Abuja: The Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) has commenced the distribution of farm inputs and implements to farmers across its 12 wards as part of activities to mark the 2026 farming season. The Chairman of AMAC, Dr. Christopher Maikalangu, during the distribution in Abuja, said the initiative was designed to attain integrated farming for all and to boost food production and employment opportunities in the area.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, the items distributed included 375 knapsack sprayers, 65 cartons of agrochemicals, 35 irrigation pumping machines, 200 hoes, 100 cutlasses, 50 pairs of boots, 120 pairs of hand gloves, 30 wheelbarrows, 58 cartons of organic fertilizer, 440 chick trays, 447 drinkers, and 680 feeders, among others. Maikalangu canvassed for stakeholders’ partnership to entrench integrated farming to boost employment opportunities in the area council.
He stated that agricultural transformation required partnership between government, farmers, communities, and the private sector, noting that food security was a collective responsibility. He reaffirmed the council’s commitment to agriculture, saying that it was a pathway to food security, economic opportunity, employment, wealth creation, and sustainable grassroots development in the area.
He emphasized the council’s desire to encourage young people to see agriculture not simply as subsistence farming but as a viable business and an avenue for innovation, enterprise, and prosperity. The aim is to ensure greater opportunities for women to participate meaningfully across the agricultural value chain and have access to the knowledge, support, and opportunities required to increase productivity for farming communities.
He envisioned a future where farmers could cultivate crops, integrate livestock, explore fish production, plant trees, recycle agricultural waste, and create multiple streams of income from the same agricultural ecosystem. He urged farmers to embrace modern agricultural practices, protect the environment, work cooperatively, and make productive use of every opportunity provided through the program.
Earlier, the Acting Head of the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Mr. Joseph Kaubai, urged farmers to effectively utilize the inputs received, describing them as the backbone of Nigeria’s food system. He acknowledged that the cost of inputs had been a challenge for farmers and that the initiative also sought to cushion the effects of the high cost, increase harvest per hectare, and ensure food and nutrition security.
Kaubai encouraged farmers to use the input judiciously on their farms as trained by extension workers, urging them not to sell the inputs and to aim for a bumper harvest. He assured that extension agents would follow up with farmers in the field to provide technical support.
Responding on behalf of the farmers, the Chairman of the farmer groups, Mr. Emmanuel Danladi, commended the council chairman for the initiative. Danladi expressed the farmers’ happiness and gratitude for receiving various farm inputs and improvements to support their livelihoods. He pledged that farmers would put the input and implements into judicious use to boost food production in the area council. Danladi also urged the area council chairman to provide more logistics for farmers and address pockets of farmer-herder clashes in the area.