Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture and Food Systems – Official website

NIGERIA COVID-19 ACTION RECOVERY AND ECONOMIC STIMULUS (N-CARES) PROGRAM FOR RESULTS (PFORR)

NIGERIA COVID-19 ACTION RECOVERY AND ECONOMIC STIMULUS (N-CARES) PROGRAM FOR RESULTS (PFORR)

  • Fadama got the approval of His Excellency – Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to deploy the project structure in the implementation of food security (Result Area 2) component of the World Bank assisted N-CARES program and that Fadama structure is maintained and sustained as a tested and proven platform.
  • Nigeria Covid-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (N-CARES) Project is a response plan to the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic which had affected individuals, households, and businesses due to the lockdown imposed to curb the global pandemic. It is World Bank-supported using a PforR funding instrument; to be implemented in all states of the federation and FCT.  
  • The Project Development Objective (PDO) is to protect the livelihoods and food security of poor and vulnerable families and facilitate recovery of local economic activity in all participating states across Nigeria.  It is designed to be an interagency response in states using existing state structures.  

The focus shall include:

  • Result Area 1: Increasing cash transfers and livelihood support to poor and vulnerable households;
  • Result Area 2: Increasing food security and safe functioning of food supply chains for poor households;
  • Result Area 3: Preventing collapse/facilitating the recovery of household/micro enterprises 

Fadama project is designated as delivery platform nationwide (including Lagos) to implement Result Area 2, with a focus on increasing food security and safe functioning of food supply chains for poor households; 

  • Results Area 2 will selectively support government interventions that have the potential to immediately increase access of small-scale poor farmers to agricultural inputs and services, increase capacity to produce food, reduce farm-level post-harvest food loss and waste, and enable the poor and vulnerable to safely access wet food markets as buyers and sellers. Based on the application of the program boundaries, Results Area 2 prioritizes supporting government interventions to increase future capacity to produce and market food, while creating short-term jobs in rural areas to productively absorb labor released from other sectors of the economy due to the economic downturn. The government interventions selected for CARES PforR support will be delivered through existing groups of poor and vulnerable farmers formed through various initiatives, including State Agricultural Development Programs (ADPs), nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), Fadama series of projects, and other donor-funded programs. 

Details of proposed interventions are as follows; 

  • Support to increase food production:

The Program will support government interventions that allow groups of small-scale farmers to access various inputs and services for crop and livestock production, including improved seeds and fertilizers, mechanization services for farmers facing labor shortages, and extension and advisory services. The support for improved seeds will focus on varieties that are high-yielding and resilient to the effects of climate change, for example, varieties that can tolerate drought, resist pests and diseases, and are early maturing. The delivery of extension services aims to enable farmers to utilize the inputs efficiently and apply climate-smart agricultural practices in on-farm production and climate-friendly post-harvest management practices. The support to increase production will be demand-driven following the CDD approach. Farmer groups will be facilitated to select the commodities that are critical to food security needs, value chains most affected by the pandemic, improved seeds that are climate-resilient (depending on availability), and to use agreed criteria to choose individual farmers who are eligible for mechanization services support. The extension and advisory services will deliver climate-smart agriculture practices in farm operations to increase productivity and enhance resilience to impacts of climate variability. This will include reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through climate-friendly management of agricultural waste, increasing carbon sequestration primarily through soil conservation measures and agroforestry, supplementing efficient irrigation systems with climate-smart irrigation agronomy to improve on-farm water management, using climate-smart soil management practices such as mulching and zero tillage, and using weather advisories to inform farmers about the optimal timing of planting and harvesting to increase productivity and minimize pre-harvest crop loss in the fields. Women farmers will be specifically targeted within an emergency program context to address gender disparities on access to inputs and services, including by prioritizing women farmers in the provision of improved seeds and mechanization services as they tend to be relatively labor constrained. 

