Ebonyi State Governor, Chief Martin Elechi, says the state government had placed order for multi-million naira agro machines.

The machines, which according to him include trans-planters and combine harvesters, will be imported from China and Vietnam to boost rice production in the state.

Elechi, who announced this on Monday, received a rousing welcome back to the state after a 10-day economic mission to China and Vietnam.

Members of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), state executive Council members, prominent indigenes and traditional dancing troupes besieged the Akanu Ibiam International Airport Enugu to receive him and accompany him and his economic team, particularly farmers to Abakaliki, Ebonyi State capital.

The entourage trooped to the Governor’s Lodge, Government House Abakaliki.

In his remarks, the governor confirmed that a water pipe manufacturing plant valued at over N200 million would be established in the state by a Chinese firm to commence production before the end of the year.

He added that the pipe factory would reduce cost of procuring pipes for water reticulation from the two mega water schemes at Oferekpe and Ukawu to other parts of the state by 40 percent.

He said, “if you want to plant your rice in upland area, you don’t have to have a nursery; you drill the grains and wait for rain to fall. When the rain fails they will sprout and grow. That is not new here; we have been doing it for over 20 years. But the mystifying one was the trans-planter that moves like a crab picking seedlings and sowing in straight rows.


“And we made up our mind to buy that. They drill, they trans-plant and there is the combine harvester; as they cut, they thrash and in no time they have finished a whole field of rice farm. So that is in my own thinking a done deal because these are the areas that our farmers find not so pleasant; planting and harvesting and of course the farmers lose a lot of money because of high cost of labour. We are determined to cheapen the cost of labour so that more people will do more rice planting and make more profit”.

The Ebonyi Governor expressed gratitude to Nigeria’s Ambassador to Vietnam, Mathias Okafor, an indigene of the state, for facilitating the visit to Vietnam.

He further stated that his delegation returned with the full catalogue of all the different machines.

“What we are going to do in the next one week or so is that we bring together those we trained in Songhai, those we sent to Singapore and those who went to China and Vietnam; we sit down and review all the lessons we got from these centres and agree on our action plan so that it will not be a question of talking, talking, talking. We want to see it in action. The rice mills are already in place waiting for grains, the grains must come so that everybody has something doing.

“The second one reason for the trip is how to have in place here in Ebonyi state, a factory that would produce a water transmission pipe that we have on our agenda. You know, to transmit water from Oferekpe to Abakaliki is costing us more than N8 billion and if we have 360 kilometers of primary pipelines in all the 13 local government areas and an additional 230 kilometers of secondary pipeline to ensure that every community has water according to our design and plan it stands to reason that we should find a cheaper way of producing the pipes.

“That is the second reason why we went to China and by that arrangement; we will be producing the pipes at about 40 percent of the original cost. So we are going to put all hands on deck to ensure that before the end of this year the components are here in Ebonyi state”, he stressed.

Source: DailyPost Nigeria

good development

Niggmatic: good development

Ebonyi is a state where most of its natural resources are in the agricultural sector. The state has the capacity to produce enough grains, tubers, vegetables and fruits for the whole of the Southern Nigeria, and even more for export but that state has been very unfortunate with bad leaders esp govs. Agriculture is one the largest employers of labour (if not the very highest), but yet most of the young boys you find trading on wares on our national highways are from Ebonyi! The state gov't just goes about stealing the monies that should be used to reform the economy of that state and give meaning to people's lives

To God be the glory for a news about Ebonyi State emerges on the politics board.

berem: To God be the glory for a news about Ebonyi State emerges on the politics board.

They should endeavour to bring their state to limelight...?

Lilimax: They should endeavour to bring their state to limelight...?

honestly speaking! I have never read anything about Ebonyi State on nairaland. Never heard of anyone from Ebonyi too on nairaland.the state is just on its own.

1MCN:
Ebonyi is a state where most of its natural resources are in the agricultural sector. The state has the capacity to produce enough grains, tubers, vegetables and fruits for the whole of the Southern Nigeria, and even more for export but that state has been very unfortunate with bad leaders esp govs. Agriculture is one the largest employers of labour (if not the very highest), but yet most of the young boys you find trading on wares on our national highways are from Ebonyi! The state gov't just goes about stealing the monies that should be used to reform the economy of that state and give meaning to people's lives

It's not just an Ebonyi thing, every state of the federation have their youths in thousands selling stuffs on highway.
You find youths from Ogun, Anambra, Akwa-ibom, Kaduna, even Abuja on highways hawking.
Our government(both state and federal) need to work collectively in providing meaningful and less risky jobs for our youth.

