Renewed Hope: First lady doles out N70m to women farmers in North West

The Wife of the President, Sen. Oluremi Tinubu, on Tuesday, disbursed N70 million to 140 women farmers in the North West region of the country.

NEWSVERGE reports that 20 women in agriculture from the seven states in the zone went home with N500,000 each, under the Renewed Hope Initiative Women Agricultural Support Programme of the First lady.

Similarly,100 persons living with disabilities benefited with N100,000 each in the region.
While disbursing the funds in Birnin Kebbi, Tinubu, said the maiden edition of the scheme was launched in February this year in Imo.

She explained that the aimed of the scheme was to encourage women farmers to grow more food in line with the agricultural agenda of the Tinubu -led administration.
Tinubu affirmed the commitment to energising women in agriculture to improve production, including animal husbandry.

“Agriculture plays pivotal role in achieving sustainable development and food security.

“Consequently, we are introducing ‘Every Home a Garden’ competition to encourage each Nigerian woman cultivate a garden at home to feed the family and share with neighbours, we want to see food on every table,” she added.

Represented by the Wife of the Speaker, House of Representatives, Hajiya Fatima Tajuddeen- Abbas, Tinubu explained that the winner of the competition would pocket N20 million star prize.

“This is in addition to plans to introduce the formation of Young Farmers Club in primary and secondary Schools nationwide to encourage farming awareness among pupils and students towards self- sufficiency.

“Schools with the best farms will be identified and rewarded,” she announced.

Earlier, the Wife of the Kebbi Gov. Hajiya Zainab Nasir-Idris, revealed the donation of solar powered water pump to each of the benefitting women farmers from the zone to boost their yields in support of the first lady’s initiative.

She thanked Mrs Tinubu for her magnanimity and the choice of the state to launch the programme for the North West region.

In his remarks, Gov. Nasir Idris, announced that his administration had expended enormous amount of money on the procurement of fertiliser and agricultural inputs which were distributed free to farmers to strengthen agricultural production in the state.

He reiterated that his administration would continue to provide an enabling environment to support the participation of women in agriculture, including access to market finance and technology for food security.