<p>The Kogi state coordination office of Agro-Processing, Productivity Enhancement and Livelihood Improvement Support Project (APPEALS) has embarked on the conduct of a feasibility study on market information for rice, cashew and cassava value chains across the 21 local governments to boost food production. The state project coordinator, Dr. Sanni Abdullahi Ozomata, who stated this in Lokoja Wednesday while interacting with newsmen, said the data got from the feasibility study will enable APPEALS project come up with strategies to bridge the gap in demand and supply as well as organising the market situations and create a market information kiosk for farmers to enable them gain access to improved technology. “It will enable farmers in Kogi state to gain access to well-developed market infrastructure and sell their farm produce leading to improved incomes and livelihood,” he said.</p> <p>He assured actors along the three value chains of APPEALS project readiness in providing quality market information and linking them to financial institutions and business services that will enhance and boost their productivity. Also, the APPEALS project has conducted a reconnaissance survey on farm and agricultural production clusters across Kogi state to identify infrastructural needs of farmers in their cluster settings to strengthen their capacities and improve the physical environment. Dr. Ozomata told farmers that the essence of the survey effort was to obtain the needed data to enable APPEALS project to provide the correct infrastructural support to farmers that will add value to their farming activities and boost their productivity. “This will enable farmers to achieve increased production output, efficient and competitive processing and value addition activities, ability to access profitable markets and reduce post-harvest losses,” Dr Ozomata said. He assured the farmers that effort is being made to tackle the immediate needs of farmers in the state to enable them meet up with this years’ farming season.</p>