By Ogar Monday
Cross River, Ekiti, Akwa Ibom, Ondo, Abia, and Osun States are set to benefit from the United States Department of Agriculture’s program to support cocoa farmers in Nigeria.
The program, under the USDA’s Food for Progress program, will be carried out in collaboration with the Lutheran World Relief, and it is meant to strengthen the cocoa value chain in Nigeria.
In a statement last weekend, the US Consulate revealed that the project, valued at around $22 million will span a five years period in the said States and will benefit an estimated 68,000 farmers.
Counselor for Agricultural Affairs, U.S. Mission, Gerald Smith, held that the program “will target farmers in low productivity but high promising areas, as well as farmers in high density, high productivity communities.
“The primary objective of the Food for Progress program is to increase cocoa productivity by leveraging climate-smart agricultural measures.
“It will support improved access to inputs, technical resources and capacity, post-harvest processing and export markets.” He said.