By Abimbola Ogunnaike
The World Bank and the Federal Government have commended Kwara State governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq over the flag-off of the Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project (L-PRES), a six-year $500 million food security programme in the state.
Both the Federal Government and World Bank commended the governor for providing quality leadership and platforms for livestock value chain production and commercialisation in the state.
The Governor said at the flag off of the project that his administration has invested in the development of the livestock sector to maximise its potential, particularly in beef and dairy production,
“Kwara has a comparative advantage in all areas of livestock production, particularly in beef and dairy production. It serves as forms of income and wealth for families to better access financial services. It is a major form of financial instrument to families, especially now that we are talking about financial inclusion, improvement in standard of living, and improving our GDP in the state,” he added.
“This is why our focus has been on developing, upgrading, and transforming the economy in terms of livestock development. This has had positive impacts on smallholder farmers while also reducing farmer-herder conflict in the state.
“We aim to ensure that the smallholder farmers become commercial farmers so that they can respond to demand for quality food from the urban centres, climate change, contribution to global economy and also ensure that families have adequate supply of animal protein and improved livelihood.
“For these reasons, our administration keyed into programmes like the special agro processing zone and livestock productivity and resilience support project that we are flagging off today.
“Indeed, the utmost objective is in line with our administration’s vision of uplifting the vulnerable, improving the activities of small holder farmers, providing critical infrastructure for modern livestock production and also mitigating the clash between pastoralists and crop farmers,” the governor said.
AbdulRazaq called for an improved coordination and synergy for the design and implementation of SAP-Z and L-PRES, given the similarities of the projects.
“We should also work alongside RAAMP (Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project) to make sure we deliver. We will strive to engage more progressively to make sure we deliver this project on time,” he added.
The event was attended by the Chief of Staff Prince Mahe Abdulkadir; Commissioner for Agriculture Oloruntoyosi Thomas; Senior Agricultural Economist, World Bank Chidozie Anyin; Team Lead Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project (L-PRES) Emmanuel Sene; National Project Coordinator for L-PRES Sanusi Abubakar; and State APC chairman, Prince Sunday Fagbemi.
