By Mmaduabuchi Onwumelu
The Commissioner for Agriculture, Anambra State, Dr Forster Ihejiofor, says that Anambra State Government through the Ministry of Agriculture is working towards securing the economic future of Ndi Anambra.
Commissioner Ihejiofor who stated this during a Press Conference held at his office in Awka, to commemorate this year’s 2022 World Food Day Celebration, said that Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s Agro-Economic Transformation Agenda was aimed at building a secure economic future for the citizens by re-enacting Dr M. I Okpala’s Oil Palm Revolution, Creation of the Anambra Coconut Economy and Valorization of redundant vegetative ecosystem.
'We just completed the first phase of the oil palm Revolution and Coconut economy by distributing 220,000 oil palm seedlings and 150,000 Coconut seedlings to Ndi-Anambra for Agricultural development.
'This is just the first phase of the project, as the state government intends to plant 1 million oil palm and Coconut seedlings annually.
'Indeed, the state ministry of Agriculture is assiduously working to acqualise Soludo’s vision of a liveable, prosperous and smart mega city with food security, food as medicine, food safety and abundant local content for industrial raw materials and local content for commercial activities.
Dr Ihejiofor noted that the government would assist the affected farmers by providing all the necessary farm tools and crop seedlings to enable them to return to their farms with ease at the end of the raining season.
According to him, this year’s commemoration was coming at the time when the flood disaster had destroyed many farmlands in various parts of Anambra State, especially, the Agrarian communities. And also at the time that the country’s Agriculture sector was experiencing a downturn as a result of the menace.
'More importantly, most of our farmers have made a swift transition from season farming to all-year-round farming with increasing use of irrigation and the adoption of global best practices in agriculture.
'Our partnerships with major agro investors, have been hugely successful, drawing the attention of the entire agricultural establishment in Nigeria to Anambra State,' he concluded.
He announced that the state government had set the stage for integrating composting centres to host the production unit for black soldier fly, mushroom and effective microorganisms.
