The Kogi Government has mapped out 1,200 hectares of land for immediate intervention in cassava production.
The Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr. Timothy Ojoma, made the disclosure in Lokoja during the inauguration of the State Executive Council of the Cassava Cottage Processing Marketing Association (CACOPMAN) on Wednesday.
Ojoma said that the state government was going to provide 80 percent of the work by bringing in tractors, improved stems, fertiliser, chemicals, and clearing the land.
“We have already mapped out about 48 areas in the three senatorial districts of the state for this purpose.
“We are also providing extension services by engaging over 1,000 extension workers to ensure that our farmers have up-to-date information on the cassava.
”We are also intervening in rice and maize production,” he said.
He said that the extension services will include translating the information in the three main languages in the state for people to understand the best practices and up-to-date information about climate change for them to do the right thing for the desired results.
”Our farmer-friendly Gov. Usman Ododo is very interested in food production and security, which explains why his first engagement in office was in agriculture.”
The commissioner also said the state government has concluded training of enumerators for a forthcoming biometric capture of all farmers across the state for useful data.
He challenged the new leadership of CACOPMAN to encourage members to key into government food production programmes for the attainment of food security in the state.
Earlier in his speech, the CACOPMAN National President, Mr. Segun Ilori, had tasked the new executive council to live up to expectations in boosting cassava production in the state.
Ilori said that there were several incentives from the government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Speaking at the occasion, the State President of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Alhaji Salihu Adobauji, encouraged the cassava farmers to ”weather the storm” of the economic hardships and produce food in the farming season.
In his acceptance speech, the new state CACOPMAN chairman, Ufana Hussein, said cassava has the potential to industrialise Kogi and Nigeria as a whole.
“From cassava processing, we can have some industrial inputs such as starch, for both edible and non-edible grades, cooking gas, organic fertilizer, animal feeds from the peels, gari, and fufu (wet and dry),” he said. (NAN)
