Director General of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mustapha Habib Ahmed, has taken delivery of relief materials donated to the Federal Republic of Nigeria by the Hashemite Charity Organisation, under the instruction of King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein Al Hashimi of Jordan.
The materials, which were delivered in Abuja by the Royal Jordanian Airforce at about 7:45 p.m., on Wednesday night, followed recent devastating floods across Nigeria.
The items included food, clothing, blankets and sanitary items.
ALSO, the government of Switzerland has committed 750,000 Swiss francs, approximately $756,000, to support humanitarian response to floods in Nigeria.
Regretting that the development has affected more than three million people across 34 states, claimed about 600 lives and displaced over 1.5 million people, the administration said the gesture was in response to a recent emergency appeal by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
Swiss Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Nicolas Lang, who disclosed this in Abuja, explained that through the contribution, IFRC and the Nigerian Red Cross Society will complement efforts of the Nigerian government in responding to the crisis.
IN a related development, the National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) called on Nigerian farmers to adopt new flood-tolerant rice varieties to address yield losses.
The improved varieties, FARO 66 and 67, were initially released in 2017 by the Africa Rice Centre and are suitable for planting in flood prone rice growing zones in Nigeria, with potential to yield higher than their parent varieties.
Director General of NASC, Dr. Philip Ojo, while speaking at an event to showcase the innovation in Abuja, stated that the Korea-Africa Agriculture and Food Cooperation Initiative (KAFACI), currently running in 16 other African countries, provided technical support for development of the varieties.
