The Plateau State Fadama Project has accessed N27 million as take-off grant for the implementation of its five-year programme tagged, “Fadama Additional Financing (FAF).”

The state project of coordinator of Fadama, Mr Gideon Dandam, who made the disclosure to journalists in Jos, said  that Plateau was one of the best performing states in the federation and was picked to continue with the project to make it sustainable nationwide.

Dandam explained that the take-off grant was part of the N200 million additional loans the federal government secured for the project to continue. The project has four major crops as its focal area namely: cassava, rice, sorghum, and vegetables- mainly tomatoes.

Dandam said, “The N27 million was released to us in Plateau to kick-start the financing of the new Fadama project. As we all know, the old project ended in 2013, but the federal government, through the intervention of the World Bank, decided to pick some performing states to continue.

“In the old project, the monies given to states came as credits; they paid back, but in this new one, the federal government got the money as loan to be disbursed to benefitting states as grants. The new project has four major crops: cassava, rice, sorghum and vegetables to focus on, but Plateau has the mandate to produce, process and market tomatoes.’’