…Says state awaits AfDB approval, Tinubu approves worldwide airport; farmers search tractors, fertilisers, processing centres
By Salawu Nneka Patience
Kogi State Governor, Ahmed Usman Ododo, has introduced important progress in the direction of the take-off of the proposed Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zone (SAPZ), expressing optimism that the initiative will remodel the state’s agricultural sector, entice investments and create employment alternatives.
Ododo made the disclosure throughout an engagement with farmers and members of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), the place he reaffirmed his administration’s dedication to agricultural transformation, meals safety and rural financial improvement.
The Governor stated Kogi State had fulfilled many of the necessities for the venture and was awaiting approval by the Board of the African Development Bank (AfDB), expressing confidence that the approval could be secured quickly.
He described the processing zone as a strategic intervention that might transfer the state past the manufacturing of uncooked agricultural commodities to processing, worth addition and agro-industrial improvement.
According to him, the initiative would cut back post-harvest losses, enhance farmers’ earnings, stimulate industrial actions and create new funding and employment alternatives.
Ododo urged farmers throughout the state to extend meals manufacturing in help of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s imaginative and prescient of attaining nationwide meals sufficiency, stressing the necessity to embrace the precept of manufacturing what the nation consumes and consuming what it produces.
He counseled AFAN for its contributions to agricultural improvement and acknowledged farmers as indispensable companions within the Federal Government’s efforts to reposition agriculture as a significant driver of financial progress.
The Governor additionally praised farmers in Kogi for embracing his administration’s agricultural agenda, noting that their dedication to elevated manufacturing was essential to fulfilling marketing campaign guarantees on meals safety, financial empowerment and rural improvement.
On agricultural safety, Ododo maintained that improved farming alternatives and financial empowerment of rural communities had been important to sustaining peace and stability, noting that agricultural improvement and safety had been intently interconnected.
He expressed confidence within the state’s agricultural potential, describing Kogi as a significant rice-producing state, and inspired farmers to enhance the standard and amount of their produce.
The Governor additionally emphasised the significance of dependable agricultural information, commending AFAN for sustaining what he described as one of the vital complete databases amongst organised associations within the nation.
He, nonetheless, urged the affiliation to make sure that the info was successfully deployed to information agricultural planning, authorities interventions and farmers’ help programmes.
On mechanisation, Ododo assured farmers that his administration was intensifying efforts to enhance entry to tractors and different trendy farming tools to broaden cultivated farmland, scale back the burden of handbook labour and improve productiveness.
In one other main disclosure, the Governor stated President Tinubu had accepted the development of a world airport in Kogi State.
He defined that the proposed airport would complement the agro-industrial processing zone by facilitating the transportation of agricultural merchandise and different items to home and worldwide markets.
According to him, an environment friendly transportation community could be essential to the success of the processing zone and the state’s ambition to draw traders into industrial agriculture and agro-industrial companies.
Ododo additionally referred to as for elevated budgetary allocation to agriculture, directing the Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Hon. Timothy Ojomah, to arrange complete proposals addressing the sector’s wants for consideration by the State Executive Council.
He stated agriculture deserved better monetary consideration due to its capability to generate employment, enhance family incomes, strengthen meals safety and stimulate financial actions, significantly in rural communities.
Earlier, the Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Hon. Timothy Ojomah, counseled the Governor for prioritising agriculture and introducing interventions geared toward bettering farming actions throughout the state.
Ojomah confused the significance of sustained collaboration between authorities and agricultural stakeholders, noting that the success of presidency insurance policies depended largely on the lively participation of farmers.
He additionally pledged his dedication, alongside different stakeholders, to mobilising help for President Tinubu’s re-election bid.
In his remarks, the Kogi State Chairman of AFAN, Alhaji Musa Raji, appreciated the Governor for offering farmers with a chance to speak their challenges and expectations on to the federal government.
While acknowledging the administration’s dedication to agricultural improvement, Raji appealed for the supply of extra tractors and energy tillers to allow farmers to domesticate bigger parts of land and enhance productiveness.
He additionally requested improved mobility for agricultural personnel to facilitate entry to distant farming communities, alongside elevated provision of fertilisers, improved seedlings and different important farm inputs.
The AFAN chairman additional referred to as for stronger agricultural extension companies to supply farmers with common technical steerage and trendy farming data.
He urged the state authorities to determine extra agricultural processing centres to advertise worth addition, scale back post-harvest losses and enhance farmers’ incomes.
Raji expressed optimism that the Governor would take into account the affiliation’s requests, assuring him of farmers’ continued cooperation in advancing the state’s agricultural improvement agenda.
Also talking, the State Woman Leader, Mrs Esther Audu, appreciated Ododo for recognising the contributions of farmers, significantly ladies, and offering a platform for agricultural stakeholders to have interaction instantly with the federal government.
The engagement offered a chance for the federal government and farmers to look at challenges confronting the sector and establish sensible measures to enhance productiveness.
With the proposed SAPZ awaiting AfDB board approval, the deliberate worldwide airport, renewed consideration to agricultural mechanisation and requires elevated budgetary funding, the Ododo administration is in search of to place agriculture as a significant pillar of Kogi State’s financial transformation.
