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
NaijaAgroNet
... Linking agrobiz, people & technology
pix;Governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi
