Farmers to Benefit From FAO’s Intervention in the North-East
No fewer than 65,000 smallholder farmers have benefitted from the 2021 Rainy Season Farming Intervention launched by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) in North-East Nigeria.
The initiative is aimed at assisting families and households whose agricultural livelihoods have been disrupted by the insurgency in the region.
FAO Representative in Nigeria, Mr Fred Kafeero, who spoke during the launch at the farm centre in Maiduguri, stated that the intervention is the sixth successive rainy season initiative by the agency in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States.
This is due to the three states being severely affected by the impacts of the Boko Haram and ISWAP insurgency.
Kafeero noted that the rainy season farm cultivation was critical to food production in Nigeria, as it ensures food availability and income generation, especially for smallholder and low-income households.
“In Northeast Nigeria, the insurgency, which has lasted over a decade, has constrained the access of smallholder farmers to agricultural inputs including quality seeds and fertilizers.
“FAO supports these farmers, using a kit system that aligns with the various local agro-ecologies. FAO works with the government at the sub-national and local level and non-government partners throughout the implementation of the initiative to ensure its sustainability and localisation.
“In the context of conflict, food production is central to entrenching peace, building resilience, and promoting sustainable development.
“This underscores FAO’s work in the region as we design agriculture-based interventions that seek to build the humanitarian-development and peace nexus,” Kafeero stated.
He harped on the need for government and development partners to continue collaborating to address limitations of smallholder farmer’s participation in agricultural production.
According to him, between 2016 and 2020, FAO supported not less than 560,000 households with agricultural inputs to cultivate their farms during the rainy seasons, leading to concerted provisions of inputs for the farmers who have been contributing to rebuilding resilience in the communities.
He further said that most recently, the post-harvest survey of the 2020 rainy season intervention revealed that the beneficiaries had an average of five to six months of food coverage after the harvest.
In his words, “The current 2021 intervention is further significant in light of the COVID-19 pandemic that reversed the gains achieved in restoring the livelihoods of those affected by the regional conflict.”
“The 2021 rainy season intervention is generously funded by the People and Government of Canada, the European Union Trust Fund for Africa, the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Kingdom of Norway and the Kingdom of Sweden,” he added
