James Emejo in Abuja
The National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) has commenced the distribution of agricultural inputs to farmers in Abia, Kebbi and Yobe States.
This is part of efforts by the authority to fight food inflation by ensuring availability of staple food for Nigerians amid the dwindling global resources and food shortages.
Executive Secretary/Chief Executive, NALDA, Prince Paul Ikonne, while addressing the farmers at separate ceremonies, said the federal government was ensuring that they could produce what to eat by assisting farmers with vital inputs.
He assured the farmers that the authority would continue to support them with agricultural inputs on a regular basis, adding that contact details of all the beneficiaries had been captured in the agency’s database for follow-up assistance.
He explained that the intervention was in fulfillment of President Bola Tinubu’s promise to ensure that Nigerians get enough food at affordable prices.
He said, “The essence of what we’re doing here today is to ensure Nigerians understand the importance of farming, make sure we produce what we eat and to reduce the price of food in the market. And we are expecting nothing less than 340 hectares to be cultivated by these farmers.”
The input distribution is aimed at assisting farmers across yields and increasing food production.
The accredited beneficiaries of the empowerment programme received a NALDA branded bag containing high grade fertilizer, herbicides and improved maize seeds for Abia and Yobe while Kebbi received improved rice seeds that can effectively cover half a hectare of farm land.
In Abia, beneficiaries from all the local governments areas, including those nominated by the state government and various farmers associations received the empowerment packages at the NALDA Institute of Agribusiness and Entrepreneurship, IsiAla Okpu community in Osisioma Local Government Area.
In Kebbi, Chairman, Ngaski Local Government Area, Hon. Manir Abubakar who participated in the distribution exercise appreciated the authority for the kind gesture, adding that the bags containing high yielding rice seeds, fertilisers and herbicides would help farmers produce more food – and urged the beneficiaries to utilise the inputs for the intended purposes and not to sell them.
In Yobe, the inputs were distributed to beneficiaries drawn from six local government areas including Bade, Yusufari, Jakusko, Nguru, Karasuwa, and Machina .
The empowerment programme is in line with Tinubu’s directive to NALDA to reach out to farmers across the country to ensure they produce food to help the country achieve food sufficiency.
The president had declared a state of emergency on food on assumption of office hence the move by the authority to complement the food security agenda through ongoing empowerment programmes.
Ikonne added that the intervention is expected to mitigate the rising food prices within the next three to four months.
