Yemisi Izuora
Ogun State Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr. Adeola Odedina has disclosed that over 50,000 youths and other categories of farmers have been registered for the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) that links farmers to ready marketing input, training and funds.
The commissioner made the disclosure when he appeared before the House of Assembly Committee on Agriculture at the Committee room, House of Assembly Complex, Oke Mosan, Abeokuta.
Dr. Odedina who explained that, part of the benefits farmers will get from the programme include industrial linkage with investors, aggregation of farmers with industries, extension support, getting intervention programme as well as linking farmers, most especially the young ones with market and opportunities.
Other benefits according to Odedina are training in and provision of farmlands to the over 8,000 farmers who do not have farmlands across the three senatorial District and ensuring that farmers do not get cut off from intervention programmes among others.
Giving a breakdown and categorisation of the registered farmers, Odedina said so far, 23,730 were captured for cassava, Rice, 3,375, Maize, 3,000, Poultry, 8,875, Cotton, 2,000 among others.
He assured that his Ministry will be involved in Public Private Partnership with the view to reviving Rice Mills and moribund plantations in the state and enhance other agricultural opportunities.
The Agric Commissioner submitted further that his Ministry will be injecting a value-chain opportunity that would take large number of unemployed youth per local government, for trading in efficiency, networking and collaboration, saying, “we want to create entrepreneurs, development and value chain businesses”.
He assured the House of good working relationship with the ministry as they remain a key stakeholder in the “building our future together” mantra.
Speaking earlier, Deputy Speaker of the Assembly, Hon. Oludare Kadiri, the Committee Chairman and Vice Chairman Honourables Sylvester Abiodun and Hon. Yusuf Adejojo congratulated Dr. Odedina on his appointment and asked for more collaboration from the ministry while they expressed their desire for more rural dwellers to be captured in the ABP, saying the meeting was to familiarize themselves with the Commissioner.