The Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Chief Jumoke Akinjide, has lifted nine cooperative groups of farmers in Oyo State with N4.5 million commitment funds for the establishment of nine cottage industries for palm oil and cassava production in the state.
The scheme, which is done by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) through a public-private partnership initiative, costs N10 million for each of the groups, with the Federal Government paying N5million and Akinjide N500,000 for each of the nine groups.
Some of the benefitting farmer groups include Anuoluwapo GCU Limited in Iwajowa Local Government Area of the state; Oke-Ogun Farmers’ Association (Iseyin Local Government); Agbelere Farmers’ Cooperative, Ona Ara Local Government; Worldnet Multipurpose Limited, Owode Oyo, Oyo West Local Government; and others.
Speaking at the presentation of documents to the beneficiaries in Ibadan, on Sunday, by officials of the FMARD, the FCT Minister of State said projectindicated that the President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration was not only targeting food sufficiency in the country but also transforming opportunities into wealth and enduring prosperity for the people.
Represented on the occasion by her media assistant, Alhaji Kehinde Isiaka, the minister stressed that the administration was unlocking potential in the agriculture sector to diversify the economic base of the nation and replacecrude oil with agriculture as the mainstay of the country’s economy.
The minister, who earlier purchased 20 units of tractors and over 4,800 bags of fertilizersdistributed free of charge as part of her farmers’ empowerment initiative as well as facilitated the registration of over 41, 000 farmers from the state, explained that the cassava project would also earn the countryforeign exchange as the largest producer of the crop in the world.
She said her resolve was informed by the need to ensure that farmers in Oyo State do not lag behind in the paradigm shift in the sector to mechanized farming, adding that “through the development in agriculture, the emphasis will no longer be on poverty alleviation but on sustainable wealth creation.
No comments:
Post a Comment