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Edo targets jobs for 1,000 agric entrepreneurs

By Michael Egbejule, Benin City
11 April 2017   |   4:10 am
Speaking during the inauguration, the governor said the maize cultivation, which could directly empower 200 agripreneurs to become millionaires, was part of his administration’s Accelerated Agriculture initiative to create jobs in the state.

Obaseki inaugurates 1000ha maize field

Edo State governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, at the weekend inaugurated 1000 hectares of cleared field in the state for maize cultivation. The Sobe farm Settlement located in Owan West Local Government Area in the state, targeted for maize production according to Obaseki, could directly empower 200 agripreneurs to become millionaires.

Speaking during the inauguration, the governor said the maize cultivation, which could directly empower 200 agripreneurs to become millionaires, was part of his administration’s Accelerated Agriculture initiative to create jobs in the state.

Explaining the execution plan for the initiative, he said that the phase would target job creation for 1, 000 agripreneurs through the cultivation of 5,000 hectares of maize farms across the LGAs in the state.

He said: “Today is the first step towards actualising the 200,000 jobs promised by my administration. If we invest in Agriculture, we can do more than 200,000 jobs in Edo and Nigeria as a whole. We had an agricbusiness workshop to brainstorm on the challenges in our agriculture sector and we discovered that land preparation was a major challenge in the state. This initiative is to make land preparation easy via mechanisation for our farmers,” he said.

He continued that the initiative was in partnership with Saro AgroSciences ltd, which would provide technical support for the programme. Meanwhile, he added that mechanisation centres would be situated close to the proposed 5000—hectare maize field to enable the agricpreneurs manage the five hectares that would be allocated to each of them effectively.

The governor urged the farmers to follow the recommended cultural practice for maize production to ensure optimal yield. The Group Managing Director of Saro AgroSciences, Mr Oluwole Adeyegbe said the scheme targets a minimum of 4 metric tonnes of maize yield per hectare, which would be bought directly from the agripreneurs (farmers).

He said the company was also collaborating the state government for the second phase of the initiative, which would feature the use of green houses, pig production and Cocoa Yield Enhancement Programme.

Commending the governor for the initiative, the secretary of Sobe Farm Settlement Cooperative, Mr Anthony Aibor, appreciated the prospect of employment creation for people in the area.

He, however, appealed to the government to tackle infrastructure decay in the community and the scourge of Fulani herdsmen.

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