No fewer than 4000 households in communities ravaged by Boko Haram in Adamawa,Borno and Yobe States are to benefit from agricultural input support for this cropping season initiated by the Victims Support Fund.
The Chairman of Victims Support Fund Gen. T.Y Danjuma made the disclosure while flagging off the Rain-Fed Farming Intervention in Gulak the headquarters of Madagali Local Government Area of Adamawa State.
According to him the Rain fed farming intervention aims to give support to the victims of insurgency and facilitate the restoration of livelihood through economic empowerment of households in the north east.
Correspondent Owolabi Adenusi reports that succour is gradually coming the way of victims of insurgency in the north east of Nigeria, as Victims Support Fund says it would assist more than
4000 farmers through its agricultural inputs support for this cropping season.
The Chairman of the fund, represented by Alhaji Alkasim Abdulkadir, who is a board member of the fund, during the flag off of the exercise in Madagali said the measure was to ensure that those affected by insurgency bounced back to their normal lives.
The Executive Director of the fund, Prof. Sunday Ochoche, who also spoke at the occasion said the beneficiaries included widows. He urged them not to sell the inputs provided them but to use them in building their future. He noted that selling them would to selling their future.
Ochoche noted that the beneficiaries were formed into groups of 20 each to be properly monitored and supported on how to properly utilize the inputs for maximum benefit.
In his remarks, the Adamawa State Coordinator of Fadama 111, Alhaji Mohammad Kabiru said the beneficiaries would be registered for necessary guidance on how to use the inputs and sustain support.
The chairman of Madagali local government, Alhaji Yusuf Mohammed, who lauded VSF for its support to the people said the council had constituted a monitoring team involving security agents to arrest and prosecute anyone found selling the inputs.
Adamawa State Govrrnor,. Jibrilla Bindow who was represented by the Commissioner for Agriculture, Alhaji Ahmadu Waziri, also lauded VSF for the support and said that the state government would also provide farmers in affected areas of the state with subsidized fertilizer.
Some of beneficiaries who spoke to TVC News thanked VSF for the gesture which they said would go a long way to ease their pains.