The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has provided inputs to 400 farmers in Nasarawa State to boost food production.
Mr Ibrahim Aliyu, UNDP Peace Building Desk Officer in the state, said this during the distribution of the farming inputs on Thursday in Lafia.
He said that the 400 beneficiaries were selected from communities whose farms were destroyed during various crisis.
According to Aliyu, the empowerment is one of the components of UNDP peace building project in the state.
Aliyu said the programme is being funded by Japanese government and implemented by Nasarawa Agricultural Development Programme (NADP).
Aliyu said the empowerment was aimed at developing the capacity of the affected farmers to recover from the shocks associated with communal and herder/farmer’s conflicts in the state.
“The UNDP chose to teach them on the skills they already have knowledge on, rather than teaching them a new skills they know nothing about.
“Even though, we have other implementing partners who are training people on different aspects of entrepreneurial skills, NADP as an implementing partner is focusing on agriculture, because that’s where it specialised,” he said.
Aliyu said the programme is going on in five states, including Nasarawa.
“We are looking at the sustainability of the programme, with this empowerment, we hope and believe that these beneficiaries will be self sufficient,” he said.
Also speaking at the event, Hajiya Munira Abdullahi, the Special Adviser to Gov. Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State on NGOs and Development Partners, said the programme was aimed at making the beneficiaries productive.
Abdullahi said that the state government would continue to create enabling environment for actors and implementing partners to enhance the living standard of the vulnerable.
“What is expected of you as beneficiaries, is to make judicious use of the items given to you to make yourself productive.
“Gov. Sule made a solemn promise to make life better for every citizen, that’s what he is doing,” he said.
The Programme Manager of NADP, Mr Emmanuel Alanana, while commending UNDP and Government of Japan for the empowerment, said measures have been put in place to monitor the beneficiaries to ensure that the inputs were judiciously used.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the items given to the beneficiaries included bags of rice seed, fertiliser, sprayers, herbicides and insecticides among others. (NAN)
