By Chinyere Anyanwu
The North East Development Commission (NEDC), through ‘Lobito Group for Asiwaju’, has donated farm ing items to 4,200 farmers across 20 local government areas of Bauchi State, to boost food security.
Representative of the Commission, Mr. Sulaiman Aliyu, stated this at the inauguration of the distribution of the farm inputs at the weekend in Katagum.
He said the distribution of the items was in line with the President Bola Tinubu administration’s efforts at boosting food production to achieve food security in the country.
Aliyu said the commission was collaborating with the Lobito Group and other stakeholders to support the farmers directly, in order to boost dry season farming and rain fed farming.
The items donated include a water pump, liquid fertiliser, agrochemicals and improved seeds of maize and rice.
The coordinator of Lobito in Bauchi, Mr. Usman Darazo, said the items would be distributed through the organisation’s structures and stakeholders to 4,200 farmers across the state.
Darazo further said the gesture was mainly for grassroots farmers across three senatorial districts of the state. He urged the beneficiaries to utilise the items judiciously.
The coordinator lauded the commission for the gesture, saying the items would positively impact farming as well as tackling food security.
The state chairman of Lobito Group, Abdullahi Lanzai, said the aim is to support farmers to get bumper harvests.
While commending the national chairman, Yau Darazo, for championing the course of farmers in the state, Lanzai said the present administration under Tinubu is committed to achieving food security.
Speaking earlier, contact person of Tafawa Balewa Local Government, Dr. Yusuf Magalam, promised to support Tinubu’s administration as the beneficiaries thanked the donors for the gesture and pledged to use it to boost their farming operations.
A beneficiary, Saidu Yana, from Shira Local Government Area, said the gesture has come at the right time as farmers commence farm clearing.
He said the gesture shows that the Bola Tinubu-led administration is battle ready for the food crisis in the country and assured that the beneficiaries would make good use of the inputs to produce more food for Nigeria’s population.