By Leonard Okachie

The Abia FADAMA, through the Nigeria COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (NG-CARES) programme, has distributed various farm inputs to beneficiaries in the state.

The inputs, including knapsack sprayers, bags of fertilisers, cassava stems, herbicides, birds, feeds, vaccines and others, were distributed to no fewer than 100 beneficiaries in Umuogo-Ubakala community in Umuahia South Local Government Area, on Wednesday.

Speaking during the inauguration of the third phase of the inputs and assets distribution, the Abia Project Coordinator, FADAMA, Mrs Amarachi Anyim, said NG-CARES became the first time Fadama started implementing a Performance for Result based project.

The coordinator said that the goal of NG-CARES was to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the vulnerable people in the society.

She said that the target was to reach about 20,000 beneficiaries in the state across all the disbursement link indicators that include farms roads, wet markets, inputs and assets.

Anyim said that Abia had the best record of NG-CARES implementation in the South-East.

She attributed the success to the early release of billions of naira as counterpart funding by Gov. Alex Otti, whom she said did not wait for the World Bank for the reimbursement.

Anyim said that the governor gave a mandate that a greater number of residents in the rural areas, whose sources of income were adversely affected by COVID-19, be considered.

The Commissioner for Agriculture, Prof. Monica Ironkwe, told the beneficiaries that what was distributed to them was just a tip of the iceberg.

“A lot of other things will still come to you and other communities,” he said.

Ironkwe said that the inputs were given to them by the government to encourage them to continue with their farming and agriculture in their rural communities.

A beneficiary, Mrs Gladys Ebere, expressed gratitude to the government for the gesture.

“I am so happy because we have not seen something like this in this community before,” she said.(NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Chijioke Okoronkwo