Ondo govt appreciates NEMA for distributing agricultual inputs to farmers affected by flood

THE National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), has distributed inputs and relief materials to 1,331 farmers affected by flood in Ondo State last year.

Director-General of NEMA, Dr Ahmed Habib, said the inputs would be distributed to the affected famers captured by the agency in Akure North and Akure South local government areas of the state.

Ahmed, who was represented by the Director of Operations, Ekiti Office, Mr Olusegun Afolayan, said the gesture, which was approved by President Muhammadu Buhari, was to bring the farmers back to the mainstream.

Those mostly affected are maize, rice and cassava farmers and some of the distributed inputs were water pumps, herbicides fertiliser and growth enhancers, among others.

Reacting, Ondo State government expressed appreciation towards NEMA for the intervention.

Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Agriculture and Agricbusiness, Pastor Akin Olotu, said the inputs would cushion  the effect and impact of the flood on the farmers.

Olotu, who is also the the chairman of Ondo State Agricbusiness Empowerment Centre (OSAEC), noted that farmers lost not less than N200 to N300 million to the disaster.

“This will be the first time that we are having something like this, the genesis of this programme has to do with flood that affected FADAMA Farmers that planted rice in 2019/2020 and the serious challenges they had.

“We wrote to NEMA to complain about the flood and relief for farmers, we couldn’t get anything that year and they were able to do something for us. This is only covering two local government, Akure South and Akure North,” he said.

Olotu also appreciated the farmers for their patience and belief in the process.