Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has established three fuel efficient stove production centres in Borno state to curtail felling of trees in the Sahara desert. It also trained about one hundred persons or workers in the production of fuel efficient stoves for the three centres that it has established in Maiduguri, Konduga and Jere LGAs of Borno state. The FAO Deputy Country Representative, Mr Macki Tall disclosed this yesterday at the inauguration of the Fuel Efficient Stove Production Centres at Gongulon area of Jere Local Government Area.
According to him, the measure was part of a comprehensive programmes initiated and outlined by the FAO to reduce dependence on firewood, to encourage development of alternative energies and to provide sustainable livelihood to the rural communities. He said: “To achieve this goal, the FAO has partnered with Borno State Ministry of Environment and the International Centre for Energy, Environment and Development, to establish three production centres for fuel-efficient stove production. “In the first stage, the project foresees to distribute at least 5,000 locally produced fuelefficient stoves in the three local government areas to households with very limited access to firewood. “This will help them to reduce the amount of firewood needed to meet their daily cooking need,” Tall said.
The Deputy country representative further explained that the programme was designed to control also deforestation and desert encroachment while pointing out that over 407,000 hectares of forest resources have been deflated annually through tree felling. He also noted that even those people that were engaged in firewood collection were prone to attacks and abduction by Boko Haram insurgent’s. Tall added that women and children were also exposed to eye and respiratory infections through inhalation of harmful firewood smoke among other skin disease. The Speaking at the occasion, the Borno State Commissioner for Environment, Alhaji Kaka Shehu, said the initiative would go a long way in protecting forest resources across the state.
