Two hundred farmers in the Odukpani Local Government Area of Cross River State will receive a loan of N1 million each, to cultivate high yielding and disease resistant maize varieties.
The Commissioner for Agriculture and Irrigation Development, Johnson Ebokpo, made the disclosure at a land preparation activity in Odukpani on Thursday.
Mr Ebokpo said that the gesture was part of the state government’s Project Grow initiative, targeted at cultivating 2,000 hectares of maize in four communities in Odukpani
He said, “The project is being implemented in partnership with Flour Mills Nigeria, development partners and financial institutions. The project will change the face of farming in the state, each of the profiled farmers will receive a loan of N1 million from the project sponsors.’’
The commissioner said that during harvest, the maize would be off-taken by Flour Mills Nigeria for feed production.
“We are still working, 220 hectares of land is ready for cultivation. The rains slowed down the pace of work; we shall hit 2,000 hectares before the end of the year. We have massive arable land here but it is difficult to cultivate because of the cost implications. We must protect the forest ecology,” he said
The Director, Project Grow, Dennis Ikpali, said that 120 bags of early maturing, high yield, drought and fall army worm resistant maize had been provided for the project.
“For this test stage, 120 hectares will be cultivated in Odukpani, 105 hectares in a Obanliku, and 15 hectares in Obubura. We want to test this variety of maize and its yield, by next year we will move to our first 2,000 hectares in Odukpani,” he said.
A representative of the Eki Ancestral Clan in the Obong’s Palace, Justin Asuquo, said that farmers in the state had practised subsistence farming for too long.
“The government has come to encourage us to venture into commercial agriculture. We must embrace and take advantage of this opportunity. I encourage our people to take the project seriously, it has the capacity to build great farmers and produce millionaires,” he said.
The USAID Coordinator in Cross River, Faith Omori, urged managers of the project to carry women farmers along in the interest of fairness.
(NAN)
