NALDA to launch program to encourage households to grow their own food

The Executive Secretary of National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA), Prince Paul Ikonne, has said that government would be launching Grow Your Food initiative which enables households to grow food in their confinement.

Prince Ikonne disclosed this while speaking with journalists shortly after receiving the Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, in his office in Abuja.

He said the government would distribute bags of soil, seeds so that households would use any available space to plant crops.

“I did inform the governor about our Grow Your Food programme which will encourage every household to start growing their food within their environment using their flowerpot, instead of the flower pot, it will be called vegetable pot to grow their food, NALDA is going to encourage that.

“We will be distributing bags of soil and seeds for them to do that so that every household will use every available space to grow what they eat.

“Remember when the president said that we must produce what we eat, that has been the watchword of NALDA, again we had the discussion between NALDA and the Borno State government on our fish farming programme which we are engaging 2000,” e said.

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Prince Ikonne further said: “Borno State has submitted their complete list and has provided the locations, as we speak contractors are already at the site and in the ten locations for the project.

“So the Governor of Borno State has fully keyed into Mr President idea of achieving food security, irrespective of the challenges that the state is encountering, the governor is making it easier for NALDA to function and for farmers to be at home while farming.

“We are focusing on virtually everything in the entire agricultural value chain because they have a lot of machinery, equipment, processing plant also they have processing mill so for us we have an understanding with Borno State government to increase the capacity of their feed processing mill.

In his remarks, Gov Zulum said Borno State wants to key into the Federal Government programme of agricultural land development.

He said the Executive Secretary NALDA was in Maiduguri and they had series of consultation and discussions arising from his visit.

He assured that the government of Borno State would do everything possible to key into the policy of the federal government, and ensure the cultivation of vast agricultural land in the state with a duty to increase the food production in the region.

“I have assured the ES that Borno State government will provide all the counterparts requirements for the programme to kick start and we shall provide all the necessary supports in terms of land, agricultural equipment and others that we have with a view to ensuring the implementation of the programme, so far so good I think all is well and Borno state will soon enjoy the dividends of that land.

“What we’re doing now, first of all, is to ensure an increase in the area under cultivation. We have increased the area under cultivation by about 300% within the last twenty months.

We have procured fertilizers, chemicals and most importantly we have empowered the farmers. We are investing hugely in irrigation, I think by doing so food production will not be a problem.

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE