Interview: FAO Targets 60% Vulnerable Households With HNRP Livelihood Support

The 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) is targeting $516m to protect livelihoods and sustain food production across conflict-affected Northeast Nigeria, with a significant share channelled into agriculture-based recovery.

In this interview with THE WHISTLER, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Representative in Nigeria and to ECOWAS, Dr. Hussein Gadain, explains how about 12 per cent of the food security budget is being deployed to help vulnerable households rebuild livelihoods, prevent famine, and transition from aid dependence to year-round food production.
He outlines FAO’s strategy for addressing the deepening crisis driven by conflict, displacement, and climate shocks—particularly among women-headed households—through climate-smart farming, livestock support, aquaculture, and safe energy solutions aimed at restoring resilience across Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe states.
Excerpts…

How is FAO preventing emergency food needs from escalating into famine while helping displaced farmers return to safe, productive livelihoods?

FAO’s crop interventions in Northeast Nigeria focus on one goal: preventing vulnerable households from sliding from severe food insecurity into famine. The strategy is simple—help families grow food year-round.

This is done through a combination of rainy‑season support, dry‑season irrigation farming, and protection‑sensitive livelihood assistance.

In Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States, famine risk rises quickly when households miss planting seasons due to displacement, floods or insecurity. FAO reduces this risk by ensuring that crop production continues in both the rainy and dry seasons, preventing long food gaps that can lead to IPC Phase 4–5 outcomes.

During the rainy season, FAO supplies seeds, fertilisers, and tools early, enabling farmers to grow key staples—maize, rice, millet, and sorghum—and nutrient-rich vegetables like okra and amaranth.

These harvests strengthen household food stocks at the most critical time of the year. Dry‑season support (October–March) is equally essential. Through small‑scale irrigation, water pumps and vegetable/cereal seed kits, FAO helps families produce food during the lean season, when markets tighten and prices rise.

Repeated displacement has left many households with limited land access and security constraints. FAO adapts by promoting safe, localised production—short‑cycle crops, homestead gardens in camps and host communities, and low‑risk dry‑season plots near settlements.

These options allow families to farm immediately, reducing reliance on food assistance while conditions stabilize. To address climate risks, FAO integrates climate‑smart practices across both seasons. Farmers receive flood‑tolerant and drought‑resistant seed varieties, diversified crop options, and improved water‑management techniques.

These measures reduce the chances of total crop failure and help households maintain some production capacity even during climate shocks.

What proportion of the 2026 HNRP food security budget is allocated to agriculture-based and livelihood-restoration solutions?

This sub-activity was allocated $27.38m in the 2026 HNRP, equivalent to about 12 per cent of the $224.38m that was earmarked for the food security sector. This will enable assistance to reach 0.9 million beneficiaries (60 per cent).

How is FAO addressing disruptions to farming caused by insecurity and climate shocks, including repeated displacement and crop losses?

FAO is addressing severe disruptions to farming in Northeast Nigeria particularly in Borno, Adamawa, Yobe and Taraba States through a combined emergency, resilience and recovery approach. This strategy responds to the intertwined pressures of insecurity, climate shocks, repeated displacement and widespread crop losses. The aim is clear: help crisis‑affected households resume food production quickly while gradually rebuilding resilience in an unpredictable environment.

A central pillar of FAO’s work is the timely delivery of life‑saving agricultural inputs seeds, fertilizers, tools and water pumps so displaced and conflict‑affected farmers can plant during both the rainy and dry seasons. This support is essential in a region where insecurity and floods have destroyed vast areas of farmland and interrupted planting cycles year after year. By restoring the ability to grow staple crops and vegetables soon after displacement or shocks, FAO helps households stabilize their food supply and reduce reliance on emergency food assistance.

To confront recurring climate hazards such as floods, droughts and erratic rainfall, FAO promotes climate‑smart agriculture. This includes providing flood‑tolerant and early‑maturing seeds, improving soil and water management practices, and encouraging diversified cropping systems that spread risk and strengthen resilience. Dry‑season farming and small‑scale irrigation are also key components of FAO’s response.

These interventions ensure that food production continues even when rains fail or insecurity disrupts the main cultivation season. This support has become especially critical since the 2024 floods, which submerged over a thousand hectares of farmland in Borno State alone, further constraining households’ ability to recover.

FAO also relies on real‑time evidence to guide its actions. Through the Data in Emergencies Monitoring (DIEM) system and Cadre Harmonisé analyses, the Organization tracks crop losses, displacement trends and climate impacts. This data-driven approach enables early agricultural action often before shocks fully unfold. By acting early and tailoring interventions to on‑ground realities, FAO helps reduce future humanitarian needs, limit the severity of livelihood collapse and prevent repeated displacement driven by food insecurity

How does FAO ensure that humanitarian food assistance transitions into sustainable local food production rather than prolonged dependency?

FAO, working together with WFP, and other partners, can achieve this through the ‘nexus’ approach that bridges emergency assistance with long-term development. Immediate, life-saving needs are met while also prioritizing interventions that strengthen local, resilient, and climate-smart agri-food systems that enhance farmers’ resilience/self-reliance. This includes but is not limited to, linking farmers with markets, strengthening local supply chains while also investing in localization and capacity strengthening.

What support is FAO providing for livestock recovery and veterinary services in conflict-affected communities?

