As part of effort to boost agricultural development in Rivers State, the President, Rivers Investors Forum, Ibifiri Bob-Manuel, has re-affirmed the investors’ commitment towards promoting mechanised farming through value chain manufacturing, with a view to tackling unemployment among the youths.
Bob- Manuel stated this in an interview with newsmen in Port Harcourt during the 2020 Rivers Entrepreneurs and Investors Trustee Forum.
He noted that most countries economy now depends on agriculture, saying that it is only achievable through mechanised agriculture, as subsistent farming with mundane implements was no longer attractive.
He advised Nigerians to drop the idea of subsistent farming and embrace mechanized farming, for easy farming and bumper harvest
According to him, “we are trying to bring farmers into clusters, the people that are already in clusters, we are going to be working with them to ensure that we link them up with the manufacturers to be able to improve upon what they are doing because if we keep doing the same type of subsistent farming, they have always been known for, they will end up suffering and being poor”.
He said further that “the narrative today should be mechanized agriculture and we are working towards that in 2020. We are going to bring investors from around the world into Rivers State to showcase the potentials on agriculture”.
Bob-Manuel disclosed that the investors forum was working with the Rivers State Government to ensure that investors in the state enjoy adequate security and incentives on their investments.
“We have a better security in the state today. Nine years ago we were hammering on issue concerning multiple taxation, as at then some of our members cannot even drive in their official cars without being hounded, but today it is not as bad as what it used to be. There is a lot of improvement. The investors forum set the ball in motion and today we are where we are,” he said.