Hardship: Imo Agric Commissioner assures food security

Austin Okoro

To cushion the effects of economic Hardship ravaging the people residing Imo state, the Honourable Commissioner for Agriculture, Chief Cosmas Maduba has assured the Imo state people of food security in the near future.

Speaking to newsmen in his office at Owerri recently, Chief Maduba said that government at various levels are making frantic efforts that would cushion the effects of the economic Hardship in the nearby future.

Maduba said that though the issue of economic hardship is real but it’s not peculiar to Imo state alone.

” The issue of economic hardship in Nigeria is real but it is not restricted to Imo state alone. It is a national, continental and global issue,” he stated.

Maduba narrated that before the advent of war in Ukraine, the country was a better supplier of food items, fertilizers etc.

He noted that the ongoing war in Ukraine has devastated the place and caused shortages of food and the shortages have daring consequences all over the world .

He added that in the case of Nigeria, the situation is not different, the problem of climate change, wars, kidnapping, violence, natural disaster, Boko Haram insurgents etc have devastating consequences in the Northern and Southern Nigeria.

Maduba explained that in the South East, there are problems of Unknown Gun Men, Fulani herdsmen or cattle rearers that have ravaged the area and constituted problems to the farmers thereby hindering food production and supplies.

He stressed that if you put all these challenges together the direct consequence is shortage of food items produced, and distributed to the final consumers.

” These issues collectively have constituted a major challenge to the government of Imo state, Nigeria and the world.

But in the case of Imo state, he noted that Governor Hope Uzodinma is very concerned about the challenge and through the instrumentality of the ministry of agriculture, they are putting things in place to solve these problems.

The commissioner opined that because the governor has strong relationship with the centre, a lot of assistance in terms of supplies of food items have been ongoing , adding that some products have been received from the centre.

” Some of the assistance we got from the centre include some farm inputs which we have distributed to farmers as to encourage them to go back to their farms”, he asserted.

The Agric boss emphasized that the federal government is not doing it alone as most of them are counterpart funded .

“The state does its own, the federal does its own and through the federal ministry of agriculture and food security with other agencies, food items and inputs are made available to the people.

Maduba said: “in the issue of food products like rice, maize, garri etcetera, when they arrive we assemble them to a particular system involving the LGAs, established organizations, churches, markets etc and distribute to Imo people free of charge, plus transportation cost to convey the products.”

According to him: “Farming nputs are equally distributed to farmers through the collaborations of various agencies of government: such as the federal ministry of agriculture and Imo state ministry of agriculture etc”

“They procure inputs and distribute them to farmers to ensure they go back to their farms.

” These mechanisms have been very successful, the results being considerable increase in farm produce, which at the end of the day will boost food security and the people will live a normal life” he stated.

Opinion polls conducted by our news platform earlier showed that 70% of Imo citizens are passing through hard times orchestrated by shortages of food items and dwindling income.

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