Abia ADP Opens Agriculture Resource Centre

The Abia Agricultural Development Programme (ADP), says it has set up an Agriculture Resource Centre to train farmers in income generating activities.

  Mr Enyinnaya Elekwachi, the Programme Manager, disclosed this on Monday in Umuahia during the launch of the ADP Rural Institution Revitalization Programme and the distribution of cassava cuttings, seeds, and seedlings to farmers.

The centre, to be known as “Mercy Odochi Orji Women Resource Centre”, would be equipped with processing, packaging and storage facilities to encourage value addition while also providing market information, Elekwachi said.

“With added value, farmers will be able to sell their products at will  rather than out of threat of spoilage,” he said.

He said the launch of the programme was aimed at revitalizing and refocusing rural institutions in the state.

“The objective of this exercise is to re-engage and mobilise our rural institutions.

“This involves a survey of the institutions in order to locate them and assist them gain legal status by registering them and providing other intervention programmes targeted at the specific needs of the people,” he said.

In her speech, the wife of the governor, Mrs Odochi Orji, whom the centre was named after, commended the ADP for its efforts to revitalise rural institutions.

Orji said the initiative would add impetus to the “back to the farm” policy of the state government.

She expressed concern that cassava cultivation in the state was declining even as its industrial uses were expanding.

While launching the distribution of 500 bundles of cassava cuttings and 1,000 yam seeds, the governor’s wife urged farmers to plant high yielding crop varieties to ensure bumper harvest.

In a remark, Mr John Ikeogu of the National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI), Umudike, said that most of the technologies developed by the institute had been handed over to the ADP for onward transmission to farmers.

“The institute has created 30 varieties of cassava and 16 varieties of yam seed, Ikeogu said, adding that the institute was partnering with the ADP to train farmers on modern farming techniques.