A total of 2,021,468 farmers were reached with inputs and services under the Feed The Future, Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services, USAID has revealed.
The ‘Feed the Future’ project is a USAID/PIND 16.8 million dollars funded 5 -year development initiative, that works with micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to facilitate learning, replication and scale around alternate models of extension services, to increase access and adoption of improved Agricultural technologies.
Presenting an overview of the project which is already in its fourth year, the USAID FTF team revealed that the project was targeted at 2 million smallholder producers in Benue, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Kaduna, Kebbi and Niger States respectively is focused on five food value chains including maize, rice, cowpea, soybean and aquaculture.
The project has identified and promoted 39 most impactful practices(MIPs) as key extension innovation business solutions that MSMEs need to reach smallholder farmers to enhance their capacity. It works with 311 MSMEs who commercialise the MIPS and incorporate extension messaging to reach more farmers, enhance the volume of transactions and grow their business, the team noted.
Through this process, the 311 MSMEs were able to provide inputs and extension services on most impactful practices /improved Agricultural practices to 2,021,468 smallholder farmers and increased productivity and income of the farmers by 100%.
“About 70% of the improved agricultural practices are climate smart to help farmers adapt or build resilience to climate change, while a total of 1,088 gainful jobs were created by the MSMEs mainly youths to cope with increasing demand for agricultural inputs and extension by the expanding number of farmers in their business network,” USAID team in charge of the Feed the Future programme said.