RSG Restates Readiness To Empower Farmers, Fishermen

The Rivers State Government has urged all farmers and fishermen in the state to gather whatever produce they have to their respective local government chairmen at the centres designated by their chairmen for immediate purchase.
The Secretary to the State Government, Dr. Tammy Danagogo, stated this shortly after the inaugural meeting of the Committee to Purchase Food Stuffs from Farmers and Fishermen for Distribution to the Rivers State people at the Government House in Port Harcourt, yesterday.
According to Danagogo, who is the chairman of the committee, the essence is to make sure that our farmers and fishermen are empowered and encouraged to continue to produce what they are producing and to stockpile enough food stuff to enable us win the war against COVID-19 and looming starvation.
Danagogo, who disclosed that his committee has started work immediately, said all the local government chairmen are expected to go back to their LGAs to start the process of engaging the farmers and fishermen to sensitize them to bring their products for purchase and onward distribution to the citizens and residents of the state.
In his remarks, the state Commissioner for Information and Communications, Pastor Paulinus Nsirim, said the initiative of Governor Nyesom Wike was primarily designed to ensure that nobody complains of hunger during this trying period.
He pleaded with the farmers and fishermen, who would be approached at the various local government areas that this was a time for sacrifice and selfless service and not a time for racketeering and hoarding of produce, stressing that the state government would pay for all the products produce by the farmers and fishermen.
Also speaking, the state Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr. Fred Kpakol said farmers and fishermen in the state should redouble their efforts to produce more, noting that agriculture remains a major policy thrust of the present administration in the state.