EU, Oxfam, DEC partner Taraba on food security

The European Union (EU), Oxfam in Nigeria, Development Exchange Center (DEC) and the Taraba State government are collaborating on a new initiative aimed at increasing the productivity and income of farmers in the state.

The project, launched in Jalingo, will target about 300,000 people in 30,000 farming households in Donga, Wukari, Ardo Kola, Kurmi, Takum and Zing local government areas of Taraba state. It is funded by the EU and jointly implemented by Oxfam in Nigeria and DEC.

Known as Produce and Sell (PROSELL), the project seeks to improve the resilience of small-scale farmers, fishermen and livestock owners in the face of shocks from climate change, such as changing rainfall patterns, drought and desertification.

It implementation follows the success of Pro-Resilience Action (PROACT), a similar EU-funded project that is currently reaching 35,000 farming households in Kebbi and Adamawa States.

PROACT has helped to increase farmers’ access to timely agricultural inputs such as seeds and fertilizers; finance for farmer groups; knowledge on practices to improved their yield through farmer field training schools, and community-owned grain reserves to provide food in the lean season, tree planting for fight climate change and village savings and loans association to grow flexible financial services for the rural poor. The net result of PROACT is at least 100 percent agricultural yield increase across Adamawa and Kebbi States and this is what is being replicated in Taraba State.

The Head of the Health, Nutrition and Resilience Section at the EU Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ms. Montserrat Pantaleoni, who represented the Head of Delegation, Ambassador Ketil Karlsen, at the launch, stressed the importance of the EU’s focus on women and youth not only in Taraba state, but for the country as a whole.