  • Labor-intensive agricultural infrastructure:

The Program will support government interventions that help in the rehabilitation or improvement of agricultural infrastructure to lay the foundations for the recovery of agricultural production while creating short-term jobs in rural areas. The short-term jobs will help absorb labor released to rural areas, due to the economic downturn, into productive activities in the agriculture sector. The types of infrastructure targeted for rehabilitation and improvement are small-scale irrigation (existing tertiary irrigation canals, tube wells, and boreholes) to enhance climate resilience, existing feeder roads, and soil conservation measures such as planting trees, gabions, and drainage canals. The soil conservation measures will help enhance climate resilience by reducing soil erosion, improving soil quality, increasing soil water infiltration, conserving soil moisture, and creating more carbon sinks when plant cover (for example, carpet grass and elephant grass) is used for gully stabilization. The improvement and rehabilitation of feeder roads will to the extent possible use climate-resilient materials and adhere to environmental impact assessments (EIAs). The program will support infrastructure selected through the CDD approach where farmer groups, their federations, and community associations will be facilitated to prioritize infrastructure from a menu of eligible options. Contracts for rehabilitation or improvement of infrastructure will mandate the employment of a specific number of people and labor days, as per the norms established by the program. 

  • Agricultural assets for production and mitigating food loss and waste:

The Program will support government interventions that provide farmers with agricultural assets to increase capacity for food production and small-scale primary processing to mitigate food loss and waste. The support for assets will be demand-driven and follow the CDD approach where farmer groups will be facilitated to prioritize from a menu of eligible options. The eligible assets to increase food production include the replacement of animals sold as part of household coping strategies to the pandemic with small ruminants and various assets for the crop, livestock, and aquaculture production. Restocking with small ruminants will help advance climate change mitigation as these animals tend to have lower GHG emissions from enteric fermentation and a higher feed conversion ratio than large ruminants. Women play a major role in the small-scale processing of food and therefore support for such assets will prioritize women and the youth. The program will prioritize assets that are energy-efficiency rated and those using renewable energy (for example, solar) to reduce GHG emissions and advance climate change mitigation. In addition, the program will support assets that improve agricultural waste management and reduce emissions that could harm the climate, for example, equipment for biogas production that convert methane-emitting animal waste to clean energy and small-scale processing of farm waste into soil fertilizers and food packaging using climate-friendly materials that are biodegradable. Assets will be provided for individual farmers as well as common assets managed by farmer groups. In addition to delivering the physical assets, the program will provide capacity building and training to the beneficiaries on the proper operation and maintenance of the assets to increase efficiency and minimize emissions that could be harmful to the immediate environment and the climate. The expected outcome is increased access and utilization of assets to produce and process or preserve food. 

  • Upgrading wet markets:

The Program will support government interventions that seek to improve water and sanitation services in wet markets to reduce the risk of COVID-19 spread in the marketplaces. The support will include connecting water supply to various points in the markets (including toilets and entrances), establishing boreholes and overhead tanks, upgrading drainage system, providing fumigation and water treatment services, upgrading slaughter slabs and commodity preservation facilities to enhance water and energy efficiency, and improving waste management facilities to reduce emissions that harm the climate. These activities will complement the guidelines issued by state governments to reduce the spread of COVIDF-19 in marketplaces, including reducing market days/hours and decongesting of markets. The Program will prioritize markets that serve the poor and vulnerable as buyers and sellers. The selection of markets will be through a CDD approach where group federations at the LGA level would be facilitated to select markets in consultation with LGA officials and Fadama teams. Most of the sellers in wet markets are women and therefore program support will enable women to continue to participate in these economic activities. The upgrading of water and sanitation services will ensure that more facilities (for example, toilets) are provided for women because they use the markets more than men. Furthermore, women will be given priority to provide program-supported fumigation and cleaning services. 

Further enquiries: 08023065498; lagosfadama@yahoo.com adeobayemi@yahoo.com 

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