Emmanuel Ugwu
2 November 2009
Umuahia — Abia state has been certified ready for the full implementation of the National Fadama Development project and in the next five years, $7.8million would be spent to enhance the productivity of rural farmers ona sustainable level, thereby improving their standard of living.
This was disclosed by the National Project Coordinator (NPC), Bukar Tijani, at the opening ceremony of the first joint World Bank/FGN Supervision Mission to the Southeast zone held in Umuahia at the weekend with all Fadama III coordinators in all the five states of the Southeast in attendance.
"Abia has already satisfied the Federal Government and World Bank and is now ready to start Fadama III," Tijani said, adding in the last six months, the groundworks were completed to make Abia and other states ready for effective implementation of Fadama III.
He noted that the World Bank has already fulfilled its obligation of paying $600, 000 while Abia state government and some local governments have equally paid their counterpart funds for the project. He said on full payment by all the parties, the fund would be transferred to the Fadama community associations for utilisation.
In his remarks, the task team leader (TTL), Dr Abimbola Adubi, said Fadama III project was a paradigm shift as it incorporates everybody inthe rural areas unlike Fadama II which targeted only the rural farmerswhen it took off in 2004.
"What we are trying to do is not increasing the income of farmers but increasing the income of land owners," he explained.
Adubi further explained that "we'regoing to succeed because of the kind of team we have." He said $250 million has been set aside byWorld Bank for the implementation of the Fadama III project across thenation and with the success recorded in Fadama II , all eyes are now on Fadama III to break the record.
The state governor, Chief Theodore Orji, represented by the specialadviser on agriculture, Silas Eke, said the state government hasfocused its attention on the development of agricultural sector andwas prepared to lend every support to make farming take its pride ofplace in the economy.
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