BOSG, VSF Train 30 Trainers To Support Vulnerable Peasant Farmers in Borno
By Babagana Bukar Wakil, Maiduguri
Borno govt in collaboration with Victims Support Fund (VSF) have trained of 30 agricultural extension workers to sensitize, eidcatre and support victims of Boko Haram insurgency on dry season farming techniques to boost food productivity in the State.
Speaking during the training session in Maiduguri , the Borno state Commissioner of Agriculture, Engineer Bawu Ba Musami, says that the state has recently faced a dry spell which threatens food security in the North-East region.
He noted that, the training would boost agricultural productivity especially, the dry season farming, taken into cognizance that the training was knowledge based.
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According to him, the trainers will make sure that the farmers have gotten the necessary guidelines on how to scale up food production because the trainees were carefully selected from Ngamboru Ngala and Gwoza LGAs based on the their commitment to farming despite the security challenges in the areas.
The commissioner was represented by Alhaji Bukar Kolo, who said that the trainees are cut across IDPs and vulnerable persons who are also farmers, saying “we all know that Ngamboru Ngala and Gwoza farmers have experienced Boko Haram insurgency for almost 14 years now.
“We will ensure that the farmers at the local level have gotten the desired knowledge and techniques on how produce farm products in the State.
Borno state is a agrarian state which has a very fertile land, to this end our farmers need to have more knowledge on dry season farming which we believe will enable us to boost our food production.
“The state government in collaboration with the victims Support Fund (VSF) are going to empower the trainees with improved seedings and some stipends to ensure that they have regain their livelihood again.
Also speaking, the Head of Program for Victims Support Fund Headquarters, Mr. Shemiri Andre, said the training came up as a result of advocacy engagement with the Borno state government, the Victims Support Fund is currently running this program in nine Northern states.
“Dry farming is one of the priorities of Borno state government that is why in our collaboration we identified communities in Ngamboru Ngala and Gwoza specifically Izge which considered as areas of dry farming targeting 3000 farmers who are mostly IDPs that were displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency.
“The VSF will help them with equipment and seedlings in addition to scaling up of their skills in relation to dry farming techniques, the extension workers are people in the community they would also teach farmers on how to effectively achieve productivity in dry farming on order to ensure food security in Borno.
On his part, the Acting Program Manager of Borno state agricultural development program, Darman Mohammed, the training was meant to build the capacity of the extension agents so that they would support the farmers in Ngamboru Ngala and Gwoza (Izge) in order to boost dry season farming in the state with the help of Victims Support Fund.
“The target beneficiaries are the vulnerable farmers, mostly those who are displaced by the insurgency, the intervention is targeted at them so that they can regain their agricultural livelihood.
“Victims Support Fund has already prepared themselves to provide seeds, water pumps and necessary farm inputs in order to make dry farming to be effective in the State”.
