In an effort to fight desertification, the Borno State Government has raised about 4 million seedlings and windbreakers across the state, as part of measures to push back the advance of the desert.
According to the Director General of the Borno State Agency for the Great Green Wall, the plantation drive is part of efforts by the state government to counter desertification in the largely arid state.
The seedlings are being raised in green zones of about 1.5 hectares each, established by the administration of Governor Babagana Zulum for plantation and the raising of the roughly 4 million seedlings.
The government also provided solar power to ensure an uninterrupted water supply to the nurseries, which comprise economic and non-economic trees that can withstand the harsh weather, especially in the desert-dominated areas of the state.
The agency for the Great Green Wall said it has taken a giant step by raising 3 million seedlings in Borno State, with the aim of massively afforesting communities across the territory.
Alongside the afforestation, and prior to the last flooding in the state, the government embarked on the drilling of several boreholes in communities where internally displaced persons have returned, in addition to converting fuel-powered boreholes to solar power.
A total of 48 boreholes have been converted to solar power, while the governor also approved that boreholes drilled some 40 years ago be turned into hybrid systems to ease water scarcity following the last flood disaster, a move residents commended.