Governor of Benue State, Hyacinth Alia, has commissioned 33 new tractors and disbursed N380 million ($250,000) cheques to community interest groups to undertake climate-smart agricultural activities under the Community Revolving Fund (CRF) scheme of the Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) scheme.
The governor, who has already paid the state counterpart funds of N1 billion for the ACReSAL programme, reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to providing the needed support for the programme to continue to thrive in Benue for the overall good of the people of the state.
He appreciated the relentless efforts of ACReSAL in safeguarding the environment, saying his government is proud to collaborate on a project of such consequence designed to improve the lives of the people of Benue.
While he pronounced the immediate creation of ACReSAL as a new agency of government in the state for the purpose of knowledge and skills transfer, the governor said Benue, like many other states in the country, shares numerous challenges such as high poverty rates, a fragile environment, conflicts, degradation of natural resources, low agricultural productivity, and climate-related risks. He said addressing such challenges requires collective efforts.
“Addressing these multifaceted issues necessitates a concerted effort across various sectors. The ACReSAL project is specifically tailored to bolster institutions and implement activities that mitigate the environmental impacts of climate change”, he added.
He said this includes supporting efforts aimed at landscape management, improving community livelihoods and resilience, and strengthening institutional frameworks.
He urged the CRF beneficiaries to exercise diligence and prudence in managing the resources, assuring that the 33 commissioned tractors would benefit over 33,000 households annually.
In a remark, the senior environmental specialist at the World Bank Nigeria office, Dr Joy Iganya, who also doubles as the task team lead for the ACReSAL project, said the team was in the state to assess, support, and look at the programme’s bottlenecks in Benue, adding that no bottlenecks were discovered which indicates that the programme has so far recorded great success in the state.
She commended the government of Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia and the ACReSAL team in the state for playing their respective roles accurately, saying Benue stands to gain more from the programme.
Earlier, the national project coordinator for ACReSAL, Dr Abdulhamid Umar, appreciated Governor Hyacinth Alia and his government for supporting ACReSAL in the state and the World Bank for making funds available for the CFR programme, expressing happiness with the programme’s success so far in the state.
In his welcome address, the state project coordinator of Benue ACReSAL, Dr Victor Ama, said the ACReSAL programme seeks to, among other things, address the challenges of land degradation and climate change in Northern Nigeria on a multidimensional scale, increase agricultural production, reduce poverty, and improve standard of living with financing from the World Bank.
According to him, “The project became effective in June 2022 and will end in March 2028, and it covers 19 Northern States including the FCT, Abuja, disclosing that the Benue State government under Alia, has paid a counterpart fund of N1 billion as well as providing a conducive working environment for the team in the state”.
