By Newman Anthony Levey in Bo
The Agricultural Value chain Development Project (AVDP) has signed a deal with agricultural officers across the country to monitor the implementation of their project. The Memorandum of Agreement, which was signed between the AVDP and officers in Bo, is worth Le 7 billion.
The AVDP also provided 60 motorbikes to district officers as a support to facilitate their work across the country. Three departments under the Ministry of Agriculture will work directly on the project; Monitoring & Evaluation, Agriculture Engineering and Agricultural Extension divisions.
The AVDP project, worth US$100 million, is under the Ministry of Agriculture and it is funded by the International Fund for Developing Agriculture (IFAD).
As part of the project, new hybrid breeds of oil palm and cocoa will be introduced in the country. Project manager for AVDP, Abdul Rahman Conteh, said crops that usually take 7 years could now be ready for cultivation in three years.
“With these new crops; if you have just 1 acre of cocoa farm, it will give you US$ 1000,” he said.
Speaking on the essence of the memorandum, Conteh said: "We are signing a memorandum of agreement or contractual agreement so that they can help us monitor, supervise and implement our tree crops, inland valley swamp and vegetable production.”
Conteh said up to 45,000 people will directly benefit from the project and 250, 000 people will benefit indirectly over the duration of the project, which is six years. He said 40% of the target beneficiaries are women, whiles the other 40% will target youths.
Government’s priority is to get as much youths in to farming as possible with initiatives like these.
Minister of Agriculture, Denis Vandy, who was also present during the signing of the agreement, urged all officers to put in their full commitment towards ensuring the success of the project.
He said COVID-19 should not be an excuse for failure to implement the project.
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