Twenty five vegetable farmer groups from 15 communities in six local council areas of Anambra State have received farm inputs and implements from the state government.

The Tide source reports that the groups are registered under the Fadama III programme of the state.

Distributing the items in Awka recently, Governor Peter Obi said the government was accelerating the tempo of Fadama activities to increase agricultural productivity.

Obi, who expressed the hope that the drive would help fight extreme poverty and hunger, called on the beneficiaries to actualise the desired goals by putting the items to good use.

Some of the materials included water pumps and accessories, knapsacks sprayers, plastic tanks, litres of herbicides and insecticides as well as fertilisers and improved seeds.

Earlier, Mr Ndubisi Menakaya, the state’s Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, said that Obi had remained consistent in the payment of the government’s counterpart contribution.

Menakaya noted that the governor’s gesture had boosted activities in the project, saying that the empowerment of the vegetable growers would create jobs and wealth for the unemployed.

Also speaking, the Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Prof. Chinyere Okunna, said the empowerment was targeted at achieving the number one goal of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Okunna called on the vegetable growers to put in more efforts to increase their output to enable the state to actualise its food security.

Mrs Evelyn Odiari, the Acting State Project Coordinator, noted that the empowerment would boost the level of vegetable production and mineral intake in the state.

She said this would enable the state to join the league of vegetable exporting states in the country.