Ekiti State on Tuesday appealed to the Federal Government for more assistance and empowerment of farmers affected by flooding and other natural disasters in 2020.
The state’s deputy governor, Chief Bisi Egbeyemi, made the appeal in Ado-Ekiti at the inauguration of agricultural inputs distribution to farmers whose farms, crops and animals were destroyed by flood.
3,900 beneficiaries were registered in the distribution exercise, packaged by the National Food Security Council under the chairmanship of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Items distributed to the beneficiaries included herbicides, pesticides, knapsack prayers, rice, maize and yam seedlings, water pumps and other farm inputs.
The distribution was witnessed by the chairman of the state’s Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), retired Capt. Sunday Adebomi, and officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), led by Mr Tope Ajayi.
Addressing the beneficiaries, Egbeyemi commended the Federal Government for the gesture.
He said that Ekiti State’s farmers needed more succour, owing to the magnitude of losses they suffered from natural disasters.
“We thank the Federal Government for these, but I want to say that our people need more than these.
“We are also expecting more financial and material support for our farmers and other people who lost fortunes to disasters.
“These include our hardworking farmers who lost their farmlands, crops and animals worth several millions of Naira. These victims know the enormity of their losses.
“I must say that the different intervention programmes received from the Federal Government and NEMA over the years had not only improved the lives of affected victims, but has also given them hope.
“The unflinching commitment of the Federal Government to support farmers deserves more applause.
“Some months ago, NEMA, in collaboration with SEMA, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the National Agricultural Insurance Corporation undertook a comprehensive inventory.
“This involved the enumeration and verification of affected farmers with the aim of assisting them.
“We are flagging off the distribution phase of the concluded verification and enumeration exercise.
“This occasion signifies the commencement of yet another major landmark effort and commitment of the Federal Government to provide agricultural inputs to support farmers that lost their farms as a result of flood or related disasters,’’ Egbeyemi said.
Earlier, the SEMA chairman said the gesture resulted from the collaboration of the Gov. Kayode Fayemi led-administration with the Federal Government.
The collaboration, he explained aimed at bringing hope to the lives of victims affected by natural disasters.
He said verification and enumeration were jointly conducted by SEMA, NEMA and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development with the verified farmers handed slips with which to collect their inputs.
While noting that the intervention couldn’t have come at a better time, Adebomi urged the beneficiaries to use the farming inputs judiciously for their economic wellbeing and improvement.
Some of the beneficiaries, Messrs Tunde Ogunsakin and Ilesanmi Falana, lauded both the federal and Ekiti State governments for empowering them with the inputs and promised to put them into judicious use.
Another beneficiary, Mrs Ronke Olagbemi, who said the inputs were long overdue, said that getting them was dream come true.
She noted that farmers’ hopes were raised during the verification and enumeration.
SEMA General Manager, Mr Jide Borode, said the distribution would be conducted daily until all the 3,900 beneficiaries received their allocations.