Nigeria - Agriculture and Rural Institutions Support Project

Agriculture and Rural Institutions Support Project is part of the Nigerian Federal Government's improvement of the provision of services to farmers, which in-turn will contribute to increase in food security the reduction of rural poverty. The project should contribute to food security by enabling the Departments and Institutions of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to efficiently serve the rural areas. Otherwise, the provision of logistical support to the extension workers should lead to rapid and effective dissemination of agricultural technologies and related extension services while improvement of the monitoring and evaluation services should enable FMARD obtain timely and relevant data on the impact of the interventions in the agriculture sector. This should enable the institutions to respond effectively and efficiently to the needs of the farmers and other participants in rural development for the enhancement of food security and reduction of poverty. The project has three components, namely: A) Institutional Support and Rationalisation, B) Capacity Building and, C) Project Management. The outputs for each of the components are summarized as follows: Component A: guidelines for departmental coordination developed, institutional performance indicators handbook developed and human resource strategy developed and adopted. For component B: Staff training conducted, agriculture data collection and analysis computerised and Management Information System established.