0
SOKOTO – BUA Cement Company in Sokoto State has donated assorted farm inputs worth about N108 million to no fewer than 211 farmers drawn from its host communities.
BUA Managing Director, Engr. Yusuf Binji, during the distribution ceremony said that the aim of the gesture was to restore the livelihood of the residents of the displaced communities due to the quarry operations of the company.
Binji, who was represented by the Assistant Director, Corporate Services, Sada Suleiman, said that the gesture would also boost food production and food security in the state.
He noted that the items were donated to the beneficiaries who were drawn from some resettled communities, all in the bid to bolster food security.
Binji added that the items were distributed under the firm’s ‘Resettlement and Sustainable Livelihood Restoration Programme’.
Also speaking, the Director, Health, Community, Safety and Environment, Engr. Ali Gumel, urged the beneficiaries to use the inputs judiciously.
Gumel also stated that the benefiting farmers had adequately been trained on how to properly use the inputs by the Sokoto State Agricultural Development Programme (SADP).
In his remarks, the SADP Programme Manager, Abubakar Danmaliki, said that the farmers will be sustainably getting routine extension services with a view to guiding them on the proper utilisation of the inputs.
He also said that the gesture will greatly assist the farmers to absorb the shock of displacement, while also ramping up food production.
Also in his remarks, the company’s Social Performance Specialist, Rabiu Maska, listed the inputs donated to the farmers to include fertilizers such as NPK, Urea and liquid fertilizers.
The other items, he said, are improved seeds of cowpeas, maize, sorghum and groundnut as well as pesticides and herbicides, among others.
A cross section of male and female beneficiaries commended the firm for the invaluable gesture, vowing to use the inputs for the purpose of sustainable development in the state.
