The Akwa Ibom Government says it is planning a N20 billion public-private-partnership investment in agriculture to boost food production in the state.
The Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Mr Godwin Afangideh, disclosed this on Wednesday in Uyo when a delegation of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) paid him a courtesy visit.
The IFAD team was led by the UN agency’s Country Representative, Ms Atsuko Toda.
Afangideh said that the state government would partner with `Songhai Farms’ to develop model farms in the three Senatorial Districts of the state.
The commissioner explained that the farms would train rural farmers on modern farming techniques, adding that they would be assisted to replicate farms in their communities.
“We will mobilise the people into bigger ventures; we will partner investors to work with the rural people.
“The only way to increase food production is to pay attention to agriculture,” Afangideh said.
While pledging to address the issue of counterpart funding to the IFAD-assisted Community-Based Natural Resource Management Programme (CBNRMP), the commissioner advised the programme to scale up its activities.
Earlier, Toda informed the commissioner that the team had inspected poultry farms, goatry and vegetable farms at Ibesikpo/Asutan local government area of the state on a special mission and was impressed with the quality of the projects.
“ We will like to see something larger, something commercial and something that depicts the transformation posture of the state,” Toda urged.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the projects under the CBNRMP are co-sponsored by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). (NAN)