Aide Memoire

Pre- Mission Technical Assistance Visit

Third National Fadama Development Project Additional Financing (AF)-(P130788)

November 5- 11 2015,

1.0 INTRODUCTION

A National Fadama Coordination Office (NFCO) Pre –Mission Technical Assistance Visit of the Third National Fadama Development Additional Financing Fadama III –AF) was conducted from November 5 to 11, 2015. The mission is a prelude to the 4th Joint World Bank/Federal Government of Nigeria implementation support mission that is scheduled to take place from Nov 23 to December 5, 2015. The Pre- Implementation Support Mission led by Tayo Adewumi, National Project Coordinator, and consisted of four teams that visited the Six Core States of Anambra, Enugu, Kano, Kogi, Lagos, Niger, and two Production Cluster States (Osun and Plateau).

The NFCO is most grateful for the courtesies extended to it by the participating Governments of Anambra, Enugu, Kano, Kogi, Lagos, Niger, Plateau and Osun States as well as the Fadama clients.

The overall objective of the Pre Mission Technical Assistant Visit was to assess the readiness of the State for the upcoming mission and review Project Implementation progress across all the components.

This report provides a summary of project status and key findings of the mission across the eight States visited.

2.0KEY PENDING ISSUES FROM THE 3RD WORLD BANK/FEDERAL GOVERNMENT MISSION

The Project has achieved over 70% implementation of the action plan from the 3rd Supervision Mission. However, key pending issues include Harmonization of Nutritional Training Module and related activities, Technical Review Workshop for Appraisal of Fadama III performance to assist performance of AF and Engagement of consultant for economic analysis of Fadama III.

3.0 KEY FINDINGS/PROGRESS OF IMPLEMENTATION

The Implementation of Four Hundred and Twenty - Four(424) approved and disbursed Business plans covering Five Thousand and Eighty - Eight (5,088) hectares of farms across the four value chains is ongoing in the States visited. Harvesting has alsocommencedin Niger, Enugu and Kogi States for rice and Cassava Value Chains respectively. The first Micro-Finance Bank established through savings mobilized by FFCA in Plateau State is completed and ready for take-off. Also, construction/rehabilitation of the AEHE centres are under except for Lagos and Enugu that were constrained by inadequate counterpart funds. In addition, the mission noted that all the core States are at different stages in the procurement processes for the construction of roads and irrigation infrastructure

4.0 STATUS OF IMPLEMENTATION BY COMPONENTS

4.1COMPONENT 1: CAPACITY BUILDING, INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION SUPPORT

Distribution of Production Clusters and Production Groups along Value Chain

The Project has mobilized one hundred and seventy - four (174) Production Cluster and Nine Hundred and Six (906) production groups across four value chains in the 6 Core States. A breakdown of production Clusters and Production Groups along value chains is shown in table 1.

Table 1: Distribution of Production Cluster and Production Groups along Value Chain

Value Chain / States / Production Cluster / Production Groups
Cassava / Kogi / 10 / 100
Sorghum / Kano / 17 / 110
Tomatoes / Kano / 5 / 43
Rice / Anambra / 67 / 151
Niger / 23 / 119
Enugu / 32 / 181
Lagos / 7 / 39
Kano / 13 / 163
Total / 174 / 906

Plateau Stateregistered two (2) Production Clusters comprising of twenty (20) Production groups for Tomatoes production while Seven (7) Production Clusters with Thirty-nine (39) Production Groups had been mobilized for Cassava production in Osun State.

Communication activities (Social Mobilization, High Level Advocacy, IEC, Media Van Utilization)

High level advocacy visits and sensitization were undertaken to Key Stakeholders such as State Governors, Political Office holders, Local Government Chairmen, Traditional Rulers etc. The media vans procured forKano,Kogi and NigerStates are beingutilized for awareness creation and publicity of project activities within catchment and core areas of intervention. The Project has also undertaken media publicity of its activities in the core States with Stations such as Radio Kano, Radio Lagos etc with a total number of Eighty - Nine (89) programmes aired in Kano and Lagos States with 208 jingles produced in Lagos State. 10 community film shows to all production clusters were organized in Niger State. Enugu recorded low communication activities in the State due to non-availability of Communication Officer in the State.

In the Plateau State, high level sensitizations of various stakeholders have been conducted at State and LGA levels on Fadama III AF concept. The State also has a weekly programme on PRTV (Plateau Radio Television) known as NomaTushinArziki. However, there are minimal communication activities in Osun State due to delay in payment of counterpart fund.Moreso, there is no documentary of States implementation activities under Fadama III AF Project.