In Northeast Nigeria, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations delivers an integrated livestock recovery and veterinary support package to help conflict‑affected pastoralists, agro‑pastoralists, and mixed‑farming households rebuild their livelihoods and strengthen resilience.

With regards to Livestock Restocking, FAO supports vulnerable households that have lost animals due to conflict, displacement, disease, or distress sales by providing small ruminants and poultry, with priority for returnees, IDPs, and women‑headed households. Restocking helps families quickly restart livestock‑based livelihoods, generate income, and improve nutrition.

Since 2017, FAO has reached 61,674 households with restocking kits—including bulls, goats, sheep, and poultry.

FAO provides supplementary feed during the critical post‑distribution period, especially in the dry season or areas with limited grazing. Feed is provided either as part of the restocking kit or as a standalone intervention, including during anticipatory action for floods in Adamawa State.

FAO conducts mass vaccination and deworming campaigns for cattle, sheep, goats, and poultry to reduce disease, improve productivity, and prevent outbreaks in return and IDP‑hosting communities.

Over 800,000 animals have been vaccinated and dewormed across the BAY states. Training Community Animal Health Workers (CAHWs) to improve access to basic animal health services, FAO trains and equips Community Animal Health Workers to provide primary care, support vaccinations, conduct disease surveillance, and link with state veterinary authorities. In Borno State, 150 CAHWs received training and veterinary toolkits with essential drugs and equipment.

How is FAO working with state governments to strengthen local food systems in the BAY states?

FAO collaborates closely with state governments in the BAY states through resilience building interventions, and humanitarian-linked food security actions. Our Programs specifically strengthen local food systems by rebuilding livelihood assets. For example, we work with state ministries of agriculture to identify project locations and target beneficiaries, FAO interventions respond to food insecurity trends highlighted in state-linked Food Security Sector (FSS) CH analysis, this alignment ensures government structures remain central to
recovery planning.

In partnership with state officials, FAO improves both nutrition outcomes and local resource sustainability, this approach strengthens institutional capacity and embeds food system recovery within state development plans.

What lessons from FAO’s 2025 interventions directly shaped the 2026 HNRP strategy?

FAO boosted nutrition outcomes by promoting diverse crop cultivation and better farming practices.

Households were encouraged to grow nutrient‑rich vegetables and legumes alongside staple crops, increasing the variety of foods available. The Tom Brown and fish distribution, combined with homestead gardening support, helped families make healthier dietary choices. As a result, dietary diversity improved noticeably—especially for women and children—strengthening overall health and resilience.

FAO’s support for livestock rearing and aquaculture enabled households to expand their income and food sources beyond traditional farming.

Training, starter kits, and improved breeds helped families establish or upgrade small‑scale livestock and fish farming. This diversification reduced dependence on a single livelihood and improved resilience to economic and environmental shocks, while creating new opportunities for women and youth.

SAFE interventions enhanced protection, reduced costs, and protected the environment – Safe Access to Fuel and Energy (SAFE) initiatives addressed the risks—particularly for women—associated with collecting cooking fuel.

By introducing fuel‑efficient stoves, promoting alternative energy sources, and training households in sustainable resource use, FAO improved safety and reduced the time spent gathering fuel. These interventions also lowered household fuel expenses and helped curb deforestation and environmental degradation.

How does FAO measure the real impact of its interventions beyond food distribution through local partners and farmer cooperatives?

FAO measures the real impact of its interventions through monitoring and assessment of outcome-level indicators including changes in households’ food security situation by assessing key indicators (FCS, HDDS, rCSI, FIES, etc), income gains, reduced food losses, and improved resilience capacity.

Are there plans to expand climate-smart agriculture in insecure or hard-to-reach areas?

FAO has clear, documented plans to expand climate-smart agriculture in the BAY states, which contain many insecure and hard-to-reach areas. FAO is collaborating with regional ministries of agriculture and environment and research institutes (such as ICRISAT) to establish CSA baselines and profiles that guide policy, investment, and geographic expansion to reach most subsistence farmers to make their livelihoods more sustainable in the face of climate change.

What accountability mechanisms exist to track seeds, tools, and other agricultural inputs distributed to beneficiaries?

FAO tracks seeds, fertilizers, tools, and other inputs that it provides through robust beneficiary verification systems using Kobo Toolkit, GPS, and community validation.

The organization also conducts post-distribution monitoring assessments, which are conducted immediately after each distribution cycle to understand how the distribution process went and determine the beneficiary satisfaction or otherwise in addition to the feedback and grievance redress system that it establishes, which provides beneficiaries the opportunity to report any concerns or seek clarifications on the assistance provided.

How vulnerable are women-headed farming households, and what targeted support does FAO provide for them?

Women‑headed households in Northeast Nigeria face heightened vulnerability due to high dependency burdens, limited land access, repeated conflict and displacement, socio‑economic exclusion, and scarce resources. FAO therefore prioritizes women across all
livelihood programmes.

Women are also specifically targeted for interventions that reduce their vulnerability or leverage their strengths, including: empowerment support: livestock packages, crop inputs, financial inclusion, and food processing/value addition.

Nutrition‑sensitive agriculture: home gardens and local nutritious blends such as Tom Brown, protection‑sensitive assistance: Safe Access to Fuel and Energy (SAFE) kits. These targeted interventions help strengthen women’s resilience and increase their economic participation.