Boko Haram: FAO empowers 2,000 IDPs on dry season farming in Maiduguri

The Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations on Tuesday said it had empowered about 2,000 women and youth among Internally Displaced Persons in Maiduguri, Borno State on dry season farming.
Dominic Burgeon, the FOA Director of Emergency, disclosed this to newsmen during an assessment visit to farmlands in Fariya village in Jere Council of Maiduguri.
Burgeon said that the beneficiaries were empowered under the “Restoring Agricultural Livelihood of IDPs, Returnees and Vulnerable Host Families in the North-East of Nigeria”.
He said that the programme was sponsored by the FOA, Government of Ireland, Government of Belgium and Government of Japan.
He explained that the objective was to target about 1.9 million farmers across the state who lost their means of livelihood.
Burgeon said: “The food security issue in the North-East and particularly Borno is of particular concern to us.
“No fewer than 3.6 million people are currently food insecure.
“Therefore, the mission of the FOA is to help the IDPs to kick-start their lives.
“We know that Agriculture is the main source of livelihood for them and some of them have not been able to farm for about three to four years, while some have lost all their agricultural assets to the strangulating insurgency.
“That is why it is key to provide them with the skills and tools to enable them to get back to their normal life.
“We are also looking at livestock and aperculture production knowing fully that it would be of nutritional value for them.”
Salisu Ngulde, the Borno State Monitoring and Evaluation Officer for International Fund for Agricultural Development, said about 8,000 IDPs had benefited from the programme across three liberated areas in the last one year.
Ngulde said 2,000 benefited from Jere; 3,400 from Konduga and 3,400 from Damboa.
He said: “We are currently supporting them with 10 assorted seeds and 25 kilogramme of fertiliser in addition.
“They were divided into five Sub-groups and each of them was given hand wash boreholes and water pumps.”
He said the IDPs would produce various varieties of crops such as sorel, rosel, cabbage, onion, pepper, carrot tomatoes, water mellon, okro and amarantus.