One Mrs Ifeoma Uba, however, appealed to the Federal Government to redeem its pledge of supply of blends fertiliser earlier promised to farmers in the zone.

Mrs Uba, who was spraying agro-chemicals on her cassava and yam farm when the delegation arrived, said she had applied various seedlings and agro-chemicals on five farm parcels in different locations, even as she expressed confidence of bumper harvest later in the year.

In a remark, Mr Lawrence Udemezue, a vegetable and cassava farmer from Enugwu-Aguleri, urged the Federal Government to sustain the assistance given to victims of the flood disaster.

While expressing his delight on the assistance, Udemezue said, “If the Federal Government had been supporting farmers since the 2012 flood, everybody would have grown as big as I am today.

“The support this year really helped many farmers here. We applied the chemicals provided to us, and as you can see, there is no insect infection.

“See how green my bitter leaf is. See the cassava you gave us too. The variety is good judging from the tuber it is already producing.”

Receiving some agro-chemicals at Atani in Ogbaru Local Government Area, Mr Chukwudum Ukodei, Chairman of Rice Farmers Association in the area, said the gesture would help to prevent food scarcity next year.

Mrs Ogechukwu Ndukaihe, mother of four and one of the recipients of the agro-chemicals, said that increased yield from her cassava and yam farms would help her family to be food-secure, and payment of school fees would be easier.

Mrs Bolanle Ojo, NEMA’s supervisor for the distribution project, said over 5,000 farmers benefitted from the distribution gesture on over 7,000 hectares of farmland covered.

Ojo said the flood affected farmers were across seven local government areas of Awka North, Orumba North, Ayamelum, Ogbaru, Anambra East, Anambra West and Ihiala.