Number of Women and Youth groups formed for downstream activities

Of all the six core States only Kano State has formed a youth group for downstream activities under Rice value chain.. However, seven (7) PGs are currently being prepared to meet the objective of women and youth participation in downstream activities in Enugu State.Two groups (one youth and One women group) were formed for downstream activities in Plateau State, Osun State is yet to form groups for processing activities.

Functionality of FFCAs and validity of Membership

The FFCA is functional inKogi and Niger States with its Membership validated. In Niger State, the FFCA has paid N4,000,000.00(Four Million Naira) as part of itscounterpart contribution for the AEHE while sourcing credit from bank for the remaining 15%. In Anambra State, FFCA in 4 LGAshave contributed the sum of N70, 000.00, while Lagos State FFCAs has N10,000,000.00 (Ten Million Naira) in its account. The validity of membership could not be ascertained in Kano State but election was conducted with officers elected into various positions.Enugu Statealso conducted election into different offices of the FFCA with result collated but wasnot yet announced as at the time of the visit.

The FFCA is also functional in Plateau and Osun States, and its membership has been validated across Local Government Areas. The Federated in Plateau State has established Fadama Farmers Micro Finance Bank which is ready for commissioning by the State Government.

Level of Business Plan Preparation and Implementation

Four Hundred and Thirty -Two(432) approved Business Plans consisting of Three Thousand and Seven hundred and Forteen (3,714) hectares have been disbursedto and are being implemented across five core States and two production cluster States respectively.In Kano State, Rice and Sorghum farms are ready for harvest while Tomatoes are in nursery about to be transplanted.

A total of 118.4mt have been harvested from 25 ha in the 100ha Special Intervention sites in Kogi State and sold to Matna Food Processing Company. In Lagos State, farmers have been supported with inputs for Rice for 3 production group on Thirty Three (33) hectares of farms. Some Production groups supported under Rice value chain in Niger and Enugu States have commenced harvesting. A breakdown of Business Plans prepared and implemented is shown in Table 2.

Table 2: Status of Business Plan preparation and implementation across core States

State / Value Chain / No. of BP Prepared / No of BPs Approved / No. of BPs disbursed/ Implemented / No of Hectarage under the
Disbursed BPs
Anambra / Rice / 160 / Yet to be reviewed / None
Enugu / Rice / 181 / 181 / 168 / 1,719
Lagos / Rice / 19 / 19 / 3 / 38
Niger / Rice / 100 / 96 / 96 / 990
Kano / Rice / 163 / 63 / 57 / 855
Horticulture / 49 / 15 / 15 / 135
Sorghum / 110 / 51 / 49 / 690
Kogi / Cassava / 140 / 92 / 36 / 215
Kogi (Intervention Sites) / Cassava / 8 / 8 / 8 / 100
Total / 930 / 525 / 432 / 3,714

A total of forty Business Planswith Four Hundred and Forty Hectares have been prepared and approved for implementation under Cassava and Tomatoes Value Chain in Osun (20BPs) and Plateau (20BPs) States respectively. Out of the 20 approved BPs in Osun State, 13Nos are currently being implemented, while in Plateau State, the approved 20 BPs are at various level of implementation.

4.1.6Readiness of Market (Off-takers/Processors) & compliance with Signed Agreement

Production Groups have been linked with Off-takers in all the Core States with signed agreements apart from Anambra and Lagos who are yet to sign any agreement.Nine Off-takers identified across value chain in the Core States include; Annes Agro Processing Ltd, Umza Rice, Popular Rice Farms, Grand Cereals, ONYX, Dangote Ltd, Ihima, MATNA FOODS, Imota Rice Processing Mill and other Small Scale Processors and Medium Scale Off-takers.

Table 3: Signed Agreements with Off-takers

Value Chain / State / No of PCs with signed MoU / Off-takers
Cassava / Kogi / 20 / IhimaMatna Foods
Osun / 3 / Matna Foods Akure
Sorghum / Kano / Grand Cereal Ltd
Horticulture / Kano / Dangote Ltd
Plateau / 2 / Wedurat
Rice / Anambra / - / -
Enugu / 1 / Annes Agro
Niger / 10 / Onyx Rice
Kano / 7 / Umza Rice
Lagos / - / -

The mission observed that some Off-takers were willing to off-take produce from Farmers but they were not favourable dispose to signing agreement with Production Clusters. Discussion is underway to sign agreement with Dangote Ltd (Tomatoes), Grand Cereal (Sorghum), TJ Bismonco in Osun State (Cassava).

