12 West Africa countries are to benefit from a World Bank-assisted regional agricultural project – West Africa Agricultural Productivity Program (WAAPP). They are Ghana,Mali. Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Togo, Benin, Gambia and Niger. The Board of the World Bank has already approved Nigeria's participation in the program, which is expected to help it increase productivity and create direct employment for about 1.5 million farmers, especially youths and women. The Task Team Leader for the Program, Abdoulaye Toure, leading a team of agricultural experts on the mission to Nigeria, said the project has started yielding results in some countries such as Mali where technologies developed for rice has increased farm productivity from two to nine tons per hectare while the country's farm productivity stands at 2.5 tons per hectare. Nigeria's share in WAPPP is $51 million out of the $300 million approved for the 12 countries in the West African sub-region. Out of the $ 51million allocated to it, $30 million will come from the ECOWAS sub-region with the balance of $15 million from Nigerian IDA and $6 million from free grants from the Global Food Crisis Response Program (GFPR). The implication is that Nigeria will pay back only the interest-free $15 million to the IDA in 40 years with a grace period of 10 years. Nigeria contributes between 60-65 per cent of ECOWAS funds. According to Abdoulaye Toure, “Nigeria is expected to play a key role in championing this regional agricultural program to scale up research and technology adoption to enhance agricultural productivity in the West Africa sub-region. Many of the participating West African countries are looking up to Nigeria for leadership in the project.” The project is expected to assist farmers in agro-processing and value addition for agricultural products. Its first phase was approved in 2007 and has since provided Ghana, Senegal and Mali with agricultural research systems and regional research co-ordination and monitoring through the West African Council for Agricultural Research and Development. Agriculture is a priority for the country in the attainment of Vision 20-20-20 goals. Reports show that food import bills in Nigeria are high while productivity of its agricultural commodities are very low when compared to other countries in the sub-region. The goal of WAAPP is to encourage integrated development of agricultural research into the Technology Generation and Dissemination continuum in the region. BM
