West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP) Jobs in Nigeria

To achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of reducing the number of hungry people by 50% by 2015, African countries needed to make rural development, agriculture, and the removal of livelihood constraints of the rural poor, their topmost priority in their development agenda. This is to raise declining productivity which has eroded the competitiveness of African agricultural products. In response to this, the African (AU) developed the new partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) which called for three per cent annual agricultural total factor productivity growth and six per cent growth in agricultural GDP to attain the MDG’s by 2015. Consequently, NEPAD then designed the comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development programme (CAADP). Nigeria agricultural development objectives as outlined in the vision 20:2020 Economic Transformation Blueprint of the current administration as well as the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) are consistent with NEPAD’s vision for agriculture in Africa as outlined in the CAADP. In 2005, the World Bank designed the African Action Plan (AAP) as the centrepiece of its strategy to help Africa and its sub- regional groups such as the Economic Community of West African State (ECOWAS) to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) of reducing the number of hungry people by 50% by 2015. The AAP emphasizes three focal areas - one of which is strengthening the drivers of economic growth. ECOWAS, in response to the AAP, then formulate the West African Agricultural Productivity Program (WAAPP) as an implementing instrument for achieving two principal objectives of the focal areas which are: To make agriculture more productive and sustainable, To support sub-regional integration. WAAPP-Nigeria became effective on 12th January, 2012 after approval by the World Bank. WAAPP is a project for all West African Nations of which thirteen of the fifteen Countries are currently participating in the programme. This project aims at helping to provide enabling conditions for Nigeria to cooperate with countries in the West African Sub-region in Technology Generation and Dissemination, Strengthen, transforming National Institute for Fresh Water Fisheries (NIFFR), Nigerian Stored Products Research Institute (NSPRI) and Nigerian Institute for Oceanography Research (NIOMR) into a National Centres of Specialization (NCoS) in Aquaculture, improving access of participating farmers to improved agricultural technologies and promoting the culture of demand-driven technology generation and dissemination in the country. WAAPP -Nigeria is assisting in realizing the nation’s agricultural potential by: Creating enabling conditions for sub-regional cooperation in technology generation and dissemination Transforming the National Institute for Fresh Water Fisheries (NIFFR), Nigerian Stored Products Research Institute (NSPRI) and Nigerian Institute for Oceanography Research (NIOMR) into a National Centre of Specialization (NCOS) in aquaculture Funding demand-driven technology generation and adoption Establishing an effective coordination, management and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system.