Delta To Streamline Agric Policy

A draft policy on the
transformation of the agriculture sector of Delta State would soon be presented to stakeholders as part of measures to grow the economy beyond oil as well as empowering the teeming unemployed youth in the state.
The state’s Chief Executive, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan in Asaba at a town hall meeting recently with stakeholders said the aim was to find a way forward for agric development.
He said the move was aimed at reopening and repositioning the agriculture sector to make Delta a frontline state in agriculture, adding that this would enable it key into the Federal Government’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA).
The governor who presided at the meeting said the state could improve on its agric programmes and provide the needed assistance to farmers to help the state grow in agriculture.
He said the meeting was held to enable the government be abreast with the problems facing farmers in the state with a view to proffering solutions to it.
The state chief executive also said the state was interested to know what strategies the state ministry has put in place and their challenges in working with agric consultants.
The governor said his administration was committed to building a state beyond oil, adding that the money realised from oil would be used to develop other sectors including agriculture.
“The assessment of Delta State in agriculture today is that we are not doing well and I agree”.  A lot of people believe we can do better and I also believe that.  This is the reason why we have called for this meeting to know the way forward”, he said.
He said the meeting would also afford government the opportunity to explore ways of helping the young women and men of Delta State who were jobless, even as he said the state had no reason not to be a frontline state in agriculture.
According to the governor, there was nothing the state could not produce, expressing that all what the state needed was a review and implementation of the agric road map.
Governor Uduaghan promised to assess all farms set up under the Youth Empowerment Programme Through Agriculture (YEPTA) to assist the surviving farms with funds and revive shut ones.
He further explained that the programme only recorded a 25% success because many of the beneficiaries were not interested in farming while the committee charged with the responsibility did not live up to expectation.