The Presidential Committee on North East Initiative, PCNI, on Monday commenced distribution of fertilizer to farmers in 101 wards of nine local government areas of Southern Borno Senatorial District.
Speaking at a ceremony marking the exercise in Jauro Shehu village of Bayo Local Government Area in Borno, Ali Ndume, who represents the senatorial district, said that 20 trailer load of fertilizer would be distributed.
According to him, each of the nine local government areas will get two trailers and certain allocation will go to youth, women, as well as village and district heads.
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He said 10 trailers had arrived at the venue of distribution while the remaining 10 trailers would arrive later.
Mr Ndume, who is also a member of PCNI, said the distribution would be monitored by the Monitoring and Evaluation unit of PCNI, to ensure that the commodity reached the grassroots.
“We have template for distribution and we are going to follow it to ensure that every allocation reaches the grassroots,” he said.
Theophilus Danjuma, chairman of PCNI, said Southern Borno was considered first because most of the people of the area are farmers, hence the need for the distribution on time.
According to him, most of the people in the zone, who have been displaced as a result of insurgency, have now returned home to start life afresh, hence the committee deemed it fit to support them.
Mr Danjuma, who was represented by Hauwa Biu, a member of the committee, said that women should be given equal share as men because they are equally farmers.
The chairman said that other parts of the region would equally benefit from the gesture, appealing to the beneficiaries to make judicious use of it.
He said that Southern Borno people are predominantly farmers who produced food for other parts of the country.
Mr Danjuma said people should appreciate the efforts of the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration for its effort at ensuring that peace returned to the region.
Also speaking, Mohammed Sidi, Head of Department, Humanitarian Service, PCNI, said for the committee to address the issue of food security in the region, it must first address the issue of farming challenges.
He said that agriculture was one of the priorities of the committee and the distribution of the fertilizer would go a long way in enhancing activities of the farmers.
NAN
