By Ahmed Rufa’i, Dutse
The Jigawa State Primary Health care Development Agency (PHCDA) has said it has targeted about 1.7 million children for inoculation against polio in the second round immunisation campaign in the state.
The Executive Secretary of the agency Dr Kabir Ibrahim told reporters in Dutse yesterday that adequate personnel had been deployed to facilitate smooth conduct of the exercise across the state.
Ibrahim said the gesture was to ensure that all children less than five years old were immunised against the disease.
He said the agency had received enough Oral Polio Vaccines (OPVs) to facilitate the successful conduct of the exercise.
The Secretary, who sought the support and co-operation of community and religious leaders as well as other stakeholders for the smooth conduct of the exercise, urged parents to present their wards for the immunisation at designated centres.
“Parents should co-operate with immunisation officials for a hitch-free exercise,” Ibrahim said.
According to him, such co-operation will facilitate a quick response in combating the disease and address other emergency situations in the state.
In another development, the Jigawa State government, through the state Agricultural Supply Company (JASCO) has released 200 trailer loads of assorted fertiliser to be sold to wet season farmers across the 27 local government areas of the state.
The Managing Director of the company Alhaji Rabi’u Khalid Maigatari who disclosed this while speaking to reporters in Dutse, the state capital, said: “The state government, through the company, procured 6, 000 tons of the fertiliser which would be made available to farmers in all the local government areas in the state.”
The Managing Director further explained that the sales will commence from today as directed by the state governor, Alhaji Muhammed Badaru Abubakar.
He said: “We have stockpiled our various stores and fertiliser distribution outlets with the commodity well ahead of the wet season. Farmers have started making purchases to enable them to prepare well.”
The MD said the company is not after serious profit margin, the NPK fertiliser is sold at the cost of N8,500 while the Urea goes at N11,500 respectively, adding that the rise in price was due to a hike in products used in the fertiliser processing and blending by the various producers.
He also said the company is responsible for the supply of improved varieties of various grain seeds such as sorghum, millet, cowpeas, rice, wheat, sesame and many others which are also available at those outlets for sales.
He stated that farmers could also make requests for agrochemicals such as pesticides, herbicides, insecticides and other chemical components to improve the quality of their crops.
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