The Lagos State Government has appealed to the World Bank for an extension of the Agro-processing, Productivity Enhancement, and Livelihood Improvement Support (APPEALS) Project beyond the September 2023 deadline so that more farmers can benefit from the project.
The Lagos State Commissioner for Agriculture, Abisola Olusanya, made this call, when World Bank and APPEALS Project representatives paid her a courtesy visit during the 9th Implementation Support Mission of the project to Lagos state.
The APPEALS Project is a six-year project developed by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) in collaboration with the World Bank and other stakeholders, to enhance the agricultural productivity of small and medium scale farmers and improve value addition along priority value chains in the Participating States.
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The commissioner pointed out that the APPEALS Project in the state has empowered about 8,000 farmers, especially women and youths, in the last five years, eulogizing the project team as one of the best groups of people to coordinate projects in the state.
She presented cheques to five farmers, who are women and youth beneficiaries of the program, as insurance benefits over the recent loss of their poultry farm as a result of Avian Influenza, which led to the death of their birds.
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The five beneficiaries—Hameed Osiyemi, Yahya Mohammed, David Christiana, Moromoke Olanrewaju, and Omolara Ojo, were given between N50,000 and N210,000 as insurance benefits by the First Adequate Benefits Insurance Brokers Limited.
The State Project Coordinator, Oluranti Sagoe-Oviebo, noted that the main objective of the mission is to assess the project’s overall implementation status and ensure the successful completion of the project action plan developed during the 8th mission visit.
She disclosed that part of the support the Lagos APPEALS project is doing is to ensure that beneficiaries are insured, and that is why the project collaborated with the insurance company, noting that those who received cheques during the courtesy visit are beneficiaries from Epe axis in Lagos State.
