4,000 Households to Benefit from VSF’s Agricultural Inputs in Adamawa, Borno, Yobe

Kasim Sumaina in Abuja

Not less than 4,000 households in insurgency affected areas of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States are to benefit from Victims Support Fund (VSF) agricultural inputs this cropping season.

The Fund, in a statement on Friday in Abuja, noted that its Chairman, Gen. T.Y Danjuma, made this known while flagging off the Rain-Fed Farming Intervention in Gulak, the headquarters of Madagali Local Government Area of Adamawa State.

Danjuma disclosed that the intervention aims to administer appropriate support to victims of insurgency and facilitate the restoration of their livelihood through the economic empowerment of households in the North-east.

According to him, “The VSF agro-based intervention provides agricultural inputs which included:
“Improved varieties of seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and sprayer. The rain-fed farming programme will improve household nutrition and also engender financial independence for victims who have returned to their communities.”

Represented at the event by Alhaji Alkasim Abdulkadir, a board member of the fund, Danjuma said the measure was to ensure that those affected bounced back to their normal lives.

“A total of 4,000 households will receive agricultural inputs across the three most affected states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.”

Also speaking, the Executive Director of the fund, Prof. Sunday Ochoche, who said the beneficiaries included widows, urged them not to sell the inputs provided them but to use it in building their future.

“We are delighted that today the situation in Madagali has stabilised to the point that we can gather to flag off a critical project of the VSF,” Ochoche said.

He cautioned beneficiaries against selling the inputs, adding that they were provided with the best inputs as selling them would amount to selling their future.

Ochoche noted that the beneficiaries were divided into groups of 20 each to be properly monitored and supported on how to properly utilise the inputs for maximum benefit.

In his remarks, the Adamawa State Coordinator of Fadama 111, Alhaji Mohammad Kabiru, said the beneficiaries would be registered for necessary guidance on how to use the inputs and sustain support.

The Chairman of Madagali Local Government, Alhaji Yusuf Mohammed, lauded VSF for its support to the people, adding that the council had constituted a monitoring team involving security agents to arrest and prosecute anyone found selling the inputs.

“The seller and buyer will be arrested and prosecuted.

“I urged you all to make good use of this farm inputs and pray that God in His infinite mercy will give us a good raining season that will result to bumper harvest,” Mohammed said.

Governor Muhammadu Bindow of Adamawa represented by the Commissioner for Agriculture, Alhaji Ahmadu Waziri, also lauded VSF for the support, saying that the state government would also provide farmers in affected areas of the state with subsidised fertiliser.

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