The Cross River State Governor, Sen. Bassey Otu has allocated 100,000 hectares of land for cassava production and other agricultural programmes in the state.
The governor disclosed this during a Cassava Value Chain Stakeholders’ Workshop organised by the National Agriculture Growth Scheme and Agropocket (NAGS-AP) in Calabar, the state capital.
Represented by the Commissioner for Crops and Irrigation Development, Johnson Ebokpo, Otu encouraged cassava farmers on the need for mass production of crop, adding that the benefits would exert on the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
He said a digital statewide soil and fertility map exercise has been commissioned and is currently ongoing for all crops, adding that this will guarantee food security and improve financial dividends.
According to Ebokpo, “statistics show that in 2019, China exported more than four million tonnes of cassava and its related products, the United States and Japan exported about 1.5 million tonnes and Japan one million tonne, respectively. So, Nigeria as the business nerve centre of Africa with myriads of ideas can’t undermine the overwhelming benefits accrued from massive production of Cassava.”
The Commissioner further noted that it is imperative to create an enabling agricultural environment for cassava farmers to harness the untapped agro-opportunities to achieve desired goals.
He assured that his ministry would make use of the comparative advantage and partner stakeholders from different sectors that are ready and willing to invest in agro-businesses to ensure the development of a sustainable cassava production strategy for the state.
In his keynote address, the Chief Executive Officer, National Root Crops Research Institute, Prof. ChiedozieEgesi, declared that the workshop was aimed at boosting cassava productivity among smallholder farmers and linking them with industry for a sustainable value chain system.
He said the recommendations from the workshop will help the institute develop an executable and feasible framework for the cassava component that would be integrated into the broad-based national strategy targeting five key crops namely; wheat, maize, rice, soybean and cassava.
