By Meletus EZE
The World Bank under its Fadama III Additional Financing Project will soon introduce Livestock Production and Resilience Support Project in Bauchi State.
The leader of Task Team of the project, Dr Adetunji Oredipe, made the disclosure in Bauchi on Thursday when the team paid a courtesy visit on the State Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Alhaji Yakubu Kirfi.
Oredipe said that the project was initiated by the Federal Government and was being supported by the World Bank.
He explained that the project was aimed at strengthening livestock production and improving resilience of farmers and livestock in general.
According to him, the project will also be implemented in some selected states of the country, based on the bank’s criteria and eligibility.
Oredipe listed some of the criteria to include livestock strategy of the state, documentation of past projects on livestock production, the will and potential of the state within the time frame, among others.
He also commented on the intractable challenge of frequent clashes between farmers and herdsmen in some parts of the country, saying the project would focus on the component of conflict management aimed at finding a lasting solution to the problem.
‘‘Some of the components of the project will be to support resilience to strengthen relationship between farmers and herdsmen and management of the project.
‘‘Information provided by the state will be a major yardstick in either inclusion or rejection of the state among the states to benefit from the project,’’ the team leader said.
He called on the state government to pay its outstanding counterpart contribution to enable it benefit from the project.
Responding, the State Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Yakubu Kirfi, assured the team that the government was making effort to pay all its outstanding counterpart contribution to the project.
Kirfi further assured the team that the government would provide an enabling environment for the successful take-off of the project in the state.
