Flood: Agric minister distributes seeds, equipment to farmers in Jigawa

From Mohammed Abubakar, Dutse

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has distributed farm inputs, such as improved seedlings and equipment to farmers affected by flood disaster in Jigawa State.

The Minister of Agriculture, Mohammed Sabo Nanono, who flagged off the distribution of the items to farmers drawn from Auyo and Hadejia LGAs, said the gesture was part of the relief by his ministry to small scale farmers affected by the flood to boost agricultural production and advance food security in the county.

The minister explained that the initiative was exclusively his ministry’s idea, assuring that the larger federal government’s relief assistance to the flood victims would soon follow.

Nanono regretted that the flood disasters in some parts of the country have had negative effects on the country’s food production efforts, income and livelihood of small holder farmers who produce most of the food consumed by Nigerians.

Items donated included rice, maize, wheat, cowpea, groundnuts and tutu absoluta kits for tomatoes. Others include water pumps, drip irrigation kits with tanks, solar pumps, maize threshers winnowers jab planters, rigid plastic crates among others.

The Chairmen of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Alhaji Idris Maranguwa, and the Rice Farmers’ Association of Nigeria, (RIFAN) counterpart in Jigawa State, Adamu Maigoro in separate interviews with Daily Trust on Sunday, described the gesture as a promised fulfilled and appealed to the federal government to promptly follow up the gesture so that farmers in the state could go back to their farms in full force.