@ topic, a good plan from Ebonyi state government.

$£yi:


It's not just an Ebonyi thing, every state of the federation have their youths in thousands selling stuffs on highway.
You find youths from Ogun, Anambra, Akwa-ibom, Kaduna, even Abuja on highways hawking.
Our government(both state and federal) need to work collectively in providing meaningful and less risky jobs for our youth.

@ topic, a good plan from Ebonyi state government.

I have not seen anybody that said he/she is from Abuja. More over is Abuja a state of LG.

my problem with schemes like this is if the spare parts of these machines is readily available.

Elechi is working!!
But this thread like everytoher Ebonyi thread will be suppressed to the point that it won't get to front page.
Agriculture is the main thing now.
Oil is a curse to Nigeria.
It'd be great if Ebonyi focuses on Agriculture solely.
Inviting Foreign investors to invest in Ebonyi state would be a good task.
Till this moment, I still can't figure why Dangote isn't cultivating rice in that state.
I respect his decision tho.

$£yi:


It's not just an Ebonyi thing, every state of the federation have their youths in thousands selling stuffs on highway.
You find youths from Ogun, Anambra, Akwa-ibom, Kaduna, even Abuja on highways hawking.
Our government(both state and federal) need to work collectively in providing meaningful and less risky jobs for our youth.

@ topic, a good plan from Ebonyi state government.

Pardon it if I've touched your sensitivity. I might sound extrapolative but I still believe Egwu and now Elechi have been terribly irresponsible and irresponsive in Ebonyi state. Yes there are youths from all states of the federation hawking on our highways, even youths from oilproducing communities in Imo, Abia, Bayelsa, Rivers, Edo, Delta, Oyo, Cross River, Akwa Ibom and indeed other parts of Nigeria!

maxwello.yg:
Elechi is working!!
But this thread like everytoher Ebonyi thread will be suppressed to the point that it won't get to front page.
Agriculture is the main thing now.
Oil is a curse to Nigeria.
It'd be great if Ebonyi focuses on Agriculture solely.
Inviting Foreign investors to invest in Ebonyi state would be a good task.
Till this moment, I still can't figure why Dangote isn't cultivating rice in that state.
I respect his decision tho.

Ebonyi is one of the biggest gainers in the FG's Rice Transformation Scheme. Ebonyi alone can produce enough food for the entire Southern Nigeria, and more for export!
As an expert in the field, and haven visited the state I can testify that Elechi and his predecessor Sam Egwu went to that govt sit and slept off- even snoring.
What it takes to build the Agric sector is so minimal, just good road, electricity, water and farmers incentives and extension services then the sector will jumpstart itself.

1MCN:
Ebonyi is one of the biggest gainers in the FG's Rice Transformation Scheme. Ebonyi alone can produce enough food for the entire Southern Nigeria, and more for export!
As an expert in the field, and haven visited the state I can testify that Elechi and his predecessor Sam Egwu went to that govt sit and slept off- even snoring.
What it takes to build the Agric sector is so minimal, just good road, electricity, water and farmers incentives and extension services then the sector will jumpstart itself.

Ebonyi state just need a young and able Governor with vision to lead them come 2015.
I wonder who that'll be.

Are you a farmer, Agricultural researchers, commodities trader, consultant, agricultural policy maker or passionate about food? Let your voice be heard in the Agriculture Industry, register on the online Agriculture community at http://www. and explore the wide range of opportunities in the Agric value chain

maxwello.yg:
Ebonyi state just need a young and able Governor with vision to lead them come 2015.
I wonder who that'll be.

I totally agree with you here, bro. However, whether old or young it should be a visionary achiever. Thinking about corruption, sometimes I wonder how and why an old person should engage in such an ignoble life when s/he's is already close to the grace. Where exactly do they want to go to with the money. I should think that younger people should have higher propensity to accumulate material wealth, but our Nigerian politics and politicians defy all known logical thinking!

berem: honestly speaking! I have never read anything about Ebonyi State on nairaland. Never heard of anyone from Ebonyi too on nairaland.the state is just on its own.

