An Organization for Participative Policy Advocacy,Research and Brokerage in Agriculture and Rural Development.

An Organization for Promoting Policy Best Practices in Agriculture and Rural Development

Farm and Infrastructure Foundation (FIF) is a corporate organization by membership; which is open to individuals, institutions and associations with burning passion or mandate for poverty reduction and livelihood improvement in rural areas, without bias or any form of discrimination against gender or age structure, culture practices or religious character of indigenous peoples.

Background: FIF is a final product of high power of analytical thought of its founder, Professor G. B. Ayoola, a member of the pioneer academic staff at University of Agriculture Makurdi,, Benue State, Nigeria. Following his several years of policy research of the agricultural economy, it was found that the successive failures of agricultural policies in Nigeria was as much due to an inadequate technology environment as also to an aberrant policy environment, with particular reference to the perennial communication gap between the actors on the demand side policy marketplace on the one hand (e.g. farmers, commodity traders, processors, farm input dealers, etc.) and those on the supply side of the policy marketplace on the other hand (e.g. policy authorities; policymakers; policy analysts; policy advocates; policy brokers; etc.). And among the large class of policy actors out there, the special focus of FIF is put on the millions of small-scale farmers at the receiving end of bad policy actions of the government and other policy service providers.

Thus central to the goal of FIF is the need to recreate the institutional framework towards closing this gap and with a view to getting the policy environment right for the sustained growth and development of the sector.

The critical stages in the policy process include: Policy Articulation (Problem/Directions); Policy Formulation (Strategy/Design) ; Policy Appraisal (Verification/Approval); Policy Implementation (Execution); Policy Evaluation (Impact Assessment)
FIF intends to maintain a sharp focus on the entire process, as well as sustain the internal harmony of the process towards good functioning of its inner mechanisms. Particularly the focus is put on the role of various stakeholders in the policy process with a view to preserving their integrity and ensuring their favourable disposition to adopt policy best practices. In this regard, the primary stakeholders of the agricultural policy process under focus are the millions of farmers and other rural poor; which constitute the largest population in the various categories of policy stakeholders that actually exist, namely: Policy authorities; Policy service providers; Policy interest groups; Policy beneficiaries; among others.

olicy Implementation (Execution); Policy Evaluation (Impact Assessment)