Gov. Hyacinth Alia has inaugurated a 5,000-hectare cluster farms for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the state.
Alia, who performed the ceremony on Friday at Tyo-Mu, Makurdi Local Government, said 4,200 IDPs were benefiting from the first phase.
The governor explained that the IDPs were grouped into 210 cooperatives of not less than 20 members for the programme.
He said the IDPs would be supported with inputs, improved seedlings, tools, and skills and would be trained to have access to the full rice value chain.
Alia stated that they would be farming mostly rice, maize, and vegetables all year round.
The governor further explained that in 2024, the state focused on securing the IDPs and giving them back their lives.
“Now is the time to empower them to be able to feed themselves and become economically independent so that they can return to their homes.
“Government will provide access roads to the farm sites and security to the farms.
“We are building back better. So to us it is not just durable solutions for our citizens forced into displacement, stripped of their dignity, but we are moving on together along the path of Benue’s own prosperity.
“Let us never again leave this land to become a source of conflict, displacement, and death. Our people have suffered enough, and we are ready to return them to their own homeland.
“It wouldn’t help us sitting down, soaking and crying. These young women you see here are all widowed. We have quite a chunk of them who are pregnant; a good number of them are in their 20s, 30s, and mid-40s.
“Should we just allow them to just sit and fold their arms crying and mourning? It wouldn’t help us. It wouldn’t help them as well.” he said
In his remarks, Mr Malick Fall, United Nations (UN) Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, commended the IDPs for inspiring them to always continue to do more.
Fall said the UN understands the job of humanitarian assistance very well, but it became clear after decades of interventions that there was every need for durable solutions.
“We have agencies that are specialised, but year after year, decade after decade, we realise that we keep providing humanitarian assistance but are not changing the lives of the people that we are assisting.
“Durable solutions not only provide livelihoods and return them to their homes but, most importantly, give back to the people their dignity,” he added.
The Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Mr Aondowase Kunde, said 280 hectares of land were secured at the site for the farming.
Kunde added that other sites were also secured for the IDPs cluster farms in the state.
Chief Vincent Aule, Ter Makurdi, said that the local government has enough land to donate for more farming.
Aule charged the host community to take full charge of the farm and protect the workers.
The traditional ruler urged the governor to ensure that the farm site was protected.