Over 141,000 IDPs in the North east have been assisted by the Food Agricultural Organization (FAO), of the United Nations with agricultural farming inputs for the 2017 farming season.
The Acting Country Representative of FAO, Mr Nourou Macki-tall, disclosed this at the flagging off of presentation of agricultural inputs to 1,500 IDPs at Shagari lowcost area in Maiduguri on Friday.
Macki-Tall Said that the exercise was conducted in partnership with World Food Program (WFP), Social Welfare Network Initiative and the Borno state ministry of Agriculture.
According to him, 67,000 benefiting farmers were selected from Borno, 41,000 in Yobe and 32,000 beneficiaries from Adamawa.
He announced that the FAO had so far earmark about $17.5 million which would be ploughed into various agricultural programs, adding that the program is targeting about 1.1 million farming populations in the Northeast of Nigeria.
his words: “We are targeting farming communities who lost their means of livelihood in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa.
“Farming was the basic means of livelihood for most of them and they have not been able to farm for quite some time.
“What we have here today is the symbolic presentation “Provision of rainy season agricultural inputs distribution to crises effected population in Borno state.
“In March 2017, FAO and federal Ministry of Agriculture conducted the cadre harmonise vulnerability analysis that estimated around 5.2 million people will face high levels of food insecurity in the Northeast
“With the recovery of hitherto vactaed lands and restoration of relative peace in some librated communities, the need for the people to get back their lives together cannot be over emphasied.
“Lack of agricultural inputs is the major constraints for many farmers particularly the IDPs.
“FAO’s objective was to contribute to the improvement of food security in the northeast of Nigeria.
“The 1,500 beneficiaries drawn from Maiduguri Metropolitan Council and Jere, would received various varieties of seeds like Cowpea, cereal, Millet seeds, Shourghum, maize seeds and fertilizers among others
“Other beneficiaries in Jere council were about 500 beneficiaries mostly women, were targeted would receive Okro seeds, Amarantus, sorrel, Roselle seeds and fertilizers,” he explained.
In his remarks, Mr Olisa Eloka, the Country Director of Social Welfare Initiative, disclosed that 900 farmers also benefitted from Boko Haram librated towns like Pulka, Gwoza and Izge council.
he added that for Maiduguri Metropolitan Council, about 1,100 farmers benefitted from Shagari and Musari A and B, while in Jere council 400 mostly women, benefitted.
” In some communities we focused on households Predominantly headed by women IDPs. We have been working with the military to create more farming zones.
“In Gwoza for example, military helped us to clear massive lands for our farmers. In Izga, the army had cleared more than 15 kilometers of farmlands for this year’s raining season farming,” said Eloka.
The Nation findings reveal that more than close to one million farmers abandoned their farmlands and farming in the wake of the Boko Haram crisis in the North eastern parts of Nigeria, just as over 5000 of them have now returned to their liberated communities and resumed their farming activities.
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