Plateau State Government says it has commenced the cultivation of 6,000 hectares of land, ahead of the upcoming farming season to help in resettling communities displaced by crisis.
The Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr Samson Bugama, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Jos.
According to Bugama, the “Mechanisation Service Provision Intervention”, is targeted at communities affected by series of unrest.
He further said that the move also aimed to provide seeds and similar services to cluster of farmers across the state.
Bugama said that the effort would help to improve the state’s agricultural yield and reduce hunger to the barest minimum.
“The strategy is to see how we can provide mechanisation services to communities that have been displaced in our quest to return people to their livelihoods that insecurity has denied them.
“Gov. Caleb Mutfwang in his magnanimity has decided that we cultivate 6,000 hectares of land; we will see how we exceed this in the nearest future.
“We are using the tractors and manpower from our Agricultural Training Service Centre (ATSC), and Marketing Ltd.
“And we will be providing seeds for those places that have been cultivated, so as to bring bumper harvest as we return people to their livelihoods,” he said.
The commissioner further stated that the initiative would be replicated in all troubled areas of the state.
On the measures put in place to ensure the safety of farmers and their crops, Bugama said the Agro-Rangers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), had been deployed to the farmlands for that purpose.
“We have deployed the Agro-Rangers to protect the farmers and in those communities they have self-help groups that they setup, which have been providing early warning signals and we are utilising them.
“This time around, we are going to ensure that government’s intervention is not wasted, we are setting up a monitoring system.
“We will use modern technology to check incursions into such communities, and we will see how we improve on the system moving forward.
“But I must tell you that the governor is bent on ensuring that our people return to their livelihoods.
“Government is providing all these services and even the seeds for free,” Bugama said.
The commissioner also disclosed that the government had purchased and distributed more than 200 trailer loads of fertiliser to farmers in the state.
He added that in that regard, 350 youths from all parts of the state were also recently trained and empowered with modern farming skills to improve food production.
