Government to partner farmers for food sufficiency

chika ebuzor

July 17, 2016 12:27 PM

The commissioner, therefore, urged all farmers in the state to come forward and register with the Ministry of Agriculture to have their names in the state's database.

Kogi state governor, Yahaya Bello

Kogi Government on Saturday reiterated its commitment to partnering farmers across the state to achieve food sufficiency.

Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources in the state, Mr Tim Dichie, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lokoja.

He said that the administration of Gov. Yahaya Bello was fully ready to give necessary support to all farmers in the 21 local government areas of the state to facilitate massive food production.

"I can assure you that the governor is very committed to what we are doing in our ministry and he is always ready to give us his total support.

"We are going to use every platform to support farmers in terms of funding, seedling, processing, harvesting, storage and marketing to boost food production in Kogi and the nation.

"As a commissioner, I have contacted all the stakeholders involved for their cooperation in making agriculture a business hallmark in the state.

"We will ensure that all the past challenges facing farmers in the state are adequately addressed to ease access to funds and farm inputs," he restated.

He explained that the database would give equal opportunity to every registered farmer to easily access other government's programmes for farmers.

“Agriculture is the life wire for development of any state or nation. We must be able to feed ourselves conveniently and also feed other states.

“Kogi is going to be a pace setter in agriculture for massive food production, revenue generation, job creation and empowerment for all categories of people in the state," Dichie said.

chika ebuzor