Farmers from six African countries, including Nigeria,
are to benefit from the largesse of the second phase of the Commercial Products
(COMPRO-II) project being funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
According to NaijaAgroNet
investigations, Gates Foundation has before now approved the project which
amounts to $7 million, about N1.09 billion, with Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia,
Ghana, Uganda, and Tanzania as the six countries to benefit from the second
phase of the project.
The International Institute of
Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in a press statement made available to NaijaAgroNet
also revealed that the project is tagged ‘Institutionalization of quality
assurance mechanism and dissemination of top quality commercial products to
increase crop yields and improve food security of smallholder farmers in
sub-Saharan Africa.’
IITA Director General, Nteranya
Sanginga noted that the main objectives of the project are to institutionalize
quality assurance mechanisms and facilitate the rapid dissemination of top
quality commercial products to increase yields and also improve security of
smallholder farmers.
Further, he said the project is to
increase awareness among over two million smallholder farmers on effective and
profitable commercial products by 2016 through public-private partnership.
Prem Warrior, a senior Programme
Officer at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said that the expected outcome
of the project is the institutionalization of screening and approval of
commercial products.
The phase II of the project
proposes to transit technologies used for the phase 1 of the project into
Ghana, Tanzania, and Uganda; institutionalize regulatory and quality control
processes; disseminate effective products through
public-private partnerships; develop communication tools, and
strengthen human capacity.
NaijaAgroNet gathered that at the end of the project, more farmers
are expected to confidently use the quality assurance products because of their
safety, efficacy, and quality will be ensured through institutionalized
regulatory and quality assurance mechanisms.
Yinka Awosanya/LS
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