Jaja Seeks FG’s Support On Back-TO-Land Initiative

The Federal Government has been told to provide the necessary assistance to aid its back to agricultural activities campaign.
The Chairman, Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers, King Dandeson Douglas Jaja, said this, last Wednesday, when the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, paid a  visit to the council, in Port Harcourt.
He said that the call to Nigerians to return to agriculture was imperative, but that the needful must be done by the Federal Government.
Jaja reasoned that the call was not a strange one, since agriculture was the  economic mainstay  in the country before the discovery of oil in Oloibiri, old Rivers State in 1956.
He regretted that such discovery led to the abandonment of other resources, and even aided in polluting the environment.
According to him, for the campaign to succeed, there must be provision of soft loan facilities without collateral for farmers in the Niger Delta.
He also pointed out that the damaged ecosystem and land must be cured before brain -storming on how to make farming the people’s culture, again.
The monarch also made a case for what he described as Green House, adding that special areas for agriculture must be created for the Niger Delta people.
He argued further that both the land, air and sea were polluted, thus producing poorly, adding that unless there was serious intervention by the government, the desired result may not be  recorded.
Also speaking, the Minister, Chief Audu Ogbeh, said he was in the state to refresh the people’s mind on the need to return to agricultural activities.
Ogbeh, who described the Niger Delta as the most fertile in the world, said, it would only take little effort for the people to be rich farmers that would not only end the fight against hunger, but save the country from the hurdle of food importation.
When that is achieved, he noted that the people would have the ability to resist politicians who do not match their teats, thereby, improving the quality of the country’s democracy.
However, Ogbeh, praised the council and its leadership over the sustained peace in various communities of the state, but appealed to the traditional rulers, as custodian of the vast hectares, to provide more lands for the people to engage in agricultural activities for the good of the country.