Edo State Government has persuaded the people to support the state’s Agripreneure initiatives. And, it is called on the communities with connecting land sizes (minimum of 50 hectares) to offer their lands for agricultural uses.
Agripreneure is an initiative of Governor Godwin Obaseki-led Administration. It is aimed at assisting the smallholder farmers and to develop Agriculture and de-risking agricultural value chains.
The programme is being run in the collaboration with rest partners including the community leaders, farmers, landowners and also the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for monetary leverage.
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Special Adviser to the Governor on Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security, Prince Joe Okogie, in a statement signed by him, assured that the land would be used for crop and livestock production in line with the state’s food security strategies.
According to him: “Indigenes of the communities will be aggregated as beneficiaries of the programme where the government will assist them with the land development, mechanisation, cultivation, access to market and access to soft loans et al.”
He further noted that food crops including cereals, legumes, root and tuber crops like maize, rice, soya beans and cassava would be cultivated on the lands made available by the communities under this particular scheme.
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Also, any community or individual with a minimum capacity of 4,000 poultry pen are equally encouraged to aggregate farmers for their pen and to submit to the Office of the Special Adviser on Agriculture.
The Special Adviser pointed out that the State Government had used the scheme to improve agricultural practices in the state through the provision of necessary tools as well as required equipment to the farmers.
He also stated that the programme had enabled the State Government to provide an opportunity for the subsistence farmers to become commercial farmers through the various interventions of this scheme.
