4 Million Nigerians To Benefit From UK’s Climate, Agriculture Programme

4 Million Nigerians to Benefit from UK’s Climate, Agriculture Programme

The programme aims to support up to four million people, 50 percent of whom will be women.

By Aisha Musa Dutse

A new Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) a UK government-funded climate and agriculture programme in Nigeria, Propcom+, is set to support sustainable economic growth and improve climate resilience.

The Propcom+’s country’s representative, Adiya Ode, said the programme will also improve the incomes of smallholder farmers by addressing challenges in the country’s food and land-use systems.

She said the programme aims to support up to four million people, 50 percent of whom will be women, to adopt and scale sustainable agricultural practices that increase productivity, income, and climate resilience while reducing emissions and protecting natural ecosystems.

Addressing media working groups and civil society organizations in Dutse, Jigawa State capital, Mrs Ode, said that the Propcom+ programme reinforces the UK Government’s commitment to working with the Government of Nigeria to increase the depth of investment in the agricultural sector by helping the vulnerable to build resilience and adapt to the effects of climate change.

“It will do this by working through strategic market actors to increase the productivity of smallholder farmers, improve nutrition and food security, enhance climate resilience, pursue lower emissions, and protect and restore nature, while also tackling some of Nigeria’s underlying drivers of conflict and insecurity.

“The programme has initial focal states in Kano, Jigawa, and Kaduna in the North West, and some states in the North East to address critical issues around animal health vaccination, bio-fortified and climate-smart crop variety, innovative and digital financial services, ICT-based tools for extension and climate-smart agricultural technologies and innovations.

“The programme will also work in key states in Southern Nigeria where it will address key issues around deforestation, foster sustainable land-use management through landscape-level interventions while supporting communities to manage forest reserves and strengthen landscape governance, Mrs Ade said.

Speaking earlier in the week at the Mutual Accountability Framework and Strategic Dialogue facilitated by the FCDO and the Government of Jigawa State, Mrs Ode said that among other things, the programme is looking to support smallholders to access innovations and technology such as labor-saving devices that reduce drudgery in crop production.

“The programme also seeks to support scale-up and investment in last-mile delivery of animal health vaccines, support the commercialisation of bio-fortified crops to improve nutrition and increase access to climate-smart crop varieties that will help farmers build resilience to climate change and improve their productivity”, she stated.

The Propcom+ builds on the UK Government’s investment in agriculture through the Propcom Mai-karfi program which ended in March 2022, after supporting over 1.25 million persons with improved incomes through key market reforms and policies that benefitted poor women and men in Northern Nigeria.

The Propcom+ program was announced last August by the UK’s Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, as part of the UK International Climate Finance program aimed at supporting climate-resilient and sustainable agriculture and forestry that benefits people, climate, and nature.

The eight-year programme, which kicked off in May 2023 is implemented by The Palladium Group and is currently in its inception phase till January 2024.