A Port Harcourt-based agriculture expert, Mr. Otuene Mberede has identified lack of irrigation system, lack of political will and policy inconsistency as some of the major factors militating against all year-round farming in the Niger Delta states.
Mberede disclosed this last Thursday at an Agriculture Development Programme (ADP) seminar held in Port Harcourt.
Mberede, a retired agriculturist in the Rivers State Ministry of Agriculture said that the region was endowed with vast arable land and favourable weather as well as abundance of water and river basin resources that could stimulate and facilitate farming activities.
He, however, said in spite of these advantages, the region predominantly engaged in rain-fed agriculture and seasoned farming period, which he described as the poorest farming system that could not satisfy the food needs of the citizenry.
Mberede, who noted that the Niger Delta Basin Development Authority, Port Harcourt, which was created by the Federal Government in 1976 to harness the region’s water resources to attain food sufficiency had failed to live up to expectations.
He said the River Basins across the country including, the one in the region had not reduced the country from dependence on rain-fed agriculture to stimulate all year round farming.
He called on both federal and state governments to exercise the political wills to boost agriculture in the region, saying that the region cannot continue to depend on oil production for a better economy.

Enoch Epelle