Suffyan Koroma, Representative of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) in Nigeria have disclosed that supported farmers who received farm inputs and training had better production and greater harvests than their peers in 2019.
This was disclosed in FAO’s 2019 yield assessment report released in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital. Koromo said that the supported farmers over-performed their counterparts with no support during the season under review.
Koroma noted that improved seeds and NPK fertilizer were distributed in the north-east states of Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe (BAY) and that the FAO-supported beneficiaries were approximately 682,000,; with women-headed households constituting 35 per cent of them.
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He said about 99,400 households entered 2020 less vulnerable through FAO intervention on cultivation and harvesting of staple crops such as maize, sorghum as well as vegetables, including amaranthus.
Koroma pointed out that the increased yields caused significant change of income for FAO- supported farmers which in turn led to increased nutrition for women and their families.
This led supported farmers to harvest an average of 22.66 tonnes, while non-FAO supported farmers produced an estimated 12.91 tonnes of the same crops and under similar production conditions, he said.
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FAO explained that the support programme had a significant impact on IDP and non-IDP households alike because the impact had increased by 28, 49 and 23 per cent of households, classified as returnees, host community and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), respectively.
The organization ascribed the success of the support to the distribution of adaptable, drought and disease-resistant seeds alongside the equipping of each household with NPK fertilizer to enrich the soil and improve yield.