4.1.6Mission Recommendations

  1. SFCO should intensify efforts in signing MoUs with already identified Off-takers without further delay.
  2. Mobilization and Formation of Women and Youth groups for processing activities should be intensified.
  3. Sensitization and necessary follow up of FFCA to generate 35% commitment for AEHE Center should be intensified.
  4. Efforts should be intensified by the SFCO to prepared and process new Business Plans for funding

4.2COMPONENT 2: Small Scale Community Owned Rural Infrastructure

Road construction feasibility reports in Kano, Enugu, Lagos, Anambra have been concluded by the Consultants, the evaluation reports are being reviewed by NFCO. Niger and Kogi States are at advanced stages of awarding the contract to the successful bidders.

On the construction of irrigation infrastructure, Anambra State is at the completion of evaluation of bids for the five locations (Anaku, Otakpu-Omor, Itulu-Omor, Ogbakuba, Ogborji) while Enugu is at advanced stage of awarding the contracts. In Lagos, evaluation report of bids has been forwarded to NFCOwhile Niger State has procured 15 wash-bores and water pumps at Badeggi for the implementation Rice Value Chain activities.

NigerState has completed the construction of the AEHE Centre and hadprocured 5 Tractors, 1 Power Tiller and Mini-combined harvester. Anambra State has recorded 15% level of work done for the construction of AEHE Centre located in Omor whereas Kano Statework has commenced in the AEHE centre but the prototype design by NFCO was not adhered to, however the reconstruction of the fence and removal of the trees to create more space for equipment was ongoing. Enugu and LagosStates are unable to mobilize Contractors due to lack of counterpart fund. Kogi Statehas established proposed site for the construction of the center and have placed advert for bids. .

Land has been allocated for the construction of the specialized tomatoes markets, cold room and Net House in Kano State. The prototype design would be forwarded to the State by NFCO shortly.

Water User Committeehas been formed inNiger, Anambra and Enugu States while Kano,and Lagos are at different stages of formation of the committee in their States.

Mission Recommendation

  1. The Procurement Committee should meet and conduct a field verification in order to validate the 15% work done in Anambra State and make appropriate recommendation, especially in the area of fund releases that would ensure that the target date of January, 2016 completionis not compromised.
  2. Prototype design for AEHE earlier forwarded to States should be adhered to
  3. SFCO to discuss further with FFCA on the suitability of the AEHE site before further action in Kogi State.

4.3COMPONENT 3: Advisory Services and Input Support

A total of 20 Advisory Services and Inputs Consultants (ASICs) have been engaged and assigned to at least One (1) Production Cluster from the 38 recommended ASICs across the Core States to support farmers in the use of best agronomic practices for higher productivity gains. However, Anambra State has conducted the evaluation exercise and has identified 14 successful ASIC candidates but due to non-disbursement to PGs/PCs, the State is yet to engage any ASIC.

Meanwhile, Osun and Plateau States have each engaged and assigned 2 and 1 number ASICs respectively to work closely with PCs. Impacts on ground reveal positive results in the activities of ASICs within the States.

Farm Record Books, both at individual and group levels have been distributed to substantial number of farmers but are fairly utilized in documenting relevant activities. However, funds disbursed to PCs/PGs on agricultural Inputs do not correspond with the data uploaded on the e-voucher system. As at date, a sum of N122, 505,640 has been disbursed to agricultural inputs across the benefitting States and N79, 421,050 only representing 64.8% was captured in the e-voucher platform of the Project as at the time of the mission. (See table below)

S/N / States / Total No. of PGs / No. of BPs / Approved Disbursement / Actual Disbursement
Core: / Approved / Disbursed / Hectarage Disbursed / Inputs / AEHS / TOTAL / Inputs / AEHS / Total
1 / Anambra / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0
2 / Enugu / 181 / 181 / 168 / 1,719 / 50,800,510 / 0 / 50,800,510 / 26,062,000 / 0 / 26,062,000
3 / Kano:
Sorghum / 50 / 51 / 49 / 690 / 8,961,000 / 3,375,000 / 12,336,000 / 14,361,600 / 0 / 14,361,600
Tomato / 15 / 15 / 15 / 135 / 1,050,000 / 1,398,750 / 2,448,750 / 8,806,347 / 0 / 8,605,347
Rice / 57 / 63 / 57 / 855 / 25,103,540 / 6,324,380 / 31,427,920 / 38,504,250 / 0 / 38,504,250
4 / Kogi / 28 / 92 / 36 / 215 / 10,614,000 / 3,629,000 / 14,243,000 / 26,100,000 / 8,100,000 / 34,200,000
Special Intervention / 8 / 8 / 8 / 100
5 / Lagos / 10 / 19 / 3 / 38 / 9,833,500 / 9,167,500 / 19,001,000 / 1,496,500 / 570,000 / 2,066,500
6 / Niger / 96 / 96 / 96 / 990 / 16,980,000 / 21,159,300 / 38,139,300 / 28,260,000 / 5,000,000 / 33,260,000
445 / 248 / 432 / 3,714 / 72,542,040 / 45,053,930 / 168,396,480 / 143,590,697 / 13,670,000 / 95,588,500
Production Cluster
7 / Osun / 20 / 20 / 13 / 128 / 8,900,000 / 2,400,000 / 11,300,000 / 1,912,000 / 1,950,000 / 3,862,000
8 / Plateau / 20 / 20 / 20 / 45 / 22,322,600 / 6,978,800 / 29,301,400
40 / 40 / 33 / 173 / 31,222,600 / 9,378,800 / 11,300,000 / 1,912,000 / 1,950,000 / 3,862,000
GRAND TOTAL / 485 / 288 / 465 / 3,887 / 103,764,640 / 54,432,730 / 179,696,480 / 145,502,697 / 15,620,000 / 99,450,500

