By Chinyere Anyanwu
The Niger State government, at the weekend, distributed farm inputs worth N900 million to 640 farmers across the 25 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state.
Governor Umaru Bago, while inaugurating the distribution exercise in Minna, explained that the intervention was under the Nigeria COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (NG-CARES) Result Area 2.
Bago explained that NG-CARES was an initiative of the World Bank and the Federal Government to support the recovery of communities, households and businesses affected by COVID-19.
The governor said that the 640 farmers would benefit from the input support under rice, maize and sorghum value chains across the state.
He also said that aquaculture and broiler farmers in four local government areas of the state would equally benefit from the exercise.
He explained that the farmers would get 78 metric tonnes of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK) and urea fertilisers, 4.75 metric tonnes of rice, maize and sorghum seeds.
He added that other inputs include 1,040 litres of herbicides, 520 litres of insecticides, 4,000 day-old chicks, 8,000 fingerlings and 15 metric tonnes of feed.
He said that each beneficiary would be given two bags of 50kg of NPK and one bag of urea fertiliser.
Other inputs, he said, would include two litres of herbicide, a litre of pesticide and 10kg of rice and maize seeds and 5kg of sorghum seeds.
Bago added that the government would also distribute low hanging fruit seedlings, drought resistant crops varieties and oil palm plantation seedlings.
“The agricultural livelihood and food security support under the NG-CARES is to mitigate impacts on agricultural livelihoods, enhance the resilience of our farmers to return to their farms. “The target is to increase food security and sustain safe functioning of food supply chains in post-COVID recovery,” he said.