Utweets
2.1.3. 18+ DID YOU MISS THE TREND? SEE ALL 400 V!D£0 CLIPS, $£X T4P£ OF Equatorial Guinea Baltasar Ebang Engonga.It is no longer news that Benue State is one of the most viable food-producing and exporting states in Nigeria. However, the State was almost stripped of that honour, no thanks to years of banditry, farmer/herder crisis, and other security challenges bedevilling the state. ...READ THE FULL STORY FROM SOURCE ↔️
But it appears Gov Hyacinth Alia came prepared for the task of good governance in Benue State in all ramifications. Neither the hydra-headed security challenges nor the paucity of funds could stop him from making his impacts felt statewide in less than sixteen months of taking charge.
To revolutionize the state’s rich agricultural potential, the governor established the Bureau of Agricultural Development and Mechanisation which subsumed two moribund agencies – Benue State Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (BNARDA) and Benue Tractor Hiring Agency (BENTHA).
According to Gov Alia, the major thrust of the Bureau is to introduce farmers to smart agriculture – access to technology through intensive extension activities, ensuring that farmers are educated and that they have access to modern technology, new seeds, and new inputs to make them more productive -increase their yields through better extension services.
The Governor, while hosting the Member, House of Lords, United Kingdom, Baroness Sandip Verma, who paid him a courtesy visit at the Government House, Makurdi, recently noted that the State lost a number of good opportunities but his administration is doing everything possible to right the wrongs.
”We are the Food Basket of the Nation, and there are several things we do here in the state. In the past, we lost out on several opportunities. But for the work we are doing as a government, we want to bring to bear the huge opportunities on all of us as a people and as a state,” the governor explained.
Meanwhile, the state Commissioner for Finance, Michael Oglegba on Thursday in an interview on Arise Channel corroborated the Governor’s commendable moves at repositioning the Agricultural sector for not only the state’s benefits but that of the nation and continent at large.
Oglegba highlighted the state’s shift from traditional farming methods to modern mechanisation to enhance food security and transform agriculture into a lucrative business.
“We’ve done this over the past few years, where we’re farming with cutlasses and hoes. Now, the Benue State government has embarked on massive mechanisation of its processes,” he stated.
He underscored the importance of making farming profitable and sustainable, asserting that, “Farming should be so profitable that once you get your hands on it and you start it, you stay there and just improve your income from that process. Farming must move from just being a lifestyle, as it is in Benue, to a business.”
Addressing the potential integration of AI in farming, Oglegba suggested that “we need to start from where we are,” he said, using Benue as an example.
“We see large trees, almost forest regions. These are virgin lands that nobody has ever used tractors on before.”
Speaking on the strategic use of the Zaki-Biam market, reputed to be the largest yam market in the world, to gauge agricultural output, the commissioner said:“we have a market called the Zaki-Biam market, it’s the largest in the world. What we’ve done is to go to Zaki-Biam market, see how much tonnage of yam was brought in for sale this year, and use that as a smart way of determining the tonnage produced in the year before.”
Buttressing the foregoing, the Commissioner for Agriculture, Prof Moses Ogbaji said in spite of the insecurity challenges, the state still provides enough food within its capacity for other parts of Nigeria
The commissioner affirmed this development in a recent interview with The Punch.
According to him, the large scale of insecurity ravaging some parts of the north was responsible for food scarcity being experienced in the country lately.
“You can go to the major highways across the state and witness the number of trucks loaded with food items that leave this state daily.”
Corroborating the commissioner’s claim, the state Chairman of the Yam Farmers Association of Nigeria in Benue, Madam Scholastical Mbuweze Amua said that no fewer than 40 trucks of yam is always transported out of the state on a daily basis.
Madam Amua who noted that insecurity and high cost of farm tools remain the major challenges confronting yam farmers in the state, however, confirmed that the present administration subsidised the price of fertiliser to farmers.
She said, “Benue is still one of the highest producers of yam in the country. Despite the insecurity that ravaged the state, the state still produces yams in large quantities.
“For instance, no fewer than 40 trucks loaded with tubers of yam are always transported out of the state on a daily basis.” These and many more are some of Gov Alia’s strides at taking Benue back to its glorious days as the nation’s food basket in practicality and not just as a slogan..… Read -T.he .Full _Article .Here.
