Upon assumption of office on 29
May, 2015, His Excellency, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa promised to revolutionize our
agricultural sector for economic diversification. According to him the need to diversify our economy and reduce
undue dependence on the proceeds from oil has become quite urgent and this is
one agenda that this administration shall give great attention to. He promised to build a flourishing agriculture and agro-business
sector.
Towards
this end, the Production and Processing Support Programme - PPSP, an
agricultural value chain support programme, was inaugurated in October 2015. The
programme is designed to upscale the use of modern inputs technologies and
increase output and productivity of crops, livestock and fisheries enterprises.
The packages include inputs, technologies and materials necessary to make
production and processing more efficient.
The
production and processing support programme story is about agricultural value
chain development using target priority commodities across the State,
particularly cassava, fishery, aquaculture, vegetables and oil palm. The logic
is to support viable agricultural production and processing enterprises to
increase outputs thereby employing additional labour and creating wealth.
The
strategies adopted by the PPSP include:
i.
Provision of subsidized inputs and production technologies to
crop, livestock and fisheries;
ii. Provide subsidized agricultural processing and value addition
equipment and facilities to agricultural cooperative societies, commodity
associations and women;
iii. Facilitate private sector-owned and managed agribusiness service
centres, including tractors and implements, processing mills, inputs and
commodity marketing;
iv. Mobilize and facilitate high impact PPP investments along the
agricultural value chain for integration of agricultural production, processing
and markets; and
v. Facilitate agricultural cooperative societies, farmers, processing
entities and operators along the agricultural value chain.
Within
the first year of Governor Okowa’s stewardship, the PPSP has recorded landmark
achievements, these include the distribution of tractors to thirty-nine
cooperative societies, melon shellers to one hundred and six cooperative
societies, Outboard engines and fishing gears to eighteen other cooperative
societies, all these are support packages.
In
addition, a total of 815 farmers were given various support packages, as
follows:
i.
475 cassava farmers who were given improved variety of cassava
cuttings, fertilizer and cash components;
ii.
100 fishery farmers were supported with fingerlings, feeds and
cash;
iii.
100 poultry broiler farmers were supported with 200 day-old chicks
each, feeds and cash;
iv.
50 poultry layers’ farmers were given 200 layers, feeds and cash;
v.
50 piggery farmers were supported with 10 growers, feeds and cash;
vi.
40 tomatoes farmers were supported with seedlings, were supported
with seedlings, agrochemicals and cash.
There was
equitable distribution of these inputs across the three senatorial districts,
while achieving accurate targeting made possible by the vigorous screening process.
As a result of the accurate targeting achieved, government was able to reach
the farmers directly, a radical departure from similar interventions in the
past.
To
facilitate end to end intervention along the value, that is from production to
marketing, the State government also created the Agricultural Marketing
Coordination Committee. While inaugurating the Committee, Governor Okowa stated
that: as long as our farmers don’t have
ready markets for their produce and at the right price, they will remain in
perpetual poverty, even if their yields triple or quadruple. In addition, they
will not see the value in embracing government policies targeted at higher
productivity in the face of low returns on investments. Worse still farming
will remain unattractive to would be farmers and investors.
*From
the above, it quite clear that Governor Ifeanyi Okowa is working in the area of
Agriculture.
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