The Cross River State Government has concluded plans to develop agricultural tourism.
This is in the determination of the state to make Cross River the number one tourism hub in Africa.
The new initiative will develop the ecosystem in the state, the tourism environment in the state, her forestry and help boost the development of the knowledge of medicinal plants from Cross River State to the international community
Disclosing this on a radio programme on CRBC “Ayade’s Cross River”, an initiative of the Governor’s Office Media Unit anchored by Beatrice Akpala, Emmanuel Ulayi and Solomon Asha, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Biodiversity and Conservation, Barrister Edet Okon Asim and Sonigitu Asibong Ekpe Desk Officer of the department of biodiversity and conservation stated that the mandate from Governor Ben Ayade is to reposition the state’s ecosystem and agricultural tourism sector to yield maximum dividends to the state and her people.
In the words of Barrister Edet Okon Asim: “what the governor of Cross River State have been able to do is setup this platform whereby we have been mandated to reposition Cross River State ecosystem and factor out the important relevance with regards to the setting of our forests, the inventory of the forests, the dimension we have and of cause the capacity of the forest reserves to generate enough facilities/structures to absorb carbon”.
“Whereby we can link up/key up into the global component and also maximize from returns, profit that is accruable to all” “Cross River State is seating on gold, our forest reserves is a treasure most people are dying to own” he added.
He further state that the mandate includes to make the department proactive and provide vast opportunities to the state by yielding the desired expectations through capacity building to develop common understanding and importance about biodiversity and eco-tourism.
Giving more insight on the mandate from Governor Ayade, the desk officer, Sonigitu Asibong Ekpe stated that the focus on tourism is now on Agric-tourism.
According to him, ‘now in tourism, we have a lot of components focused on agricultural-tourism, people want to see how farming is been carried out and currently in developed countries you find out that agricultural-tourism is thriving well because they are properly established”
“For instance, if someone wants to see how cocoa is been produced you need to go on vacation to a farm, stay there and participate. When you also look at biodiversity business component around Cross River State it has to do with carbon sink which ranges from wet plants to the forest and even within ourselves they are unique opportunities that you can have around like bio-prospecting, which is also well developed out there. Knowledge of medicinal plants gives us a lot of roles to explore the natural resources that we currently have in our forests”.
