Flooding: JDPC assists Anambra farmers with farm inputs worth millions of naira

Chinedum Treasure

Justice Development and Peace Caritas, (JDPC), Onitsha, Anambra State has procured and distributed farm input worth millions of naira to farmers in 12 out of the 16 communities of Ogbaru Local Government Area, to ameliorate the impact of perennial flood disasters on them.

The distribution, which was made under the Flood Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Project in Nigeria, implemented by JDPC and funded by Catholic Relief Services, saw 50 persons from each of the benefitting communities smiling home with cassava stems and yam tubers in readiness for planting season in the new year.

The benefitting communities are Odekpe, Ohita, Atani, Ogbakuba, Ochuche, Mkputu, Ogwuikpele, Umunankwo, Ossomala, Akiliogidi, Akiliozizor, and Obeagwe, all badly affected by previous episodes of flooding.

The Executive Director of JDPC Onitsha, Reverend Father Edwin Udoye, during the distribution of the items, explained that potato stems will also be procured for distribution at the onset of rainy season.

“We have their names, pictures and we have documented them properly for seamless distribution. We targeted 50 persons from each community making it a total of 600 farmers. We also plan to procure non-food items to support their livelihood at home.

According to him, two methodologies are being deployed for the execution of the project including the Sustainable Livelihood Approach, (SLA) as well as Disaster Risk Reduction, (DRR). “While SLA focuses on improving their livelihood, their means of income, their way of life, farmlands that were destroyed, we are trying to see how we can rebuild them by giving them farm inputs and non-food items.

“We will also give them what we call unconditional cash transfer. It is unconditional because they will be at liberty to determine what they will use the money to do. I mean, they make choice of what they actually want to get to support their livelihood”.

The cash transfer, which will take place between March and April, Father Udoye said, would be used to further create awareness about the intervention, targeted at building the capacity of the locals to formulate and implement adaptation strategies against the perennial flood disaster.

“When you say cash is coming, everybody wants to be a beneficiary. It will allow us to further raise awareness of the project because we discovered that some community members are not still aware of the project. Meanwhile, we are starting town hall meetings from next week to further address that.

JDPC Executive Director explained that the project is primarily designed to build the capacity of the local communities to be able to contain the disasters particularly flooding, risks associated with them, and then foster sustainable development.

“When flood comes, it affects lives and livelihoods. Many people are displaced, so many people lost their means of income in the process. It comes with a varied kind of diseases too and all of that is a threat to human life.

“Because of that, in this project, we are building the capacity of the communities to contain the disaster and drastically reduce the risks associated with it,” Udoye explained.

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