The Anambra State government has pledged commitment to investing in the agric sector for maximum returns and attainment of food security in the state. 

To achieve this, the State Commissioner for Agriculture, Professor Forster Ihejiofor, said the state has so far distributed 220 million palm seedlings to more than 180,000 households in the last two years in pursuit of Prof Chukwuma Soludo’s bold vision for the sector.

The commissioner disclosed this during the unveiling of the project initiated by Alpha City Estate Development Limited and the inauguration of the Anambra State Chapter of National Palm Produce Association of Nigeria (NPPAN). 
   
Ihejiofor also expressed government’s desire to synergise with NPPAN and Alpha Palm City Estate Development Limited in  actualising  “One Family, 20 Palms” programme in the state. 

While declaring the event opened, Ihejiofor bemoaned a situation where Nigeria that gave palm nuts to Malaysia few years ago now imports $500m worth of palm oil from same nation yearly.

He recalled that upon his visit to Malaysia in 2022, he discovered that palm tree has officially been turned into a national economic plant, such that one risks prosecution for touching it without government approval. 

According to him, Palm oil has value addition in Malaysia to the extent that none of its by-products was allowed to waste. 

He talked about the replication of such policy in the state, nay the country, with the bold initiatives of NPPAN/Alpha Palm City.  He noted that palm plantation has become the backbone of the Malaysian economy, hoping the possibility of making it happen in Nigerian and Anambra economy, since Soludo has expressed high optimism in backing serious investors to standardise and get processing machines if they form cooperatives and maximise inherent high returns from the investment. 
 
The agriculture commissioner contended that more than 80 per cent of products on the shelves of any typical Nigerian supermarket have by-products of palm oil and kernel.

In her speech, the Vice Chairman of Alpha Palm City Estate Development Limited, Mrs Gloria Aniemeka, said the company initiated the project and found NPPAN as an invaluable organisation to actualise the dream with hopeful provision of enabling environment by the state government. 
 
Aniemeka noted that the aim of the initiative was to raise no fewer than 20 million palm trees soon in the state. She called on individuals and groups to feel free to invest in the agro estate development, assuring that there is available of land for Palm oil investment.

The commissioner said the agro realtor has already planted quality; fast yielding nursery palms species which could be tended for investors for a period when they want to take over.                     

She, therefore, urged local and international investors to use the opportunity to approach them, especially in view of the popular “one family, twenty palms” on-going promotion. The payment, she pointed out are in phases and in installments.

In his speech, the National Vice President (South East) of NPPAN, Dr  Lynda Onubogu while inaugurating the newly-elected Anambra State executive led by Mrs Ifeyinwa Onweluzo  pointed out that palm produce is the main base and trademark of Eastern Nigerian economy until it was unfortunately neglected. 

Onubogu noted that the inauguration was a call to action towards restoration of the lost glory  of palm produce business in the Southeast zone beginning with Anambra State. 

Earlier, the National Secretary of ANPPAN, Kayode Olatola hinted that the association has been in existence since 1995 and that palm trees was found in commercial quantity in 29 states of the federation.   

He pointed out that Anambra State is in a good stead to maximise the “One Family, 20 Palms” in view of shortage of land in the zone.