The Federal Government of Nigeria and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) have called on Benue State to adopt and institutionalise agricultural innovations into its agricultural development policy.
The National Programme Coordinator of the FG/IFAD Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP), Dr. Fatima Aliyu, made the call during a policy dialogue meeting on VCDP interventions in Makurdi at the weekend.
Represented by the Knowledge Management and Communications Advisor, Vera Onyeaka-Oyilo, Dr. Aliyu urged that the Gender Action Learning System (GALS), Commodity Alliance Forum (CAF), and Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture (NSA) be integrated into state policy to secure sustainability beyond donor support.
She noted that while GALS had helped drive programme success in the state, it remained limited and donor-dependent. “GALS remains confined to donor-supported projects, thereby limited, unsustainable and unable to achieve state-wide transformation,” she said.
Dr. Aliyu recommended that GALS be integrated into State Agricultural and Gender Policies and scaled through a multi-sectoral approach covering health, education, community development, cooperative growth, rural finance, and youth empowerment.
“By doing so, it would ensure broader social impact, inclusive growth, and strengthened household welfare,” she said.
Highlighting the achievements of CAF in Benue, Dr. Aliyu said, “Benue VCDP has contributed 99,452 metric tons of rice worth N13.527 billion through private partnership arrangement and 87,237 metric tons of cassava worth N3.925 billion to Benue as well as Nigeria’s food security and economy.”
She stressed the need for CAF to have a formal legal and policy framework in the state agricultural system.
“When institutionalised through a state policy, it will ensure long-term sustainability, enhance market linkages, strengthen public-private-producers-partnerships, and expand its benefits beyond donor-funded programmes like IFAD-VCDP,” she added.
Dr. Aliyu also called for mainstreaming nutrition into agricultural policies. She said the integration of Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture into the Benue State Agricultural Development Policy would improve cross-sector collaboration and institutional ownership.
The IFAD-VCDP State Programme Coordinator, Dr. Emmanuel Igbaukum, said the meeting was designed to review areas of success in rice and cassava value chains as the programme heads towards its conclusion in 2026.
“The meeting would see how these areas that recorded huge successes, particularly CAF, GALS and Nutrition, are institutionalised and backed by policies to ensure sustainability,” he said.
The Commissioner for Agricultural and Food Security, Dr. Benjamin Anchaver, represented by Permanent Secretary Elijah Ogaagbenu, commended the programme’s achievements.
He assures that the state government will continue to leverage the successes to improve women’s livelihoods, boost agricultural output, and enhance nutrition.
At the end of the meeting, stakeholders from ministries, departments, agencies, farmer groups, and the private sector pledged to support policy frameworks to institutionalise the three strategic areas, CAF, GALS, and NSA, that have recorded significant successes in Benue State.
