The Federal Government has pledged to settle over N160 million counterpart fund owed to the African-Asian Rural Development Organisation to improve farmers’ training and rural development in the country.
Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, made the promise in Abuja on Monday when he received the Secretary-General of AARDO, Wassfi El-Sreihin, who was on a familiarisation visit to the country.
Lokpobiri said the Federal Government would, within the limit of available funds, settle the counterpart fund so as to build the capacity of Nigerians in best agricultural practices, poverty alleviation and rural development.
He said: “AARDO is important to Nigeria because Nigeria is a place where we are basically being fed by the rural dwellers and so, if rural development is not given priority, it will affect food production.
“We are committed to AARDO because of its importance; we believe that we would be able to achieve more than what we have achieved.
“I believe that we will look at our budget and within the limit of available funds, try to meet our obligation.
“There is no amount of money that we contribute to AARDO that will be too much because of the benefits which we derive from it.”
Speaking, El-Sreihin said that Nigeria had been a member of AARDO since 1999 to enhance the wellbeing of its rural population.
He said that his team was in the country to renew the Memorandum of Understanding signed between AARDO and the Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute in 2006.
El-Sreihin said that the organisation had trained no fewer than 160 citizens and farmers in best agricultural practices to boost their productivity.
He said: “Nigeria is so important in the world; we have been collaborating on enhancing the livelihood of the rural people and other neighbouring countries.
“Nigeria has benefitted a lot from the technical programmes of the organisation, including human capacity building.
“In 2006, we signed an MoU with ARMTI for collaboration and assistance on international training programmes; I am here to revive that MoU for the benefit of our member countries.”
AARDO, an autonomous inter-governmental organisation formed in 1962, is made up of 16 African and 15 Asian member countries.
The major areas of interest of the organisation are poverty alleviation, sustainable agricultural development, community empowerment, environmental and climate change as well as women empowerment in rural development.
The member countries of AARDO include Afghanistan, Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Lebanon, Liberia, Malaysia, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Thailand.
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