On 12-13
February 2019, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) on
behalf of the FtF Nigeria Agricultural Policy Project trained 23 (18 male, five
female) senior staff (Assistant Director level) of the Federal Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development in Abuja on Nigeria’s national and regional
agricultural policy framework for the period spanning 2007 to the present.
The training,
which was facilitated by Dr. George Mavrotas, Head of IFPRI’s Nigeria Strategy
Support Program (IFPRI-NSSP) and Hyacinth Edeh, a Research Analyst with
IFPRI-NSSP, took participants on a journey across policies relevant to
Nigeria’s agricultural sector, with an aim of providing participants with a
better understanding of how these policies have shaped the role of agriculture
in present-day Nigeria. The training looked at the Agricultural Transformation
Agenda, the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP)
driven by the African Union, as well as the Agriculture Promotion Policy (APP)
and the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) of the Muhammadu Buhari-led
government, among others.
Dr. Aisha Ndayako-Mohammed, Head of Projects Coordinating Unit at FMARD
delivered welcome remarks at the training course and she also expressed her
gratitude to the Project and the course organizers on behalf of FMARD following
the completion of the course by saying: “ I attended a session of the training
and felt the enthusiasm of the participants and the professionalism of IFPRI.
However, a lot still has to happen from FMARD side to mainstream the lessons
and recommendations from the training into the JSR activities. We will work on
briefing management and articulate areas of support required. We sincerely
appreciate the support from USAID and our continued partnership”.
The course was
enthusiastically received by all training participants. Dr. Rasaq, one of the participants from FMARD
in the training course provided his feedback following the completion of the
course: “I hereby wish to express my feedback on just concluded training
workshop for Assistant Directors of FMARD covering APP, ERGP, CAADP, etc. I
personally enjoy the content, package and mode of presentation of each of the
themes. I interacted with my colleagues who equally expressed their
satisfaction. The opportunity afforded us to access many other research papers
and materials of IFPRI is salutary. I am better prepared to apply some of the
lessons and take-away in my official day to day tasks and assignments. We
equally appreciate the sponsor, USAID for their interventions in Nigeria
Agriculture. USAID is first among the Donors in pursuing a program of alignment
with FMARD aimed at better use of resources, value for money and great impacts
on farmers' livelihood and national food and nutrition security.
The innovative training
course was part of the activities of the
Feed the Future Nigeria
Agricultural Policy Project specifically aimed at further enhancing the
capacity of Nigeria’s policy analysts to produce and make widely available
evidence that is required for sound decision-making on agricultural policy.
The Feed the
Future Nigeria Agricultural Policy Project is funded by the United States
Agency for International Development (USAID/Nigeria) and is jointly implemented
by Michigan State University and IFPRI-NSSP.
