The Federal Government and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, through the Value Chain Development Programme (FG/IFAD -VCDP) has distributed some support items to farmers affected by recent flooding in the state.
While distributing the items on Thursday in Lafia, the Nasarawa State Coordinator of VCDP, Eunice Adgidzi said it was part of the programme’s Flood Recovery Strategy Support (FRSS), noting that 107 farmers drawn from 23 farmers associations in the state were benefiting from the support.
Adgidzi, who was represented by Rifkatu Jatau, listed the items to include 4, 240 kg of rice seeds (faro 44), 636 bags of fertilisers, 212 litres of selective and nonselective herbicides, and 40 water pumps.
She added that the donation was aimed at helping the victims of the flood disaster to recover from their huge losses.
She, therefore, advised the beneficiaries to make judicious use of the inputs to better their lives and for the benefit of the people of the state.
The coordinator added that the farmers were drawn from farmers associations in Lafia, Doma, Karu, Nasarawa and Wamba Local Government Areas.
On her part, the National Programme Coordinator of VCDP, Fatima Aliyu, explained that the programme had set aside N252 million to provide agro inputs and equipment to the affected farmers in the country to carry out dry season farming.
Aliyu, who was represented by Safiyu Alabi, said IFAD had also approved additional N467.9 million to the VCDP to further provide support to farmers affected by the floods.
“We are here today to witness the distribution of the support to the farmers which consist of agro inputs and water pumps to boost their dry season farming.”
“A total of 1, 495 farmers will be supported across the nine (9) VCDP participating states of Anambra, Benue, Ebonyi, Enugu, Kogi, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, and Taraba to produce rice during the current dry season.”
“We believed that this support by the FGN/IFAD VCDP will go a long way in alleviating the adverse effects of the flood and assist our farmers to recover from their losses and restore their livelihoods”.
She further said that VCDP would deploy climate adaptation strategies such as flood tolerant rice varieties, climate resilient and other climate smart agric technologies to reduce the effects of future floods on farmers.
She thanked the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mahmood Abubakar, for his concern to the farmers affected by the floods and for quickly approving their request to reallocate funds to provide succour to the farmers.
She also commended Governor Abdullahi Sule for his commitment and support to the VCDP in the state.
In his remarks, the Nasarawa State Commissioner for Agriculture and Water Resources, Nuhu Oshafu, commended VCDP for the intervention to complement the efforts of the State Government.
Ohsafu, who was represented by Muhammed Azara, expressed the state government’s willingness to partner individuals and groups interested in the development of the state.
Responding on behalf of the beneficiaries, Akila Danlami thanked VCDP and Nasarawa State Government for the support.
He recalled how their rice farm was destroyed by the recent flood and expressed optimism that with the support, they would be on their feat again and continue their farming activities.