"never heard of anyone from Ebonyi too on nairaland"?

Are u serious or are you just making a fun of urself?
Ok,Achi4u is from Ebonyi state.

Berem,I have met many of ur type who are ordinary a sales girls (we call them cashiers)
in most of the major markets of the South East like Onistha main mkt,Nnewi main mkt.etc who are always ready to castigate Ebonyi state and its ppl but at the end of the day begging them for friendship and marriage.
I have told you many times to always mind ur Imo state which are far better and more educated than Ebonyi state.

You have been asking this ur useless questions for many times here without finding an answer...why because nobody is ready for "my state is better than ur own " e.war syndrome.

Don't tell me ur living a frustrated life
and
You never tell us what ur doing for a living?

achi4u: "never heard of anyone from Ebonyi too on nairaland"?

Are u serious or are you just making a fun of urself?
Ok,Achi4u is from Ebonyi state.

Berem,I have met many of ur type who are ordinary a sales girls (we call them cashiers)
in most of the major markets of the South East like Onistha main mkt,Nnewi main mkt.etc who are always ready to castigate Ebonyi state and its ppl but at the end of the day begging them for friendship and marriage.
I have told you many times to always mind ur Imo state which are far better and more educated than Ebonyi state.

You have been asking this ur useless questions for many times here without finding an answer...why because nobody is ready for "my state is better than ur own " e.war syndrome.

Don't tell me ur living a frustrated life
and
You never tell us what ur doing for a living?

You took it too personal and overboard to attack her person and persona without considering a single thought for the topic. Dont let your anger spill pls, even when you disagree with people's opinion, nwannem. Jokwa oo

amarilo: I have not seen anybody that said he/she is from Abuja. More over is Abuja a state of LG.

You haven't seen doesn't mean there are no indegene of Abuja.

1MCN:
Pardon it if I've touched your sensitivity. I might sound extrapolative but I still believe Egwu and now Elechi have been terribly irresponsible and irresponsive in Ebonyi state. Yes there are youths from all states of the federation hawking on our highways, even youths from oilproducing communities in Imo, Abia, Bayelsa, Rivers, Edo, Delta, Oyo, Cross River, Akwa Ibom and indeed other parts of Nigeria!

I wasn't saying Elechi nor their former governor are responsible, just saying that having a N10m agro machines in Ebonyi is a good move.

$£yi:


You haven't seen doesn't mean there are no indegene of Abuja.



I wasn't saying Elechi nor their former governor are responsible, just saying that having a N10m agro machines in Ebonyi is a good move.

I agree with you here, bro. And that is why I had to bring this news on here. I believe that our people know what they want and when they see it they'll certainly recognize it.

1MCN:
You took it too personal and overboard to attack her person and persona without considering a single thought for the topic. Dont let your anger spill pls, even when you disagree with people's opinion, nwannem. Jokwa oo

I'm so sorry for going overboard with my comments but she's always on a negative side each time Ebonyi state name was mentioned.
I'm not a violent person and will never turn to what I was not created for ....you can confirm this through my post.

@topic, Ebonyi state government to my own best of knowledge in terms of agriculture had not gotten it right. A state that was known for a farm produce in large quantity with the best of soil to go with it should not be sleeping and expecting monthly allocation from Abuja.

Gov.Elechi should do more in agricultural sector inorder to move the state forward and also try to encourage those remaining farmers in the state by providing them a kind of soft loan.
I must congratulate him for opening and linking many communities in the state with access roads with many bridges that traverse the state.

Ebonyi state is moving forward gradually with a neat master plan which is lacking in most of our major cities in this country.

Our prayer now as 2015 approaches is for God and especially WE the voters to vote wisely to end this snail movement of leadership.

Accept my salutation for your maturity and that very articulate comment. Dalu, nwanne. Jokwa

Chino_Is_Back: There is grand plan to keep Ebonyi state down and out even when good news is reported in the state. Mods should take this thread to front page or else......

If it is a robbery now it will storm the FP without any push, but this thread has been hovering around and very soon it will go into oblivion without seeing the light of the front page.

I will not warn you guys again......

This is a good news from Ebonyi state and should be appreciated by all..

LOL. No be fight. I understand your opinion wela.

1MCN:
LOL. No be fight. I understand your opinion wela.

hahahaha me I understand him wella.

Hence it is Ebonyi, its worth celebrating