The USAID-funded Feed the Future Nigeria Integrated Agriculture Activity in Yola, Adamawa State, on 25 January, officially kicked off the 2021 dry season farming. The commencement was commemorated with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the IITA Nigeria Integrated Agriculture Activity (IITA-NIAA) and Fadhila Crop Science Ltd (FCSL). With the MoU, 200 rice farmers will access seeds and other agricultural inputs for the 2021 dry season farming.
The NIAA Chief of Party, Prakash Kant Silwal, expressed profound optimism about the partnership. He charged the farmers to be good recipients of the support, grow more, and pay back the inputs provided in due course. He used the occasion to reiterate the Activity’s efforts to support smallholder farmers in Adamawa and Borno states.
In her remarks, the FCSL Chief Executive Officer Naona Usoro explained that her organization acknowledges IITA’s global recognition and the Activity’s remarkable performance in the target states. This informed the decision to collaborate. She expects that the partnership will transcend rice farming and extend to cultivating other grains such as maize in subsequent seasons.