Skip to content Skip to left sidebar Skip to footer

SOLUTION GOVERNMENT TRANSFORMING STATE’S ECONOMY THROUGH AGRICULTURE  —-DR IHEJIOFOR

By Chukwuka Ugokwe :

Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr Forster Ihejiofor speaks on the state of Agriculture in Anambra State.

Excerpts:

Mr Commissioner, can you tell us the achievements of your ministry since the inception of this administration?

The activities of this solution government, which is a very visionary government is committed to the welfare of the people in a manner that is indeed incomparable. Governor Soludo is determined to make sure every minute, every kobo count for the people of Anambra. Ministry of Agriculture is one of the ministries that he is using to execute his multi pronged approach to liberating our people from poverty and improving the quality of life and livelihood of Ndi Anambra.

In Ministry of Agriculture, Mr Governor hit the track running from day one.In fact looking at his manifesto he did promise to make agriculture one of the major growth sectors for the state transformed economy. He is doing this from multiple angles,but the most prominent is the fact that Mr Governor has identified the oil palm and coconut agricultural sector as very potent tool for eradicating poverty.

This move is quite apt because in the 60’s, Dr M. I Okpara achieved an economic growth that was unrivaled in the whole of West Africa. A very high rate of economic and GDP growth that informed the visit of the Malaysians who came over here and obtained seedlings and went back to their place,utilized the oil palm and coconut to bring down their poverty level from 55 percent to 5 percent over a period of time.

Mr Governor has adopted a socio economic model of bottom up approach where seedlings are procured and distributed to Ndi Anambra targeting the most vulnerable and of course extending to the rest of the populace.This improved oil palm seedlings which is called Tenera Seedlings that we are procuring and distributing has the capacity to make just five seedlings of it after three years,three and half years will begin to produce and by the time it reaches the height of productivity,the five seedlings will be generating over a million per annum.

This is without stop,it will continue to produce oil and other value chain items. For a period of 35 to 40 years the seedlings will continue to produce.Mr Governor’s agenda is that every qualified family in the 326 wards of the state will be given between 5 to 10 seedlings per annum over a period of four years.

So,you get a tune of 40 seedlings and a minimum of 20 seedlings, each family that gets just 5 has exited poverty line forever,in fact they have become millionaires.

This is being carefully and intentionally implemented across the state.We have already bought and distributed a million and forty thousand to Ndi Anambra targeted at about 250,000 households.

This year 2024, another over 1,040,000 seedlings have been distributed across the 326 wards of the state. So,by the time this programme is fully implemented,in fact,within this first term, households in the state who statistically are under poverty line would have been lifted out of poverty.So this agenda alone will eradicate poverty from Anambra State.

What is the Ministry doing to sustain other intervention programmes?

Alongside this, several other intervention programmes are on board.You realize that we have the agricultural policy of the state which is described as Regenerative Agriculture.This regenerative agricultural approach is a copy of the natural crop production system which is a system that is highly sustainable because it leverages the inputs of biological wastes that have been composted rather than chemical fertilizers and chemical inputs.

So using the affordable input of biological compost ensures that the farmer recycles biological wastes rather than going to buy expensive inorganic fertilizer and chemical agro inputs that help to degrade our soil and worsen the climate crisis that we face.

Regenerative Agriculture employs agricultural pathways that are eco- friendly and help to mitigate the climate crisis that we face, help to sustain the soil structure and sustain life in the soil which makes ecosystem productive and functional and makes even our soil less vulnerable to erosion.

When you use chemical agricultural inputs,you kill the microbes in the soil and that leads to soil compaction that leads to loss of soil structure and then gully erosion.So, this policy alone will make agriculture more sustainable, more resilient and indeed more profitable to Anambra farmers, besides producing crops and commodities that are healthy and then food as medicine.

Now, we have intervention programmes in the ministry.FADAMA CARES which has just exited,we still have Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP) which is funded by International Fund For Agricultural Development (IFAD). We have the Agricultural Transformation Support Programme (ATASP 1) funded by the federal government in partnership with African Development Bank.

These intervention programmes are targeted at our stable food value chain; cassava,maize,rice, sorghum. They target these stable foods to enhance the infrastructural requirements in these areas of production and empower farmers through subsidized inputs to produce more and ensure food security in the state.

These programmes for instance ATAPS 1, is responsible right now for reactivation of a high capacity Irrigation Pumping Station in Ifite Ogwari that has the capacity to irrigate about 10,000 hectares of farm land.

Farmlands where rice production,maize production,sesame seed, sorghum can go on round the year once the reactivation is completed.It also means that we will be able to produce food all round the year.Rice can be produced three times rather than once which is what is happening right now.

Beside these major projects which is on going,they are also involved in supporting agricultural cooperatives with infrastructural and equipment inputs.They help them to build warehouses,give them equipment for processing of their commodities like rice,maize,sink boreholes and supply the farmers Solar Dryers.

Even access roads to farm lands and agricultural projects are provided by these intervention programmes VCDP and ATASP 1.So,under Mr Governor’s watch agricultural sector is receiving unprecedented attention.

So much is happening besides the oil and coconut palm seedlings which we are procuring this year.

What about Agricultural Transformation Centres and Special Agro Processing Zone, when are they going to be established?

Now,to transform the economy and transform it in a manner that is fundamental and sustainable, Governor Soludo has designed a market system that didn’t exist before.He is creating what we call a Mixed Use Industrial City in Aguata.About 4,000 hectares of land has been secured,where you have among other projects, Special Agro Processing Zone.

In this Special Agro Processing Zone,we are going to have multiple thousands of companies that will  come and be processing agric produce from Anambra.

In partnership with African Development Bank, Solution Government  wants to create Agricultural Transformation Centres, three of them in Anambra State where our farmers will be trained on how to upscale their productivity of rice,yam, cassava,maize and livestock.They will be trained on the latest techniques and technologies of how to upgrade productivity so that in our small land, we can produce more than what we need.Then, supply the Special Agro Processing Zone and then have our products exported abroad.

What are the Ministry’s plan for economic trees?

Endangered economic trees are receiving unprecedented attention,Ukwa,Oji Igbo,Akiilu,even paw paw and a number of economic trees were procured and  distributed  across the state. We are encouraging the beneficiaries to plant in clusters.We encourage people from the same kindred,same villages to locate their farms together or use their communal lands to do the planting.

A lot of questions have been asked about livestock, What is government policy on livestock production?

We do produce a large quantity of poultry.However,there is a challenge with infrastructure in their case.The veterinary clinics are dilapidated and they do not have a well equipped, functional laboratory in the state to ensure precise disease diagnosis and treatment.Often,they will have to send their samples outside the state for analysis and diagnosis.

When I came in, I asked questions and found out that the state has been pursuing an intervention project called Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Programme (L-PRES).

For that reason,the state government held back from investing in veterinary services infrastructure hoping that at the take off of L-PRES, these things will receive comprehensive attention,but as I speak to you the project is yet to take off. However, in this year’s budget Mr Governor has allowed some funding which we will use to address the most acute needs of the Veterinary Department.

0 Comments

There are no comments yet

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Skip to content