Yobe State governor, Hon. Mai Mala Buni, has been applauded for the great milestones in the agricultural sector in the last seven years to improve food production and strengthen food security.
In an interaction with journalists at his office in Damaturu, the commissioner, for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Hon. Ali Mustapha Goniri, said the Buni-led administration has transformed agriculture, promoted economic growth and advanced sustainable development.
The state government has invested huge funds in agricultural mechanisation, input distribution, and farmers’ support initiatives implemented across the state’s 178 wards over the past years, Goniri said.
“Yobe State is an agrarian state; over 80% of the population are farmers, and the only thing we could do to improve the livelihood of our people was to commit to agriculture. And we did massively well towards the provision and distribution of agricultural inputs to the farmers”, he noted.
Goniri explained that the Buni-led administration procured and deployed over 300 tractors to enhance mechanised farming, distributed over 20,000 metric tonnes of fertilisers, sold at a 50% subsidised rate, and supplied hundreds of thousands of agricultural implements and assorted agrochemicals to farmers in the state.
Others, he said, were the procurement of certified seeds, water pumps for irrigation farming, power tillers and planters to revitalise the agricultural sector, accelerate sustainable development, make agriculture commercially attractive and ensure food security and economic empowerment of the farmers.
“Since assumption of office in 2019, Governor Buni procured 103 tractors in 2020, 100 tractors in 2024 and recently, procured and distributed 300 tractors at a subsidised rate; the cost of hiring a tractor was initially 100,000 and was cut down to 50,000 towards improving agricultural production in the state,” he stated.
The commissioner noted that the state government is fully committed to the implementation of more agricultural programmes to address societal problems such as provision of food security, job opportunities and income generation, pointing out that the present administration has spent billions of naira on the procurement of agricultural inputs for the benefit of the people of the state.
He explained some of the challenges affecting agricultural productivity in the state, including the role of intermediaries in procuring inputs from farmers.
“These inputs are being distributed to farmers free of charge, and the middlemen will go and patronise them, buying them at a cheaper rate and exporting them to other states for their commercial activities, but Governor Mai Mala Buni gave directives that none of these agricultural inputs should leave the state. All the inputs that were procured and distributed are still within the state, and our farmers are using them for the benefit of Yobe”, he added.
Ali Goniri highlighted some of the policies set up by the state government under the leadership of Governor Buni to boost food production and improve the livelihoods of farmers, which include a high-level committee comprised of the Lake Chad research institute, the academicians, and stakeholders involved in agriculture to provide adequate extension services for the dissemination of information to farmers on new technological innovations to increase crop and livestock productivity.
He therefore said the Ministry of Agriculture remained committed towards greater agricultural productivity, especially in crop and livestock development in Yobe State.
