The Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises in Niger Delta (LIFE-ND), Project of the Federal Government and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), on Thursday launched the Agribusiness Innovative Forum (LAbIF) in Calabar.
Dr Abiodun Sanni, National Project Coordinator of LIFE-ND in Calabar, described the forum as a multi-stakeholder platform, comprising the project beneficiaries and key players in the agri-entrepreneurship space.
Sanni said LAbIF is intended to be an institutional structure that would address multidimensional issues of profitability, access to factors of production, price control among others.
According to him, LAbIF aligns with the policies of the Federal Government on the ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’ encapsulated in the food system transformation pathways adopted by the country.
He said it is a direct implementation response of the Federal Government on innovative financing in the agriculture sector.
“The deliberate and increased involvement of the private sector in agriculture is the reason why LAbIF is an ecology of agro-commodity value chain actors..
“They are expected to collectively help develop specific value chains they find themselves for the overall improvement in the agricultural and rural development sector, ” he said.
Sanni said that LIFE-ND has created and supported 22,150 enterprises out of the targeted 25,500 across the participating six states of Abia, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo and Ondo.
The coordinator said that the project had injected over 30 million dollars into the rural economy of states, and boosting agricultural productivity and value addition across seven commodities.
These included chain of cassava, cocoa, oil palm, rice livestock among others.
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He identified poverty alleviation and empowerment of the youths and women as the core of the project activities.
Ntufam Anom, Rivers State Commissioner for Livestock, Aquaculture and Fishery, said LAbIF would ensure food sufficiency of the populace and boost income generation.
He assured of the state government`s commitment to meet its counterpart funding of LIFE-ND in order to further boost the economy of the state. (NAN)
