The British American Tobacco Nigeria Foundation (BATNF) has reiterated its commitment to government’s poverty alleviation schemes with its strategic investments which are targeted at smallholder farmers, to improve their productivity and therefore earn decent incomes from their agricultural activities.
Abimbola Okoya, General Manager, BATN Foundation, while speaking at an interactive session organised by the foundation for its key stakeholders, to map out new strategies to boost agricultural productivity with a focus on better ways of enriching smallholder famers, said that their activities are focused on where they could achieve the most impact in the agriculture value chain.
“The British American Tobacco Nigeria Foundation has recorded remarkable milestones through the deployment of strategic intervention schemes focusing on provision of potable water supply, vocational skills development, agricultural development, and environmental protection since its establishment in 2002,” said Ms Okoya, while addressing stakeholders at the conference which held in Ibadan, Oyo State, last week. “These interventions have transformed lives of beneficiaries through capacity building initiatives and creation of enabling environment for smallholder farmers to effectively distribute their agricultural produce,” she added.
The conferees discussed proactive approaches to increasing crop yield and enhancing natural resource through capacity building, technical assistance from reputable enterprise-based organisations as well as paving ways for easy access for the distribution of agricultural produce. Okoya said: “This strategic meeting with the technical partners becomes necessary due to BATN Foundation’s yearning for sustainable agricultural development, enriching lives of smallholder farmers, providing periodic information on agricultural development, and sharing learning on agriculture-related matters. The BATN Foundation is particularly concerned about the impact of the interventions on the lives of smallholder farmers and other beneficiaries within the value chain.”
She said the organisation recognises the pivotal role of its partners in implementing the foundation’s corporate social investments. In ensuring the sustainability of BATNF projects, “All the stakeholders must adopt the BATNF’s new ways of working, one of which is ensuring that the interventions’ impact on the beneficiaries are easily measurable with respect to variables such as changes in average household, adequacy of level and stability of food supply and access, proportion of smallholder farmers and agro –entrepreneurs adopting new practices among many others.” added Ms. Okoya.
One of the major objectives of the stakeholder engagement forum is to devise new and better approaches to driving sustainable agricultural practice that will reduce poverty and make positive, longer-lasting impact on beneficiaries across many communities in Nigeria. The implementing partners oversee the execution of the Foundation’s agriculture enterprise development projects by ensuring agriculturally and environmentally sound design and implementation of the projects. Similarly, they monitor the progress of the interventions and present periodic reports to the Foundation.
BATN Foundation has consistently supported smallholder farmers in several communities across Nigeria through its robust CSR initiatives that include empowerment of farmers through sustainable poverty alleviation, sustainable agricultural capacity building as well as environmental protection.
