Kwara State Government has again commenced the distribution of farm inputs for farmers in Apata Alaje, Banni Community in Kaiama local government, as part of measures to drive food sufficiency and promote livestock development.

The agricultural initiative is being carried out by the state Ministry of Livestock Development in partnership with Arzikin Noma and an international partner, IDH.

Speaking at the flag off ceremony, Commissioner for Livestock Development, Mrs Oloruntoyosi Thomas, said the project is focusing on cultivating sorghum and soyabean to boost grain production for animal feed, adding that this will also check the perennial conflicts between farmers and herders in the state.

She commended the development partners for coming on board and described the partnership as timely and purposeful.

“The current partnership with Arzikin /Idh/Olam is very timely because it is focused on the cultivation of grains for human and animal, but mainly for animal feed production,” she said.

“As we are all aware, food is the main reason for clashes between farmers and herders and if we can grow more grains that will be used for animal feed to achieve the modernisation and commercialization of Livestock farming, then we are on our way to ending farmers/herders clashes in Nigeria.

“This partnership will also help us to achieve a broader agenda of this administration, which is the creation of industries and value addition centres, to ensure that goods produced in Kwara are processed or improved upon and do not leave the state as unprocessed goods.”

She said the items for distribution will cover 18000 bags of fertilizer, 6000 liters each of 3 different chemicals, 75MT of sorghum seed, and 100MT of soya seed.