THE Program Coordinator of Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT), Dr Chrysantus Akem has said that Nigeria alongside other 26 African countries will benefit from the fund made available by African Development Bank (AfDB), through TAAT, the World Bank and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to improve agricultural productivity. TAAT which is the brainchild of the African Development Bank, it is the bedrock of the Feed Africa which is one of the high fives under which the AfDB is operating, the other ones Light and Power Africa, FeedAfrica, integrate Africa, Industrialize Friday and a better life for all Africans, to make the Feed Africa is carried forward, TAAT was basically conceived to bring together 18 value chains to see how to transform agriculture across Africa. Speaking on aquaculture, Dr Akem regretted that Nigeria having the largest potential in fish production in the Sub-Saharan Africa, is also the largest importer of fish, hence, he said the meeting became necessary to see how fish production can be optimized in the region. Also speaking, the Coordinator of WAAPPP Nigeria, Dr Jame Apochi said “the objective of WAAPP is to develop technology through research that will be disseminated, adopted by farmers that will lead to increased agriculture productivity, we have just finished the first phase of the project, instead of having the second phase, we are going to have the West African agriculture Transformation Program. “we are working on necessary documents, and the moment the agreement is signed between Nigeria and the World Bank, it will start,” he added.

Source: Nigerian Tribune August 07, 2018 13:18 UTC