By Kelvin Obambon
Determined to ensure that farmers in Cross River reap maximum returns on their efforts and labour in the production of agricultural goods, the state governor, Prince Bassey Otu has came up with plans to help farmers increase their revenue over middlemen who buy-off their produce and sell at a higher price without going through the toils involved in farming.
The plans unfolded Wednesday at the flagging-off of the cultivation of 2,000 hectares of commercial maize farming in Odukpani Local Government Area, under the Project Grow Initiative of the state government.
Speaking during the ceremony, governor Otu said the initiative was designed to curb food insecurity and create a sustainable economy in the state by having farmers cultivate and companies like Flour Mills off-take it.
He said the Project was a testament to what resilience could achieve, noting that the occasion was symbolic to celebrate the commencement of mechanical planting of maize over a commercial area of 2,000 hectares.
READ ALSO: Project Grow will put Cross River farmers on the map of prosperity – Commissioner for Agriculture
The governor who was represented by Mrs Glory Effiong, the state accountant general, said “It is expected that after 6 years, this project would allow the market players in each of the value chain to understand themselves and engage independently while bringing our people into the money system to tackle multidimensional poverty.
“It is my dream that every resident of Cross River will live above poverty line because the Nigerian economy has shown a wide gap between the rich and the poor but this initiative aims to bridge it.”
Also speaking, the Director of Project Grow, Mr Dennis Ikpali said in the past, farmers in the state planted maize at subsistence level but Project Grow was helping them commercialize the whole process by cultivating 2,000 hectares of land.
Ikpali said the maize acquired by Project Grow was early maturing, high yielding, disease and drought resistant and had the capacity of producing four tons of maize per hectare.
“This means that within four months of planting, the 2,000 hectares of land has the capacity to generate 8,000 tons of maize and by market computation where a ton of maize is N600,000, we are looking at 10 to 12 billion naira income flowing through the system,” he said.
One of the beneficiaries, Mrs Mary Ayi who was given a hectare said she used to plant cassava but was ready to go into commercial cultivation of maize because of its shorter duration, adding that she would plough back whatever she got to enlarge her farm.
Another indigene of Odukpani, Nsa Okon, said he was quite satisfied with the implementation process of Project Grow while calling on those yet to receive their portions to be patient as the implementation was in phases.
Project Grow is a market driven initiative aimed at stimulating private sector investment in key agricultural value chains such as maize, rice, cassava, aquaculture and animal fodder. For effective cultivation of the land under the initiative, each farmer would receive N1 million loan from partner commercial banks and upon harvesting, the maize would be off-taken by Flour Mills Nigeria, another key partner of the project.
