The Minister of Women Affairs, Uju-Kennedy Ohanenye, has pledged to empower Hausa and Fulani herders from the Adamawa South Senatorial zone.

The minister said this when some people from the zone paid her a courtesy visit on Thursday in Abuja.

She promised to empower the people with farming tools and introduce them to the plantation of hybrid rice with high yields.

“Most times, the fight between herders and farmers comes from hunger and suffering, and they end up killing themselves.

“I will start with hybrid rice because the good thing about hybrid rice is that when planted over the same size of farmland, it will give you 140 bags, while normal rice will provide you 100 bags,” she said.

The minister added that the farmers would receive processing machines and be introduced to packaging systems to package the rice for exports.

Ms Ohanenye said she has already discussed with the people how to make some hectares of land available for the business, adding that the people are already her business partners.

She said the profit from the rice production in large quantities will enable the people to do other businesses, promote peace, love and decrease the number of out-of-school children among the people.

“The people have promised to use part of the proceeds from the rice business to get their children back to school.

“My ministry will support their children with scholarship programmes to make sure children get better education and change their lives,” she said.

Earlier, Abubakar Bello, who spoke on behalf of the group, said they were at the minister’s office to register their grievances about some other communities in Adamawa.

He said the constant crisis between farmers and herders in the Adamawa South Senatorial zone had been a concern for the people.

Mr Bello said the crisis between the warring groups had affected them a lot and brought about the loss of lives and many other valuable properties.

(NAN)