US to support Nigerian farmers, others with $29m

The United States Government through the US Agency for International Development has announced a $29m investment to support aquatic and fish farmers in Nigeria, Bangladesh, Kenya and Zambia.

This is as it revealed a five-year extension for two research partnerships under Feed the Future, the US government’s global hunger and food security initiative.

According to the agency, $15m is led by Mississippi State University while $14m is led by Michigan State University for the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Fish and Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Legume Systems Research programmes respectively.

The agency stated this in a statement on Friday night.

The US government further said that the extension would also focus on increasing food safety and inclusivity along aquatic food value chains, so more people could benefit from nutritious diets and decent livelihoods.

It added, “Through this innovative research, production of these new legume varieties will be scaled up and brought to market, increasing both the resilience of legume farmers’ livelihoods and the availability of nutritious food. The program will also expand to reach more communities in new regions of Africa and, for the first time, into Latin America and the Caribbean.

“The extension will also enable the lab to continue their important research on empowering women and young people within the legume production systems, which has already shown strong results in providing economic opportunities to rural women’s groups and has supported more than 60 students to achieve higher education degrees.”