Ekiti attracts N47.5 bn in agric investment

  

NaijaAgroNet:

The Governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi has disclosed that his administration had attracted agricultural investment to the tune of about N47. 5 billion in the agriculture sector in the last three years.

Gov. Fayemi made this disclosure at the just concluded 2013 World Food Day held in Ado Ekiti, attributing the investment to  reputable indigenous and international agricultural institutions, including Agricultural Company (AGCO), in addition to  securing  a credit facility of N80 million and tractors worth N100 million.

According to him, these companies have also partnered with Ekiti State government for the establishment of 2000 hectares of mechanized rice, soybean, and cassava farms while new vision technology is establishing a $165 about N26, 152,500,000.00 agric city.

NaijaAgroNet confirmed from him that the state is working with Dutch Agricultural Development and Trading Company (DATCO) on the establishment of high quality cassava flour processing factory, Vegefresh has taken over the moribund Orin cassava processing plant upgrading the capacity of the plant from 10 tons to 60 tons per day production while others including Datlex, RENL, GIL, Arewa Cotton, and Spectra among others have keyed into the vision to make the state the food of south west Nigeria.

 He explained that due to the zero-tolerance status of his administration, cheques and tractors are only being distributed to beneficiaries whose operations will impact the agric sector.

He lauded the support of multilateral institutions including the World Bank, African Development Bank, UNDP, DFID and FAO for the various drives in the sector, noting that all their efforts have enabled the Youth Commercial Agriculture Development (YCAD) programme comprising 250 youths to cultivate 1,900 hectares of cassava, 53,000 cocoa seedlings, 109,560 oil palm seedlings, 60,000 fingerlings, 6,230 kilogrammes of fish and 60,000 broilers.

AN/ GEE                                                                                           

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pix;Governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi