Cross River State governor, Senator Ben Ayade, has commended President<\/p>\n
Muhammadu Buhari for seeking to diversify the nation’s economy by making
\nagriculture its main stay.<\/p>\n
Ayade, who was speaking during the flag of Rice Borrowers Anchor Programme
\nof the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), also lauded the efforts of the
\ngovernor of the apex bank, Mr Godwin Emefiele in this regard.<\/p>\n
Governor Ayade said the introduction of the program marks the beginning of
\nthe nation’s march to food sufficiency.<\/p>\n
His words: “We must seize this opportunity to thank President Buhari for
\nintroducing this program. We must thank him because if you follow the
\nroadmap, plan and vision for this initiative, you will definitely know
\nthat this is the beginning of the emancipation of Nigerians from their
\ncontinuous dependence on imported rice.”<\/p>\n
Governor Ayade who also lauded the CBN governor Mr Godwin Emefiele, for
\nthe gesture reasoned that “the rice value chain initiative remains a
\nspecial ceremony that will increase rice production in Africa because
\nNigeria is the epic centre of Africa.”<\/p>\n
Worried by the huge amount spent annually to import rice into the country,
\nthe governor said: “This is what President Buhari wants to stop because it
\nhas the nationalistic outlook to put an end to the declining rate of the
\nnaira to the dollar. When we stop importing rice, we will be adding value
\nto our naira.<\/p>\n
“It is key that you appreciate at this point the CBN governor and in
\nparticular, President Buhari, for it is a concept that we must support.”<\/p>\n
According to Ayade, “the vision of trying to be self-sufficient in rice
\nproduction is critical but in Cross River State, we will add our own
\ndimension to it. The government of Cross River is going to set up a proper
\nprofessional food bank, the very first in Nigeria.”<\/p>\n
Continuing, the governor disclosed that “we are going to set up a food
\nbank, one in each local government area, the major essence is to serve as
\nthe catallistic financial muscle that will pick up and buy off every
\nsingle seed of rice that you will produce.”<\/p>\n
Affirming that the state government will support CBN and the Federal
\ngovernment in ensuring that farmers don’t return to the mundane way of
\nfarming, Ayade said: “The farming we are going to do in Cross River State
\nis going to be special because we are known for class, style and beauty”,
\nadding that “we will provide an agricultural mechanism centre to provide
\nan industrialized support for farming.”<\/p>\n
He reiterated the resolve of his administration to support the CBN and the
\nFederal government’s initiative in ensuring that farmers get all needed
\nsupport required for a good yield that will lead to the inclusion of other
\nfarmers into the program in the nearest future.<\/p>\n
“This conglomeration of agricultural value chain is coming in handy at a
\ntime when we have a government that is sensitive and focusing on
\nagriculture, I believe that if we do this rice project successfully, the
\nrubber plantation will come in, the cocoa, groundnut, banana and cotton
\nwill all come in and we have a new horizon for business men,” the governor
\nsaid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cross River State governor, Senator Ben Ayade, has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for seeking to diversify the nation’s economy by making agriculture its main stay. Ayade, who was speaking during…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n