Abia Earmarks 850 Hectares For Liberation Farms

The Abia State Government has earmarked 850 hectares of land for the proposed Liberation Farm scheme. The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture,  Dr Johnson Egwuatu, disclosed this on Tuesday in Umudike, Ikwuano Local Government Area, during the 2012 Annual Research Review and Planning Workshop of the National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI).

Our correspondent recalls that the state government had proposed the establishment of the Liberation Farms in the 17 local government areas of the state.

The move, according government sources, is aimed at ensuring adequate food supply in the state, as well as providing employment for the teeming unemployed youths in Abia.

Egwuatu said that under the programme, 50 hectares would be cultivated in each of the local government areas of the state.

He said that the state government would sustain its partnership with NRCRI to ensure that improved farm inputs were always available to famers in the state.

The NRCRI had on March 16, launched the new breed high-yielding pro-vitamin A cassava variety and intends to  multiply it for farmers across the country.

The permanent secretary said that the Liberation Farms would also be involved in the multiplication of the pro-Vitamin A cassava variety for onward transmission to rural farmers.

“The state government is committed to creating jobs through agriculture and we want to re-direct our youths to key into the programme,” he said.

Egwuatu said that the state government had keyed into the agriculture transformation agenda of the Federal Government.

“We only need to create the enabling environment for our people to maximise the opportunities provided by the agenda,” Egwuatu said.