Members of the Ebonyi State Executive Council, Exco, have been allocated 140 hectares of land for compulsory cultivation of rice, while another 1,360 hectares were set aside for other cooperative societies and individuals that have already keyed into the policy through the International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD, and the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN-anchor borrowers programme.
The allocation of land was done at Ezillo Government Farm in Ishielu Local Government Area, which is the first phase of Governor David Umahi’s policy to involve every segment of the society in massive rice production.
According to a statement issued yesterday by the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Emma Anya, the Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Uchenna Orji, led the team comprising Agric Extension workers and officials of IFAD to carry out the exercise last Saturday.
Orji, who described the agric programme of the Umahi administration as all inclusive, said tractors would be mobilised to the site immediately in line with the governor’s vision of massive rice production for commercial quantity.
The commissioner said, “We do expect that through the Senior Special Assistant on rice production, Chief Itakpa Azobu, that on Monday, July 4, tractors would have been mobilised.
“It is in line with the governor’s vision that we should not only go into mechanisation of farming, we should go commercial. We are going to express that this 2016 farming season.”
Also speaking, the Commissioner for Information and State Orientation, Senator Emmanuel Onwe said it was the decision of the executives that any individual of mature age, whether government appointee or civil servant, must cultivate at least one or two hectares of land to boost agriculture in the state.
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