UNITED NATIONS’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has targeted 296, 800 vulnerable with seeds and fertilisers for 2022 rainy season farming in Adamawa, Borno, Sokoto, Taraba and Yobe States.
The intervention with funding from Canada, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland as well as European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) and United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), targets 42,400 households these states.
Head of FAO Northeast Sub-office Al Hassan Cisse, who spoke in a statement in Abuja yesterday, said the support was hinged on the desire to get them back to sustainable food production for self-sustenance and livelihood restoration.
Cisse said provision of quality input would improve farmers’ productivity, contributing to enhancing resilience, food security and nutrition.
He said the input would help households mitigate rising food insecurity while building the resilience of host communities and returnees.
The statement reads: “With recent violent disruption of farming pursuits in some parts of Northwest due to banditry and farmer-herder clashes, households have been forced to seek safer locations to dwell and practice their vocation of food production.
“These challenges coupled with other effects of climate change have compounded the threat to food security in the country, this concern guided the inclusion of Sokoto and Taraba states in the 2022 rainy season intervention.
“It would be recalled that the food security analysis called Cadre Harmonise (CH) conducted by FAO and partners last year projected that 4.1 million people in Northeast would be under serious threat if urgent measures are not taken.
“FAO, with support from donors since 2016, has been implementing extensive programmes targeting internally displaced persons (IDPs), returnees and their host communities in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, most affected by prolonged conflict”.