The programme aims to improve incomes and food security of poor rural households engaged in production, processing and marketing of rice and cassava on a sustainable basis.
VCDP works to enhance productivity and access to markets for rice and cassava smallholder farmers through a commodity value chain approach.
Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP) is a six-year development initiative of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) programme that focuses on supporting cassava and rice value chains for small farmers in the nine states...
Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP) is a development initiative of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Programme
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Nasarawa State, located in Nigeria’s North Central region, is known for its diverse ethnic groups and agricultural economy. It borders Kaduna, Plateau, Taraba, Benue, Kogi, and the Federal Capital Territory. The state is characterized by a mix of savanna and forest landscapes, with the Benue River forming its southern border.
Key Features of Nasarawa State:
Centrally located in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, bordering several other states and the FCT.
Predominantly savanna with some forest areas, and the Benue River to the south.
Agriculture is the mainstay, with over 80% of the population engaged in farming.
Participating LGAs
Dr Eunice Adgidzi
Adgidzi@vcdpnigeria.org
Dr. Eunice Asheobin Adgidzi is a food processing and nutrition expert with over 15 years’ experience in food processing and nutrition research both locally and internationally. She currently serves as the Nasarawa State Programme Cordinator of FGN/IFAD – Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP) where she works alongside her team to strengthening rice and cassava value chains as well as improving the livelihoods of smallholder rice and cassava farmers on a sustainable basis.
Dr. Adgidzi holds a doctorate degree in Food Science and Technology with a specialization in Cereal/Legume Processing Technology from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State (2017). As part of her doctoral thesis, she undertook 9-month research in Universiti Putra Malaysia where she worked with Prof. Dr. Roselina Karim and Prof. Dr. Hasanah Mohammed to develop a ready-to-eat breakfast from a blend of millet, sesame and moringa leaves.
Under her sterling leadership, VCDP Nasarawa State revolutionized rice production in the State leading to a drastic increase in yield from an average of 1.8 tons per hectare to an average of 5.6 tons per hectare. Dr. Eunice Adgidzi’s keen interest in empowering women and girls engaged in agriculture led her to initiating major reforms in the last 5 years towards ensuring that agricultural interventions are women and youth focused. This accounts for the massive success of VCDP in providing sustainable employment for over 2,000 women and youths in just 3 years of implementation in Nasarawa State. She is a member of different professional bodies including the Nigerian Institute of Food Science and Technology (NIFST) and the Nutrition Society of Nigeria (NSN).
Nigeria is predisposed to severe negative impacts from climate change due to its fragile economy, weak resilience and low adaptive capacity. Rural livelihoods significantly depend on the performance of climate sensitive natural resources, especially in the agricultural sector. Environmental degradation, extreme weather and long-term climate change that undermine the natural resource stock and productive landscapes pose important challenges to sustainable agriculture, livelihoods and food security. Future climate scenarios project a consistent temperature rise (about 0.02oC per year from 2000 until 2100) and increase in variability and occurrences of extreme events leading to possible dry spells, droughts, floods, recurrence of locust and pests and reductions in yield. Annual flooding from the Niger and Benue Rivers and local tributaries and resource conflicts have heightened loss on agricultural investments and soil fertility and human insecurity.
VCDP is stepping up environmental and climate change activities under a systematic strategy that includes mainstreaming options for green growth and climate-smart production and processing, improvement of resilience through deepening of insurance and “no regrets” options, and provision of appropriate climate information.
In Nigeria, a major constraint faced by women in the agricultural sector is lack of access to formal credit. This challenge is felt more acutely by women than men. According to a 2022 report by ActionAid, 77% of Nigerian women in the agri-food systems lack access to government credits like those in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other financial institutions. Activities in the agri-food systems and most informal sectors of the rural economy of developing nations including Nigeria require lots of capital which most women lack (World Bank, 2012). According to Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access (EFInA)’s Access to financial services in Nigeria 2020 survey, women are more financially excluded than men – only 45 per cent of women use formal financial services, compared with 56 per cent of men. Access to formal credit becomes a huge challenge for these women as they cannot build/grow their businesses in line with their aspirations.
The overall goal of financial inclusion in VCDP is to ensure that farmers have sustainable access to financial services after exiting two times matching grant support for inputs and one-time matching grant support for equipment. More also, other value chain actors such as financial services, off-takers, insurance services were able to provide financial services directly or indirectly to them. The services include savings, credit, cashless credit with off-takers and insurance services. In order to achieve this, the programme developed a financial inclusion strategy which covers the following strategic areas:
Under financial literacy training, the major goal is to ensure that VCDP beneficiaries understand the concept of financial terminologies used by service providers and make informed decision about financial services. Under technical assistance support to financial institutions, the major objective is to ensure that the programme provides a structured demand-driven and result-oriented capacity building support to financial institutions which will enable them to provide sustainable financial services in terms of friendly financial products (savings and credits) to VCDP beneficiaries.
Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP) is a six-year development initiative of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) programme that focuses on supporting cassava and rice value chains for small farmers in the nine states…