RSG Committed To Boost Agriculature – Commissioner

The Rivers State Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr. Emmanuel Chindah, has said that under-funding of agriculture by rich and poor countries of the world was responsible for the rise in hunger among developing countries.

In a statement made available to our correspondent in Port Harcourt, Mr. Chindah observed that about 98% of the hungry live in the developing countries  including Nigeria.

According to him, in order to meet this challenge, the Rivers State government has braced up to the challenge by investing hugely in the agricultural sector.

He said the  Songhai Farm Initiative at Bunu-Tai in Tai Local Government Area of the state which stands on  314 hectres of land was a centre for training, agricultural production, research and development of  sustainable agricultural practices.

He said the state Ministry of Agriculture was at the fore front of the N1.5bn Tilapia Fish Farm Development project at Buguma in the Asari-Toru Local Government Area and Banana/Plantain Development project in the Ogoni axis as well as Community Farm Project, with complete value chain processes across 3 local government areas.

The Agriculture boss further revealed that the state has procured for installation of 16 oilpalm processing mills across 16 sites in the state aimed at encouraging the development of oil palm estates for farmers handicapped by non availability of processing facilities.

He explained that the Rivers State government was still in the process of paying up counterpart funding to the sate Agricultural Development Programme, ADP to enable the organ meet its objectives on food security adding that farmers in the state where also being linked to the state Micro-Finance Agency where the sum of N2bn has been provided as loans for agricultural development.

Mr. Chindah reaffirmed that efforts where on for the state to benefit from the 10 Pilot Agricultural Commodities being promoted by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN under the Nigeria Incentive Risk-based System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) initiative to enable farmers in the state boost agricultural production on a sustainable basis.