Ayamelum TC Chairman Decries Delayed Utilization of Omor Rice Market

By Olisemeka Obeche

The Ayamelum local government transmission committee chairman, Mr. Livinus Onyenwe, has expressed disappointment over the non-utilisation of the ultra-modem rice market at Omor, two years after it was completed and handed over to the council.

According to him, the market built under the Agricultural Transformation Agenda Support Program Phase One (ATASP-1) would have provided an easy convergence for rice producers and buyers if it had been operational.

Onyenwe made the remarks when he led a team of ATASP-1 staff members who made a courtesy call on him at the local government headquarters in Anaku. The ATASP-1 team was on an inspection tour of the facility.

The council boss observed that the facility needed further refurbishment, including landscaping before traders would be allowed to move in.

Disclosing that the council does not have sufficient funds to undertake such refurbishment, Onyenwe expressed his readiness to collaborate with ATASP-1 and other stakeholders to ensure full utilisation of the market soon.

Earlier, the ATASP-1 Zonal Programme Coordinator, Dr. Romanus Egba, appealed to the council chairman to take necessary steps towards ensuring that traders moved into the market soon.

Egba, represented by the Zonal Agribusiness Specialist, Chinelo Obiefune, disclosed that the programme was working hard to ensure speedy completion of ongoing economic projects in the area, especially the Canal Lining project and the replacement of the pumping station of the the moribund Lower Anambra Irrigation Project, LAIP, located at Ifite-Ogwari.

He explained further that when the two multi-billion naira projects get completed, and the irrigation facility became operational, rice farmers in the area would begin to crop twice annually thereby increasing food productivity, job and wealth creation in the state.