By Praise Chinecherem
Anambra State Government has promised to assist farmers affected by flood to ensure sustainance of food supply in the state.
Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr. Foster Ihejiofor disclosed this on Sunday at a press conference to commemorate 2022 World Food Day.
He said the farmers would be provided with neccessary farm tools and crop seedlings to enable them return to their farms with ease after at the deluge.
He regretted that the world food Day coincided with the period farmlands were ravaged by flood, as well as time nation’s agriculture sector was experiencing downturn ocasioned by the disaster.
Ihejiofor appealed to well-to-do citizens to continue to render assistance to flood victims, particularly, farmers to enable them return to their farms shortly after the flooding.
He said, “Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s Agro-Economic Transformation Agenda is aimed at building a secure economic future for the citizens by re-enacting Dr M. I Okpala’s Oil Palm Revolution, Creation of the Anambra Coconut Economy and Valorization of our redundant vegetative ecosystem.
“We just completed the first phase of the oil palm Revolution and Coconut economy by distributing 220,000 oil palm seedlings and 150,000 Coconut seedlings to Ndi-Anambra for Agricultural development.
“This is just the first phase of the project, as the state government intends to plant 1 million oil palm and Coconut seedlings annually.
“Indeed, the state ministry of Agriculture, is assiduously working to acqualize Soludo’s vision of a liveable, prosperous and smart mega city with food security, food as medicine, food safety and abundant local content for industrial raw materials and local content for commercial activities.
“More importantly, most of our farmers have made a swift transition from season farming to an all year-round farming with increasing use of irrigation and the adoption of global best practices in agriculture.
“Our partnerships with major agro investors, have been hugely successful, drawing the attention of the entire agricultural establishment in Nigeria to Anambra State.”