The National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) has distributed agricultural inputs to farmers in Abia, Kebbi and Yobe which is part of efforts to ensure availability of staple food for the citizenry amidst dwindling global resources and food shortages.
The input distribution is aimed at assisting farmers across the country to maximize crop cultivation for improved yields and increased food production.
Beneficiaries in Abia and Yobe States received a high-grade fertilizer, herbicides, and improved maize seeds, while beneficiaries in Kebbi received improved rice seeds that can effectively cover half an hectare of farmland.
In Abia, beneficiaries from all local governments of the state including those nominated by the state government and various farmers associations, gathered at the NALDA Institute of Agribusiness and Entrepreneurship, IsiAla Okpu community in Osisioma Local Government Area to receive the empowerment packages from NALDA officials.
The Executive Secretary of NALDA, Prince Paul Ikonne while addressing the farmers, highlighted the essence of the empowerment programme.
“The government is making sure that you can produce what you’ll eat by providing you inputs”, Ikonne told the farmers.
He assured them that NALDA will continue to support them with agricultural inputs regularly, stating that the contact details of all the beneficiaries have been captured in the agency’s database for follow-up assistance and more farmers will be added to the list from time to time.
The NALDA boss said the programme is a fulfillment of President Bola Tinubu’s promise to ensure Nigerians get enough food at affordable prices.
“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 reduce the price of food in the market. We are expecting nothing less than 340 hectares to be cultivated by these farmers,” he said.
The beneficiaries expressed their appreciation to the federal government for the gesture.
Azeezat Jimoh who is the women Leader of Yoruba community and Muslim women in Abia state appreciated NALDA and the government for including a member of her community in the distribution exercise.
The NALDA administrator in Kebbi State, Mr. Bashar Bunza led the team that distributed the inputs to beneficiaries from the benefiting local governments.
The Chairman of the Ngaski Local Government Area, Honourable Manir Abubakar who participated in the distribution exercise appreciated NALDA for the gesture.
Abubakar said the bags containing high-yielding rice seeds, fertilisers and herbicides would help farmers produce more food.
He however urged beneficiaries to utilise the inputs for what it was intended for which is farming and not to sell them.
One of the beneficiaries Habibu Aliyu who farms 7 to 8 hectares of rice annually, said the intervention by NALDA was a timely one as accessing fertiliser has been a daunting task, he promised to utilise it to the best of his abilities.
In Yobe State, the NALDA team led by the Director of Finance Mr. Suleiman Lawal, distributed the inputs to beneficiaries in Gashua, Bade Local Government Area.
Beneficiaries were drawn from 6 local government areas of the state namely Bade, Yusufari, Jakusko, Nguru, Karasuwa, and Machina.
The NALDA empowerment programme is in line with President Bola Tinubu’s directive to NALDA to reach out to farmers across the country to ensure they produce food while helping the country achieve food sufficiency.
It would be recalled that President Tinubu had declared a state of emergency on food hence the move by NALDA to compliment the President’s food security through empowerment programme to cushion the effect of high cost of living.
It is expected that in the next 3 to 4 months, the outputs from this programme, would help in the significant drop in the cost of food items in the market.