passion for working extra hours, what can you say to this?

You see this ATASP-1 is a donor Program supported by the AfDB and the management of the Program are competitively selected and recruited. You have to get all the basic qualifications and experiences including all the characters it takes to work in this kind of Project that is time-bound, with targets. So we have competent and qualified staff at both the National and zZonal offices and we are also motivated in terms of remuneration with provision of working tools and materials. We have very good understanding of the project document with its aims and objectives to achieving the deliverable expected and the outcome. All of these have added up to give the achievements on the field as you have rightly said.

How can you describe the aggregate performance from your table? 

I must say that I am really impressed with what we have achieved at the States’ level. You can see that all stakeholders at the states are happy, especially the beneficiaries at the participating communities’ production and productivity have been enhanced with improved technologies as many of them socially, medically and economically are more empowered. More of these achievements will be more visible by the time we are completing the project as by that time, the infrastructures would have been completed for handing over.

This leads me to asking for response to beneficiaries demand for extension for the project, and even to other crops and states. What is your reaction to this request?

Well my advice is that since there are lot of achievements and successes, and the communities are happy, then it is advisable that the project be extended to enable effective completion of all the economic social infrastructure and also be extended to second phase so there can be expansion in the existing states through more communities’ involvement and even expansion to other states that have not been participating.

How has climate change impacted on the project?

Oh yes! these are natural disasters occasioned by climate change effects, and this year’s edition has been very devastating and ravaged communities. Our beneficiaries have suffered a great deal. For example, farms in the flood prone areas have suffered productivity as all the crops are submerged leading to a great loss of income. And this has made negative impact on many communities who have benefitted on our Program. This is why our scientists need to come up with coping mechanism like the use of climate smart agriculture to checkmate the excesses of the natural disaster with provision of improved technologies that are shorter to cope with flood prone areas just as the one that is drought resistant must also be made available with agricultural insurance cover being taken very seriously. All our drainages must be well opened for free flow of water without any blockages and more awareness and sensitization must the created in this line across the nation to farmers. 

Is there any palliative to ameliorate losses for beneficiaries?

Yes, since we are a Federal Government Program, the Government is supporting our benefiting communities with flood palliatives and i think this is an ongoing thing by the FG to ameliorate the losses of farmers.

How would you describe the payment of counterpart funding payment among the states?

Honestly the payment of counterpart funding is an issue as some states government are paying while others are not. I want to seize this opportunity to appeal to those that have not been paying to ensure their payment for the agricultural development of the their states in terms of productivity with provision of social, economic and health infrastructure many communities have been enjoying under the project designed. I also want to commend those that are regularly paying to continue caring for their people.