The Commissioner for Agriculture in Cross River State, Prof. Anthony Eneji on Sunday revealed that the state government intends to create over 20,000 jobs using agriculture, this year.
Disclosing this in Calabar, the state capital, Eneji, said jobs would be created through cocoa, palm oil, rice and robber production.
According to the Commissioner, the state had begun the process of regenerating the ailing cocoa and oil palm estates in the state and had procured 10,000 hectares of land for rice production.
“We are bringing in improved cocoa hybrid that matures between 18 months and two years.
“We are going to distribute them to our farmers and give them the technical know how to raise them.
“Already we are raising oil palm seedlings in large numbers to support the ageing oil palm plantations in the various palm estates across the state,’’ said the commissioner.
He revealed that the state government would start massive rice production, and that it had commenced the process of securing 10,000 hectares of land for the project.
Eneji said, “We are also into rice production already, with a large partnership coming from China with equipment and finance.
“In all, we are looking at creating not less than 20,000 jobs this year alone when all these programmes fully come on stream.
“It will even be more than that because it is going to be a value chain, starting from production, processing and marketing.”
Eneji stated that the state intends to produce no more than 500,000 metric tons of cocoa yearly.
Comments