The Delta State Government has secured the sum of 1.5 billion naira to empower 500 youths under the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Accelerated Agriculture Development Scheme (AADS) in the state.
The State Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Chief Julius Egbedi, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Asaba.
He said that it was part of the state government’s effort to ensure food security and employment generation for youths through agriculture.
Egbedi noted that treat to food security in the country were consequences of long run neglect of the sector by successive governments, adding that flooding, insecurity among others are manmade.
He said “On the factors militating against food production in the country, some of them are natural while some are manmade. Flood, though as natural as it is, is also created by human due to some of our activities; tree felling, dumping of wastes and the opening up of dams from neighboring countries impacts the farmers negatively.
“Insecurity is also manmade because of the teaming youths unemployment created by successive governments inaction to support agriculture over the years.
“Agriculture is a sector that by its nature has the capacity to create jobs for the youths but the sector has long been abandoned and made redundant over the years. So, the effect is now unemployment, banditry and other vices that now plagues food security.
“The worst treat to food production is the attacks by gun wielding herdsmen who disrupt farming activities in the state, they use their own livelihood to disrupt other people’s livelihood.
“As a state, in order to avert food crisis, the State Governor, His Excellency, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa because of his mindset towards agriculture, approved many programmes for the ministry to boost agricultural development in the state.
“In collaboration with the CBN, we cultivated about 2,500 hectares of land for cassava farm and also as a state ministry, we also cultivated 500 hectares of cassava farms.
“We train livestock farmers and empower them with soft loans to embark on their programmes. We also sourced for N1.5 billion loan under the CBN-AADS scheme to empower over 500 youths to produce vegetables such as tomatoes and aquaculture (fisheries)”.
Egbedi said that the loan had been secured and that land preparations would commence as soon as the rains subsides.
He added that the project would involve building of Green Farm Houses and training farmers at three locations in the three senatorial districts of the state.
According to him, one of such CBN-AADS programme will be sited in Ebede in Sapele Local Government Area, another in Mbiri, in Ika North East and Kpakiama in Bomadi LGAs of the state.
He added that “Besides, as a state government, we have provided soft but revolving loans to our farmers who are into aquaculture and we have spread the loan into four cycles for the farmers before they start loan repayment in the state.
“We are also doing the soft but revolving loans for the piggery production and recently those pig farmers who were affected by the African Swine Fever, government has approved a kind of grants to the farmers to ameliorate their lost and to enable them start over again.”
The commissioner said that the state had a comparative advantage in oil palm production, cassava, fisheries, among others, adding that the state government cultivated 120,000 oil palm seedlings in year 2020.
“The oil palm seedlings have been given out to the farmers this year as a loan to grow the industry. Government has encouraged the groups to form cooperatives to enable them get support and engage in commercial oil palm plantation business in the state.
“We have also guaranteed farmers cooperatives to secure loan from the CBN and have secured about 34, 000 hectares of land to enable them boost production in commercial quantity,” Egbedi said.
Egbedi said that the agricultural sector is getting the required attention from the Okowa-led government to ensure food security and to avert food crisis in the state. (NAN)
