C’River Disburses N296m To Farmers

The Cross River Government has disbursed $1.8 million (about N295.8 million) to 141 commodity- interest groups in the state.

The state’s Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Mr James Aniyom, told the

The Tide source in Calabar that the money was given to farming groups under the state’s Commercial Agriculture Development Programme.

He said that the disbursed funds represented 59 per cent of the total amount earmarked for commercial farmers in the state this year.

The commissio-ner disclosed that the agriculture programme was being supported by the World Bank, noting that its target was to develop and boost the production of cocoa, oil palm and rice.

Aniyom said that the programme had agriculture production, commercialisation and rural infrastructure as its major components “and will focus on technology demonstration, adoption and support for staple crop production system’’.

Other targets of the programme, the commissioner said, include market facilitation, capacity building, farm access, road network and rural energy.

He said that no fewer than 5,604 commercial farmers in the state, comprising 2,013 cocoa farmers, 1,773 oil palm farmers and 1,818 rice farmers were registered in the programme.

Aniyom stated that under the programme’s rural infrastructure development, some road projects valued at N527.64 million had been completed, adding that contract for the construction of additional roads had been awarded at a cost of N584 million.

The completed projects, he said, include the Ishibori-Ikaptang-Nkimkuk Road in Ogoja Local Government Area and the Effraya-Agbakim-Mgbabor Road in Etung Local Government Area.

“The new projects are the Alege-New Jerusalem Obudu, Ugep-Osokom Okundi in Boki, Mberebere-Uyi Efredem in Odukpani, Idukutega-Ogbudu Arukwa on Yala and Ejagokura-Ekimkok in Ikom.‘’

Aniyom explained that the roads were constructed to provide easy conveyance of goods by the farmers, saying that most of the farms were situated in rural areas.