₦airaland Forum

We distributed 2.2 million cocoanut & oil palm seedlings to 180,000 households - Ihejiofor

By OGEMDI OZOEMENAM, Awka

The Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr Forster Ihejiofor says the administration of Governor Chukwuma Soludo has purchased and distributed two million, two hundred thousand coconut and oil palm seedlings to 180,000 households in the state.

Speaking with newsmen in Awka after defending his ministry's budget before the House of Assembly Committee on Agriculture and Food Security, the Commissioner revealed that his ministry achieved 50% budget implementation for the outgoing fiscal year .

He noted that the seedlings have economic potentials that will take families of the beneficiaries out of poverty, in the next four - seven years, when they must have produced and yielded fruits.

He revealed that apart from coconut and oil palm seedlings, the ministry will explore the economic importance of ukwa and bitter kola in 2026.

Dr Ihejiofor revealed that the State is leveraging on Public-Private, Community Partnership (PPCP) in enhancing agricultural productivity and ensuring food sufficiency.

He said the Governor has proposed and promised to empower a minimum of hundred thousand Anambra Households again with very important economic seedlings next year.

"Because of the kind of land we have in Anambra State, an average family owns two or three plots which makes it easy for them to plant.

"There is a budget to procure and distribute them. Because of the short supply of this products, they are really expensive in the market.

"In the coming year, we are going to party with this groups in training our farmers and demonstrate how rice productivity can be product to as much as ten tons per hectre.

" We are working on educational infrastructure in multiple places within the state, to make it possible for people to produce food round the year.

"We are also working on introduction of smart technology in both nourishing the plants," Ihejiofor explained.###