By Nneka Nwogwugwu
The federal government has distributed another free agricultural input and quality seeds to smallholder farmers in Gombe State.
The Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Hon. Mustapha Baba Shehuri, flagged-off the distribution over the weekend.
In a statement signed by Ezeaja Ikemfuna, the Chief Information officer of the Ministry, stated that the distribution would ensure food and nutrition security, create more jobs for teeming Nigerian youths and boost dry-season farming.
While performing the exercise at the Ministry’s office complex in Gombe, the Minister said that it is part of the mitigation measures against the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and the flood disaster that wreaked havoc on the farmlands.
He said that the Ministry would support breeder and foundation seed production and link up with the private seed companies to ensure that certified seeds are available to local farmers nationwide.
According to the statement, “The ministry has supported Gombe state with subsidized inputs with over 350 3HP and 30 7HP irrigation pumps, multipurpose threshers, over 70 Motorized and dual powered sprayers amongst others.
“Under our world bank assisted Nutrition Programme, we have provided multiple pieces of training and homestead farming input packages including tomato, pepper, pawpaw among others in 5 local government areas in the state as well as irrigation kits designed to improve the household nutrition.
The smallholder farmers received the following free inputs; 10,000 Gum Arabic Seedlings, 15MT of rice seed, 2.5 MT groundnut foundation seeds, 1,000 KG of Castor seeds, 1,500 KG of cashew nuts as well as Ratkin and Liptol – organic insecticides to combat armyworm infestation and Equipment like water pumps, maize threshers among others.
The ministry has also performed similar exercises in Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Kogi, Oyo, Cross River, and Imo states, with this being the 8th edition, assisting smallholders farmers with quality inputs to ensure sustainable food security, job creation, and revenue generation to grow the nation’s economy.
The minister noted that at least 35% of these inputs are targeted at women farmers, this is in line with the targets set in our national gender action plan and policies aimed at ensuring increased opportunities for women.
He also said that to alleviate the effect of the flood on farmers, inputs were distributed to farmers in Jigawa, Kebbi, Nasarawa, and Benue state.
Shehuri tasked the beneficiaries to make judicious use of these inputs to produce food for the nation while calling on other stakeholders to provide similar support to farmers “so that together we can defeat COVID-19 Pandemic and become self-sufficient in food production.”
The input distribution was kicked-off with two physically challenged people being the first beneficiaries to receive the packages from the Director Federal Department of Agriculture, Hajia Karima Babangida.
