The Abia State Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises, Niger Delta, (LIFE-ND), an initiative of International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD, and the Federal Government, on May 6, 2025, commended Governor Alex Otti's agricultural policies of scaling up subsistence farming to commercial enterprise for sustainable food security and job creation in the state.
Mrs Rose Nwachukwu, the Abia State Chairperson of Women in Agriculture Network, addressing participants at inaugural meeting of coordinators and secretaries drawn from 10 selected Local Government Areas of the Project's intervention, said that the meeting was to sensitize members to spread the programme's aims and objectives of upscaling agricultural commodities and their value chains to profitable commercial enterprise for food sustainability in the state.
Mrs Rose Nwachukwu, Chairperson, Women in Agriculture Network, Abia State
"Their duty is to go back to the Local Government Areas to recreate what we did here, choosing their coordinators, secretaries and other executives for sensitisation," she said.
Speaking on funding and vision, Mrs Nwachukwu said,
"We'll start from somewhere. We'll make effort before we cry to LIFE-ND and His Excellency, Alex Otti.
"The next agenda is to see Her Excellency, the wife of the Governor, Mrs Priscilla Chidinma Otti. You know, when you want to get a man, you first of all, get the woman behind him," she hinted.
Uchenna Rowland Onyeizu, Ph.D, CEnv, State Project Coordinator, Abia LIFE-ND
The State Rural Institution, Youth, Gender Officer, Anthony Nwaobilor, who represented the State LIFE-ND Coordinator, Uchenna Rowland Onyeizu, Ph.D, explained that Women in Agriculture is a network created to increase unbiased participation in agriculture, women having being major players in food production and processing.
Anthony NwaobilorState Rural Institute, Youth, Gender Officer, Abia LIFE-ND
Nwaobilor lauded Governor Otti for the prompt payment of the Project's counterpart fund, noting that the payment is a premium endorsement of the Governor's support for food sustainability, securing 800 hectares of land for rice production and processing, including its value chains, in the state.
"For the Governor to have funded the LIFE-ND Project is an indication and endorsement of the Project's objective of creating jobs, income and sustainable food security for his subjects," Nwaobilor said.
Godwin Chukwuekezie, State Agribusiness Promotion Officer, Abia LIFE-ND
Godwin Chukwuekezie, the Abia LIFE-ND State Agribusiness Promotion Officer, explained that the organization is one of the Project's exit strategies, acting as a catalyst to harness and preserve the interconnectivity of commodities and their value chains at the end of the Project's lifespan.
Mrs Nkechinyere Onyekwere, CEO. Lodziancs Goods and Services, Osisioma Local Government Area
A participant, Mrs Nkechinyere Onyekwere, Lodziancs Goods and Services, Osisioma Local Government Area, a major entrepreneur in agro chain businesses, production and processing, said that the association would transit women from being housekeepers to major players in agribusinesses in the state.
Women in Agriculture Network is a direct response to IFAD 2016 - 2025 Strategic Framework, seeking equal opportunities in farming without gender bias. Its state inauguration was on November 21, 2023 at the state capital, Umuahia.
Group picture of Women in Agriculture Network, Abia State
The Abia LIFE-ND Project has empowered more than 4,300 beneficiaries, establishing various infrastructure in selected 10 Local Government Areas across 100 communities of the state, with this success leading to possible additional funding for another three years.