The Kwara state government has flagged off the Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project (L-PRES), a six-year $500 million food security program supported by the World Bank and the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, while flagging off the program, noted that the program, in addition to the massive investment of his administration in the development of the livestock sector, will help to improve the livestock value chain production sector.
The governor explained that Kwara has a comparative advantage in all areas of livestock production, particularly beef and dairy production, giving the administration the privilege to key into programs like the special agroprocessing zone and the livestock productivity and resilience support project.
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“We aim to ensure that the smallholder farmers become commercial farmers so that they can respond to demand for quality food from urban centers, climate change, contributions to the global economy, and also ensure that families have an adequate supply of animal protein and an improved livelihood,” he added.
The National Project Coordinator for L-PRES, Sanusi Abubakar, noted on his own that the objectives of the program are to improve productivity, commercialization, and resilience of the targeted livestock value chain in Nigeria, as well as strengthen the resilience of livelihoods affected by farmer-herder conflict.
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Abubakar disclosed that Kwara is among the five states being visited during this implementation mission out of fifteen states on the program, adding that apart from the fact that Kwara has the largest disbursement of three million dollars, it is also the first state to appreciate disbursement twice since the inception of this project, having already been disbursed in the last quarter of the year 2023.
Also speaking was the Commissioner for Agriculture, Oloruntoyosi Adebayo Thomas, who noted that Kwara has hit positive milestones in the project due to the visionary leadership of the governor and the processes and policies that have been put in place to qualify and meet the very stringent requirements of these developmental projects.
