Abia To Empower 500, 000 Farmers

Chief Ike Onyenweaku, Abia Commissioner for Agriculture, has said that 500,000 farmers are to be empowered under the state government’s agricultural revolution programme.

Onyenweaku gave the figure in Bende, Ohafia Local Government Area of Abia on Thursday in an interview with our correspondent on the sideline of the ongoing sensitisation of farmers in the state.

It would be recalled that the state government recently accessed the N1 billion agriculture loan for onward disbursement to genuine farmers in the state.

He said that officials of the state’s Ministry of Agriculture had embarked on tour of all 17 local government areas to mobilise the farmers in order to key into the project.

The commissioner said, “More than 50,000 farmers from Abia have already been captured by the Federal Government, but we intend to mobilise more rural farmers for the scheme.

“Abia is predominantly an agricultural state and our farmers are domiciled in the rural areas, and that is why we are taking this campaign to them.”

Onyenweaku said that the ongoing registration of farmers across the state was aimed at establishing a comprehensive database of farmers for the disbursement of the loan.

“We have improved seedlings of all varieties and this need to be transmitted to our farmers,” he said.

Onyenweaku commended the state Governor, Chief Theodore Orji, “for being gracious enough to key into this programme aimed at alleviating the problems of Abia farmers”.

Meanwhile, Chief Silas Mpama, a farmer, has called on the state government to rehabilitate rural roads in the agricultural areas to give the agricultural revolution in the state a boost.

He said, “Our common problem in Abia is the lack of access roads to designated farmlands in the state.

“With this package, government has done us much good, but we appeal that all rural roads should be given attention to enable us have easy transportation of our farm produce.”

Mpama said that farmers in the state needed silos for the preservation of their farm produce to reduce wastage, adding, “we find it difficult to preserve our farm produce”.

He said, “The common practice here is usually ‘harvest and sale’ and there is no room for the storage of left-overs for up-and-coming farming seasons.

“This affects our earnings as farmers, but if government should provide us with storage facilities this will reduce the wastage we encounter.”