Senator Abubakar Kyari, Minister for Agriculture and Food Security is the minister for the season. His office is the one stop place for most visitors to Abuja, especially state governors. The reason is the emphasis placed on agriculture and food production by the administration of President Bola Tinubu. Governors are either visiting the minister to acknowledge support from the federal government or they are at his office to request more support from the central government. The latest guest of the minister is Biodun Oyebanji, governor of Ekiti State. Ekiti is one of the 15 states where the federal government has given support for the dry season farming, as part of efforts to ensure massive production of the food items in Nigeria beginning from 2024. Governor Oyebanji expressed the readiness of his state to continue to partner with the federal government in the wet/dry season farming, so as to tackle food insecurity in the country. While apprising the minister of the determination of his government to maximise the agricultural potentials of his people, so as to bring the people out of poverty and enthrone economic prosperity, he said he was convinced that the government was capable of putting an end to the dependency on food import and achieve self sufficiency in food production and supply. Oyebanji told Kyari that to achieve that goal, the state government would need more support from the ministry of agriculture and food security. That support, according to him, would be for the purpose of improving mechanized farming by providing tractors and other tools. He told the minister, “My visit here today is to explore areas of collaboration with the Ministry in the following areas. We want to be part of your agro-pocket scheme, the dry and wet season farming. We also want to see if it’s possible for you to assist us with mechanisation and tractorisation because in Ekiti what we have done is to subsidize tractor hiring to our farmers. If you want to hire tractor, government will pay 50 percent of the money, and we are also looking at the possibility of livestock supports”. The governor said that in the one year that he has been in office, his administration has embarked on training, educating farmers on the fact that farming has gone beyond the use of crude implements like cutlasses and hoes to the use of scientific knowledge, which also increases farm yields aside from reducing physical exertion. Those were not the only things he had done to improve agriculture in the state. He said, “we are providing support in respect to land clearing and preparation, we have gotten improved seedlings for them, we are connecting them to grants and loans that doesn’t have too much interest and we have also tried to cut off middlemen so that they can prosper doing this business, and we are providing infrastructure.” Now those efforts will be given a pep, as his visit to the minister resulted in a pledge to partner with the state. Kyari also expressed confidence that through continued collaboration and dedication, the country would overcome the current challenges and achieve a prosperous agriculture sector in Nigeria. The minister thanked the governor for the visit and commended him for the unprecedented achievement recorded by his administration in agricultural sector in just about one year in office.He maintained that the visit signified the strong collaboration and partnership between the State and the Federal Government in the collective efforts to ensure food security and agriculture development in Nigeria.
MECHANISED FARMING: EKITI STATE TO GET FG SUPPORT
