Motorcycles, sprayers, farm boots, grinding mills and hoes are some of the items received by members of farmers’ associations to help them maximise their produce.
The Belo municipality in Boyo division of the North West region is endowed with fertile soils that have helped the population over the years to cultivate crops such as maize, beans potatoes and banana. With farming being the main stay of the local population, it thrived from income gotten from the commercialisation of the aforementioned produce and others. The overdue socio political crisis in the Anglophone regions also affected farmers here, scaring some out of their farms. Another trickledown effect is the scarcity of these crops on the local markets. To boost production as well as fast track the confidence building scheme between the council and the locals, some 600 farmers belonging to five farmers’ groups received about 150 farm boots, 120 cutlasses, 24 spades, 5 sprayers, 5 motor cycles(for transportation of produce), 6 dozens hoes and 3 grinding mills.
All these were donated to the farmers in a ceremony last October 13, 2021, during which the Mayor of Belo Council Ngong Innocent encouraged the population to be ambassadors of peace. He said: “you have to promote peace where ever you find yourself. It is imperative for you to be ambassadors of this priceless value because without it, you will plant and not be able to reap the harvest or market it because you are running away from violence”. He also mentioned the recent visit of Prime Minister Dion Ngute to the region from which he brought the encouragement of the head of government to the grassroots population to go about their activities and give peace a chance.
One of the beneficiaries, Cletus Yuh who represented the Acha Tomato Farmers group lauded the Council executive’s gesture, promising that they would use the agricultural equipment received to increase their production.
According to Mayor Ngong, a temporal preservation and storage facility is under construction in Anyajua. Upon completion, the facility will help farmers store up their produce while waiting for buyers. Despite the shaky security context, the council executive has been able to accomplish the major stride of building four bridges in two years. These bridges do not only ease the movement of locals but also helps farmers ferry their crops from production basins to markets in good time. This cuts down on losses incurred due to delays in transportation especially of perishable goods.
Claudette CHIN
