Imo state governor, Rochas Okorocha says a minimum of 3 million palm seedlings will be planted in the next 3 years across the state.
The governor who stated this during the launching of the Back to Land Palm for Palm programme in Owerri recently, disclosed that the palm to palm back to land programme is a programme designed to promote agriculture, stressing that he considers it as the best legacy he can boast to have left for the future generation if accomplished.
According to him, “My administration made the first internally generated revenue in three months through the oil palm when it leased out Imo Palm Plantation to private investors and the money realized from this venture is what is being used to build 305 new school buildings of 12 classroom blocks each in the 305 wards of the state.”
He said that our forefathers knew the economic value of the oil palm which informed the reason for planting a palm tree, for every born child.
The governor added that the “back to land, palm to palm” programme seeks to replicate this age long practice to rediscover our economic base by each Imo citizen planting and owning one palm tree and replacing the old wild grove with newly improved seedlings with high yielding quality.
Okorocha hinted that government would put in place legal framework that will ensure that every Imo citizen plant and own a palm tree.
He commended the Commissioner for Agriculture and her team for a job well done by organizing the event and launched the programme by planting a palm tree which was numbered and named after him.
Earlier, the Commissioner for Agriculture, Mrs. Adaorah Ijezie said, “palm to palm, back to land” programme is the vision of His Excellency, Owelle Rochas Okorocha which targets to transform the economy of the state through rapid expansion and modernization of oil palm industry.
She further explained that each Imo adult, home or abroad will plant at least one palm tree annually for the next three years which will amount to about 15,000 hectares of high yielding palm plantation that
will be added to the economy of the state as well as the replication of Imo Palm Plantation (Adapalm) in the three zones of the state.
She added that the ministry of Agriculture will assist plantation owners through the supply of fertilizers, loans and processing equipment.
The Commissioner noted that the programme seeks to restore the role of agriculture in wealth creation, through increased agricultural production, create massive employment and youths empowerment and accelerated rural development.
Present at the occasion were the governor of Sokoto state, Aliyu Wamakko, Deputy Governor of Imo state, Sir. Jude Agbaso, former governors of Anambra state, Dr. Chris Ngige and Chukwuemeka Ezeife and other highly placed citizens of Imo state.