SUMMARY OF DISBURSEMENT TO INPUT AND AGRICULTURAL EQUIPMENT AND HIRING SERVICES

The administration of Input Paper Vouchers in the delivery of inputs is constrained by the inability to generate e-numbers which was largely due to poor farmers’ data upload of approved Business Plans across States.

Mission Recommendations

  1. There is need for immediate farmers’ database upload and generation of vouchers’ e-number that will be used in the input paper voucher.
  2. Disbursements to Agricultural Inputs should be updated on the E-Voucher System at the point of issuance of inputs voucher to PCs/PGs
  3. The ASIC and the facilitators must ensure that the farmers fill their record books accordingly and in retrospect using the records at their disposal.

4.4 COMPONENT 4: Support to ADP, On-farm Demonstration and Adaptive Research

The existing relationship between the ADP and respective SFCO is cordial. The SFCO has fared well in terms of prompt release of fund to undertake approved ADP’s related activities. However, the SFCOs are yet to leverage on the existing relationship to facilitate production groups’ access to extension services from ADPs; an activity very critical for the attainment of one of the KPIs of Component IV.

All the Fadama III AF Core States have ICT Centres which were housed in their respective State ADP’s Office Complex under Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Unit. However, none of the centre is functional except in Niger and Lagos States where the centre is being utilized in the promotion of e-extension services to farmers. In Kogi State, the five desktop and a laptop computers in the centre have crashed due to virus attack and currently, there is no internet connectivity. All the computers and accessories in Anambra and Enugu States ICT Centres are in good condition but not connected to internet due to lack of fund to subscribe for internet connectivity.The mission noted that the earlier reported burnt generator for the ICT centre in Anambra has been repaired and functional. Meanwhile, the two Staff deployed in all the State from PM&E unit to man the centre has commenced uploading of farmers’ data in readiness for e-extension services to them.

Four varietal comparison demonstrations plots were established across the 6 Fadama III AF core States except in Enugu and Lagos States. In Kano and Anambra States, three hectares each of four rice varieties (FAROs 44, 52, 60 and 61) comparison demonstration plots were established by NCRI while four hectares of same demonstrations plots were also established in Niger State. In addition, nurseries for tomato(Chibili, Kiarra and Thorgal) were established in two sites – KwananGafan (GarunMallam LGA) and Makunturi (Bunkure LGA). Furthermore, four locations have been identified by Kano SFCO together with NIHORT where the demonstration plots would be established. In Kogi State, NRCRI Umudike has established Six (6) hectares of four cassava varieties (TME419, TMS 0505, TMS 01/1368) comparison demonstration plots with emphasis on Yellow Cassava variety. However, branding of the demonstration plots were not adequately done

The production groups/clusters have not been adequately sensitized on the window and profitability of community seed production therefore, there was no existence of production groups/clusters across the States that could be encouraged to embark on community seed production under the project. The States were urged to make conscious effort to mobilize and formgroups; preferably unemployed youths which could be supported to gointo community seed production.

Mission Recommendations

  1. States should provide necessary support to the ADP and ensure that the ICT centre is functional. This will include installation of antivirus, provision of efficient internet option, renovation of the centre where necessary as well as proper branding of the ICT Centres and its equipment
  2. Conscious effort should be made by States to mobilize and register production groups/clusters that will be supported to undertake seed production as a business.
  3. States should leverage on the existing relationship to facilitate production groups’ access to extension services from ADPs.
  4. States were advised to properly brand all demonstration plots specifying the four varieties of crops being showcased on the signpost.

4.5COMPONENT 5: Productive Asset Acquisition