households

48,000 bags of rice are to be distributed to the vulnerable in Akwa Ibom State.

This was disclosed at a press briefing at the NUJ Press Centre in Uyo on Friday, July 19, by the Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Offiong Offor, who said the rice, which will be shared among the 2,272 gazetted villages in the state, comprised the 24,000 bags sent to the state by the federal government and the additional 24,000 bags approved by the State governor, Pastor Umo Eno, to augment the federal supply.

Flanked by her counterparts from the Ministry of Information, Comrade Ini Ememobong; Ministry of Economic Development, Mr. Emem Bob, and the chairman, Bulk Purchase Agency, Rt. Hon Dan Akpan, as well as the Media Consultant to the Governor, Mr. Aniekan Umanah, the Agric Commissioner disclosed that the governor decided to augment the Federal Government donation as an act of responsibility to reach out to more families, rather than indulge in blame game.

Expressing Eno’s gratitude to the government of President Bola Tinubu for its care and responsiveness in aligning with the current struggles faced by Nigerians, she indicated that through the intervention, each of the 2,272 gazetted villages in the state will receive 20 bags of rice, adding that the over 100,000 families from the social register who had either received or will receive free food items from the state Bulk Purchase Agency would be captured.

The Agric Commissioner described the distribution exercise as a short-term solution to mitigating hunger, food insufficiency and unavailability, emphasising that the long-term solution lies in the back-to-farm initiative backed up by the work-free farm days, targeted at enhancing local food production.

She explained that already, the state government, through her ministry, has implemented several strategic interventions, including the distribution of cassava cuttings, maize grains, pepper seedlings, and coconut seedlings to 135 public primary and secondary schools, 150,000 cocoa seedlings to cocoa farmers, 40,000 palm seedlings to oil palm farmers, 80,000 pepper seedlings to vegetable farmers, and 20 metric tonnes of rice shared to rice farmers across the state, as well as livestock and poultry supplies to poultry farmers.

The interventions, as mentioned by the Commissioner, were additions to livelihood grants of N50,000 given to 1,560 beneficiaries and agricultural inputs and services to 900 farmers under the AK-CARES Scheme.

Clarifying the modalities for the distribution of the joint federal and state government food intervention, Dr. Offor announced that the exercise will occur at local government council headquarters, from where the council chairmen will ensure safe transportation of 20 bags to each gazetted village on a date that will be announced soon.

Appreciating the state government for being proactive, the chairman of the Akwa Ibom State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Comrade Amos Etuk, assured that journalists under his watch will continue to ensure a peaceful and progressive society through objective journalism that promotes development.