The federal government, through the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), has commenced inspection of farmlands of victims of the 2018 flood disaster in the state in its intervention programme.
To this end, NEMA’s Monitoring and Evaluation team, led by Mr Vincent Owan, Director, Disaster Risks Reduction of NEMA and Chairman of Emergency Agricultural Intervention Programme (EAIP), on Monday, visited yam and rice farms in Shaku and Palwaya villages in Bosso local government area.
Mr Owan told newsmen during the visit that the federal government approved the programme to assist farmers whose farmlands were affected with inputs in order to ensure food security in the country.
He said the team would also ensure that officers assigned to manage the programme were working in accordance with the directives.
“The monitoring and evaluation exercise also involves visiting farmlands of beneficiaries and interacting with the farmers to ascertain the progress they have made so far in using the farm input given to them,” he said.
Also, Mrs Lydia Wagami, NEMA Supervisor in charge of EAIP in Niger and the Head of NEMA Operations Office in Niger, said the monitoring and evaluation exercise was to check the first and second phase of distributions of farm inputs to farmers.
According to her, the success recorded in the state to the good working synergy of the team members such as the state Ministry of Agriculture, Niger Agricultural Mechanisation Development Authority and NSEMA.
Mohammed Pada, Mamman Bosso and Malam Adamu, whose farms were visited, appreciated the federal government for the gesture, while urging it to expand the various agricultural intervention initiatives to accommodate more farmers in the state.