The Fadama Project is a proven and tested platform and a unit of the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture and Food Systems for the implementation of the World Bank assisted agricultural development and lately agribusiness projects. The Unit has experienced multi-disciplinary management cadre Officers as Project Implementation Unit (PIU). The PIU members are being assisted by Technical Officers and Clerical Staff as Support Staff. The Front line Officers are the Community Facilitators who work directly with the targeted beneficiaries at the Community levels for guidance on the implementation process and procedures.
FADAMA is a Hausa word for irrigable land usually low lying plains found along with Nigeria’s major river systems. The terminology varies from one location to the other –South West-Akuro, South East-Efam etc. Now Fadama is more of World Bank assisted agricultural diversification and farmers’ assistance or support project or programme; FADAMA projects operated in phases, though with the same objective of sustainably increasing the income of beneficiaries
Fadama I was operated within the ADP system and it was directed at crop farmers only. It recorded huge success which eventually resulted in some unforeseen negative consequences among which frequent conflicts among Fadama resource users, market glut and post-harvest losses (no plan for storage, processing & marketing), non-inclusion of LG authority in local planning and neglected roles of women and youth in farming and contribution to household income featured prominently.
Fadama II attempted to correct the deficiencies noted in Fadama I by making the whole community the centre of focus whilst empowering the beneficiaries to set their development agenda. Fadama Community Associations (FCAs) prepared all-inclusive Local Development Plans (LDPs) with endorsement by local authorities (LGAs). Local Fadama Desk Offices were also established at LGA headquarters with dedicated LG officers manning the office in association with Project facilitators. The project engaged facilitators who were mandated to mobilise and sensitise beneficiaries and constitute them into Economic Interest Groups (EIGs) called Fadama Users Groups (FUGs). The project assisted beneficiaries as groups (not individuals) and the LDPs is prepared by FCAs to contain the needs of constituent groups. 10 LGAs and their constituent LCDAs participated in the project
Fadama III did not only retain the features of Fadama II, it also came with some innovations based on the learning points from Fadama III. Some of these include the inclusion of Fadama Users Equity Funds (FUEF) which was a percentage of profits saved as the replacement value of productive assets acquired from the project; it also included an e-voucher system to make quality inputs available to crop farmers in their right quantities and at the right place and time. The project also made a special provision to support ADP system and support for extension, on-farm demonstration and collaboration for research activities. All (20) LGAs including their constituent LCDAs participated in Fadama III. The project aggregate beneficiaries in the state into an Apex Federated FCA (FFCA) to mobilise funds from amongst beneficiaries in the state to benefit from economies of scale in input procurement and marketing, establish new enterprises etc.
The Fadama III Additional Financing (AF) Project is a grant to Lagos State from the World Bank loan to the Federal Republic of Nigeria (FGN). The AF aims at scaling up the impacts and the development effectiveness of Fadama III Project by aligning it more closely with the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) which was adopted by the Government of Nigeria in 2011. The supported clusters of farmers in Lagos State to increase production and productivity of Rice and link them to better organized markets, The additional financing is consistent with the development objective of the parent Fadama III Project. The direct beneficiaries of Fadama III AF are the Rice producer groups within the production clusters/sites around Badagry, Epe, Ikorodu and Ibeju-Lekki LGAs of Lagos State as well as borderlines of Ogun State and other key players such as investors, public and private service providers, agro-dealers, agro-processors. These smallholder farmers are generally poor and faced a number of binding constraints that prevent them from breaking away from poverty. Low- input low- productivity trap and liquidity constraint are among the chief binding constraints which the AF addressed. The project mainly focused on the rice value chain in Lagos State, which was selected mainly due to the state government’s investment in rice processing mill and the state’s potential to aggregate the product beyond the borders of the State. The project also reached out to processors especially women and youths in the state. While the Project Development Objective (PDO) remains the same as in parent projects, the project positioned the Federated Fadama Community Association (FFCA) across the LGAs as a key exit and sustainability strategy
Though the Fadama project series as supported by the World Bank, was closed to implementation on December 31, 2019; the structure in the state is still being used to deliver the rural intervention and food security agenda of the government in the state.
Mode of operation/expectation from stakeholders
The project operates through a Community-Driven Development (CDD) mechanism in which the beneficiaries take the drivers seats as they identify and prioritise their needs, document these needs to attract funds in the form of grants as well as execute, monitor and control their plans. The Project also has special mechanisms for capturing the vulnerable and marginalised members of the society; women, youth, aged, gatherers, hunters, and non-food agricultural value actors.
The Project operates through its field Officers (Community Facilitators) who guide the beneficiaries on the processes and procedures involved. The benefits are usually categorised into components and farmers group (composed of 10-15 people of similar economic interests) can access any or all benefits from each component. These include Capacity Building, Small-scale Community-owned Infrastructures, Advisory Services and Inputs Support, Support to Adaptive Research and on-farm demonstrations, Assets acquisition for individual Fadama Users’ Groups.
Support along components may or may not include beneficiaries’ contributions, which in any case is not more than 30% (based on component). Beneficiaries are required to produce a documented plan (LDP, Business Plan, Feasibility report, etc) which shows prioritised needs, activity timelines, projected costs, revenues and profitability). These documents form the basis of the project’s support/intervention. The project rarely support individuals but groups; it also provides grants to support businesses and not loans (grants are not repaid by beneficiaries)
