TheCable

The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations says about 3.6 million people in the north-east region of Nigeria are food insecure.

The north-east, particularly Borno state, has been ravaged by the Boko Haram insurgency.

Speaking with journalists on Tuesday, Dominic Burgeon, FOA director of emergency, said the issue of food security in the north-east is of major concern.

He said it was important that skills and tools were provided for people of the region to get back to their normal lives.

Burgeon noted that the FOA had empowered about 2,000 women and youth among Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Maiduguri.

The FOA director said the agency’s objective was to target about 1.9 million farmers across the state who lost their means of livelihood to the insurgency.

“The food security issue in the North-East and particularly Borno is of particular concern to us. No fewer than 3.6 million people are currently food insecure. Therefore, the mission of the FOA is to help the IDPs to kick-start their lives,” Burgeon said.

“We know that Agriculture is the main source of livelihood for them and some of them have not been able to farm for about three to four years, while some have lost all their agricultural assets to the strangulating insurgency.

“That is why it is key to provide them with the skills and tools to enable them to get back to their normal life. We are also looking at livestock and aperculture production knowing fully that it would be of nutritional value for them.”

On his part, Salisu Ngulde, the Borno state monitoring and evaluation officer for International fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), said the IDPs would be supported with 10 assorted seeds and 25 kilogramme of fertiliser.

“We are currently supporting them with 10 assorted seeds and 25 kilogramme of fertiliser in addition,” he said.

“They were divided into five sub-groups and each of them was given hand wash boreholes and water pumps.”