The federal government says it has distributed improved yam seedlings and other inputs to farmers and extension agents in Kaduna.

Speaking during the distribution on Sunday in Kaduna, Raheem Adejoke, a senior officer at the Federal Department of Agricultural Extension Services, said the aim was to boost mass cultivation of yam.

Ms Adejoke, who supervised the distribution of the inputs, said the gesture by the government was also to mitigate the effects of the 2022 flooding that wreaked havoc on many farms.

She said 33 farmers would benefit from the improved yam seedlings, fertilisers, pre- and post-emergence herbicides, adding that the inputs distributed were emergency empowerment of the farmers and extension agents, simultaneously carried out across the North-West, North-East and North-Central.

Ms Adejoke said the federal government was targeting staple crops, which many households consume. She urged the beneficiaries to use the inputs judiciously, noting that the government is investing in them to achieve food security in households nationwide.

Similarly, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security coordinator in Kaduna, Timkat Nanfa, said farming without inputs wastes time and resources.

Also, the general manager of the Kaduna Agricultural Development Agency (KADA), Muhammad Rili, said beneficiaries were smallholder farmers.

“We have zonal offices. We will send signals to our zonal managers in order to follow up on the utilisation of the inputs. We will carefully watch those who are fond of selling farm inputs they got through gestures and goodwill, going forward, we will now put it into consideration of who to benefit and who will not,” stated Mr Rili.

(NAN)