By Nnamdi Ojiego

Amid the World Bank’s latest food security report projecting that northern states of Nigeria would grapple with severe food shortages in 2024, a non-governmental agricultural organisation, Syngenta Foundation Nigeria, SFN, has responded by facilitating the empowerment of farmers drawn from Nasarawa, Benue and Kaduna states with semi-automated agricultural machines.

According to the Foundation, the aim was to boost food production and alleviate hunger in the country.

The empowerment, carried out during a two-day Hub Managers’ Meeting in Lafia, the Nassarawa State capital, was a deliberate effort to curb the food crisis currently rocking the nation.

The move was part of Syngenta Foundation’s ongoing strategic investment drive to support the Federal Government of Nigeria’s food production self-sufficiency and food security aspirations through mechanisation amid the nationwide food crisis rocking nation.

The machines were donated to the smallholders’ farmers’ by Purity Heritage Agro Chemical Business Limited under the watch of SFN. The items that were distributed to the farmers include multi crop thresher, paddy reaper, ISHP power tiller and 14AP power tiller.

The Multi-Crop Thresher is an engine-driven machine that threshes crops up to 75 times faster than manual methods and saves the average small farmer over a week and a half of post-harvest labour. The MCT has a modular design that allows it to process crops commonly grown on smallholder farms, including maize, beans, sorghum, and more, and is portable so that it can easily be transported on rural areas. Reapers are machines that cut and gather rice panicles at harvest.

The recipients of the machines were a Benue-based farmer, Aorga Kator Jeremiah, with years of farming experience, Doma Jibrin Bale, a rice farmer based in Nasarawa State, Nathan Jinda, a Kaduna-based Farmer.

Speaking during the handover ceremony in Murya farms hub in Nasarawa State, the Country Manager of SFN, Isaiah Gabriel, said that life has not been easy for smallholder farmers, hence the decision of the foundation to empower the farmers.

He maintained that the farmers were selected based on trust and the commitment they have shown over the years, stressing that helping smallholders farmers to grow and by extension ensuring food security.

“The beneficiaries are expected to utilised it for the benefit of other smallholder farmers around the community, not only feeding the community but always feeding the nation”

Presenting the farm equipment to the beneficiaries, Founder of Purity Heritage Agro-Chemical Business, Chukwunonso Ugwu, who is a Network Manager in the Foundation, stated that Syngenta has invested a lot of time, resources, and talent in the programme, and advised the farmers to reciprocate by putting the tools into proper use.

“Agricultural mechanization has the potential to, directly and indirectly, affect yields through a reduction in post-harvest losses and an increase in harvest gains”, he stated.

One of the beneficiaries, Jerry Aorga Kator Jeremiah, who responded on behalf of other farmers, appreciated the foundation for the kind gesture, promising to utilised the equipment for the benefit of his community, assuring that they would leverage on the modern farm implement to enhance crop yields.