About 2,000 households in Anambra State have received agriculture inputs from the Federal Government through the National Emergency Management Agency. 

The NEMA team lead from Abuja, Olusegun Afolayan,  said on Thursday that the input distribution was the final phase of the exercise which started in September last year.

He said enumeration was done earlier last year to capture victims of flooding and vulnerable persons to generate a list of beneficiaries.

Each yam farmer got 50 seedlings, two chemicals and a pumping machine, while rice farmers got 10.2kg bags of seedlings, a pumping machine and seven different chemicals respectively.

Mr Afolayan said distribution started with the Anambra North Senatorial District which was highly impacted by the flood and later moved to the Anambra Central Senatorial District.

He said: “Now, we are attending to those in the Anambra South Senatorial District with these agricultural inputs, namely yam, maize and rice seedlings and each of these goes with water pump equipment, fertiliser and associated chemicals.’’

Mr Afolayan urged the beneficiaries to use the items for their own economic benefits and contribution to achieving national food security of President Bola Tinubu and not to sell them for momentary monetary gains.

Also speaking, Executive Secretary of Anambra State Emergency Management Agency, Paul Odenigbo, said the farm inputs would impact agricultural productivity positively this season.

Mr Odenigbo said the proper enumeration was fine and that the items addressed the needs of the various beneficiaries.

Some of the beneficiaries expressed gratitude to President Bola Tinubu for approving the relief items and also NEMA for ensuring that they reached the intended beneficiaries.

The Transition Committee chairman of Anambra West Local Government Area, Felix Ikechi, said the items arrived at the time they were going into a new farming season.

Mr Ikechi said the 2022 flood impact was still visible in the social economic lives of the people, adding that the agro inputs would go a long way in cushioning the effects.

“I want to thank Mr President for making these items available, my people are happy and I also want to thank my governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, for insisting that the beneficiaries must get them directly. We cannot quantify the benefits, most of these people cannot buy these pumping machines, chemicals and seedlings from the market, so my advice is that they should use them for the purpose they were given to them” he said.

On her part, a beneficiary, Francisco Nnama, said she was grateful for the items she received and promised to apply for them accordingly.

“I thank Mr President, I thank NEMA and I pray that God will bless them,” she said. 

(NAN)