The Enugu State Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Prof. Martin Anikwe, has said that 84 cooperative farmers have been given grants by the state government in collaboration with the World Bank.<\/p>\n
Speaking on the activities of the ministry in the first half of the year in Enugu on Monday, the commissioner said the grants would boost commercial agriculture and food sufficiency in the state.<\/p>\n
The commissioner, who did not mention the amount given to the farmers, however, explained that each cooperative body received the grants according to its farm size, animal husbandry, fishery, and arable cropping.<\/p>\n
“To ensure food sufficiency in Enugu State, all World Bank assisted agric projects are based on cooperative, especially in FADAMA 111 and commercial agriculture.<\/p>\n
“We give money to the cooperative to clear land and for post harvest production while the government develops general infrastructure like transformers, roads and storage facilities where we have cluster farms.<\/p>\n
“Under commercial agriculture, we improved on six existing rural roads in 2011 while nine others have been identified for rehabilitation this year,\u2019\u2019 he said.
\nAnikwe said that a minimum of 2.5 hectares of land would be cultivated by each group while each of the 17 LGAs would provide two cooperative societies for maize production.<\/p>\n
He said the state government in partnership with a foreign firm would employ 10,000 youths in joint venture in agriculture, especially in rice production.
\nHe said that cold rooms were built at Akwuke, a pineapple processing center at Awgu, cashew processing center at Oghe, and other agricultural processing facilities at Iwollo and Ehamufu.<\/p>\n
The commissioner lamented that the land tenure system was one of the problems militating against efficient agriculture in the state.<\/p>\n
He appealed to communities with vast arable land to donate same for agriculture as it would not only boost their economy but create employment for their youths.<\/p>\n
The commissioner explained that when such land was acquired it would be shared to individuals or groups interested in farming for cultivation.<\/p>\n
Anikwe said the government was encouraging public-private partnership in agriculture to ensure food sufficiency both for local consumption and for export.<\/p>\n
On the menace of cattle destroying farms in the state, he said that the ministry was registering all cattle rearers in the state to know where they were located for easy identification whenever a dispute arose. (NAN)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Enugu State Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Prof. Martin Anikwe, has said that 84 cooperative farmers have been given grants by the state government in collaboration with the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n