The National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) has distributed agricultural inputs to farmers in Ebonyi and Osun.
Executive Secretary of NALDA, Prince Paul Ikonne, who disclosed this on Friday in Abuja, said it was in line with efforts to ensure availability of staple food for Nigerians.
He said that exercise was aimed at assisting farmers across the country to improve yields and increase food production.
Ikonne said no fewer than 900 accredited beneficiaries of the empowerment programme received a NALDA-branded bag containing high grade fertiliser, herbicides and improved rice and maize seeds for Ebonyi while those in Osun received rice and beans seeds.
He said the inputs were distributed with each state’s area of agricultural specialisation in view.
“In Ebonyi, beneficiaries consist of mostly women and youths, gathered at Ishiagu Community in Ivo Local Government area of the state.
“400 farmers consisting of 200 maize and 200 rice farmers were drawn from 10 communities Ohaozara/Onicha/Ivo Federal Constituency for the exercise.
“In Osun state, 500 farmers drawn from all the local government of the state were empowered with Maize and beans seeds in Oshogbo the state capital.’’
Ikonne assured that NALDA would continue to distribute the inputs until it got to farmers in every states of the country.
According to him, the exercise targets genuine farmers in the grassroots in order to boost food production and access to staple foods in the country.
“The government is making sure that we produce food sufficiency that is why we are providing you inputs and make sure we produce what we eat and reduce the price of food in the market.
“The NALDA empowerment programme is in line with the President Bola Tinubu’s directive to reach out to farmers across the country to ensure they produce food while helping the country to achieve food sufficiency.
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“It would be recalled that the president had declared a state of emergency on food; hence the move by NALDA to compliment the president’s food security efforts through empowerment programmes to cushion the effect of high cost of living,’’ he said.
According to Ikonne, it is expected that in the next three to four months, the outputs from the programme will help in significant drop in the cost of food items in the market.
He said the empowerment of farmers by NALDA was a continuous exercise to encourage more Nigerians go into farming in order to ensure self-sufficiency in food production and boost food security for the teeming population.(NAN)
