Roots and Tuber Expansion Program
RTEP
General presentation
In the light of experience, the Roots and Tubers Expnsion Programme (RTEP) is based on the following considerations:
- Medium-term economic prospects for Nigeria suggest that demand for cheaper food staples, such as cassava and yam, is likely to increase with population growth, along with a shift way from the more expensive carbohydrates, such as rice ;
- owing to the poor marketing infrastructure and poor access to formal credit for on-farm storage and processing, cassava post-harvest losses continue to be significant, especially when seasonal surpluses are high.
- In many areas, yam is the preferred staple food and fetches higher prices than cassava, but the shortage of planting material and labour for varieties that require staking is limiting production of this crop.
Therefore, capitalizing on achievements and drawing on lessons learned from the Cassava Multiplication Programme (CMP), the Roots and Tubers Expansion Programme is conceived as a follow-up phase that extends support to other roots and tubers (including yam and potatoes) and places additional emphasis on processing and marketing. The long-term objective of the programme is to improve the living conditions, income and food security of poor smallholder households in the programme area.
Its immediate objectives include:
- the development of sustainable cropping systems through the testing, multiplication and release of appropriate root-and-tuber varieties;
- strengthening of support services in research and extension and the orienting of these towards the priority needs of farmers, especially women farmers and
- the improvement of simple processing techniques and equipment and the provision of marketing support and advice to farmers.
The programme cover up to 25 states in the root-and-tuber-growing belt, subject to fulfilment of eligibility criteria (including adequate state-counterpart funding and proper Agricultural Development Project (ADP) staffing): Abia, Akwa-Ibom, Anambra, Bayelsa, Benue, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Kaduna, Kogi, Kwara, Imo, Lagos, Nassarawa, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Oshun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Taraba, and any other state that the Fund may agree to include unter the programme. The rural population of these states is about 35 million. The main agro-ecological zones and their respective annual rainfall are: forest zone (over 1 750 mm); derived savannah zone (1 250-1 750 mm); and southern Guinea zone (1 200-1 400 mm).
RTP targets smallholders, i.e., those with less than 2 ha of land per household, who would be selected from 18 of the southern and middle-belt states of Nigeria. The economic survival of these households generally depends on low-income, off-farm activities that fetch an annual cash income of USD 35 to 50 per person. About 3.2 million farming households are estimated to be in the root-and-tuber-growing belt. For these households, cassava plays a key role both in the cropping pattern and in the family diet.
Components
In order to lift the constraints that the target groups are facing, the programme has the following main components:
Duration:
Total Amount:
36 090 000 USD
Address
Adeniji Adeoye A.
National Coordinator
Federal Department of Agriculture
Ife-Owu Road, Oke - Ife, Ijebu - Ife, PMB 2130, Ijebu-Ode, Nigeria
Tel : +234 037 431912/234 8034730231
Fax : +234 037 43 29 33
E-Mail : rtep@skannet.com; aaadeniji@yahoo.com