By Kelechi David
The Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi says his administration is determined to diversify the economy and maximize the agricultural potentials of the state for sustainable development.
The Governor who inaugurated Ekiti rice pyramid project and flagged off the 2021 wet season rice cultivation at the Ekiti Parapo Pavilion in Ado-Ekiti, said that his administration would continue to initiate and implement policies targeted at boosting the Agricultural sector and ensuring food security.
Dr Fayemi remarked that the project was informed by the vision of his administration to boost agriculture in the state, and by extension key into President Buhari’s transformation programme in the agriculture sector.
He noted that rice had become the most consumed staple in Nigeria, adding that support for local rice production by the President had upped the level of agricultural practice.
The Governor believed that considering huge market and rising population of Nigerians, there is need to invest in diverse areas of agriculture sector.
He stressed that massive local rice production would lead to decreased level in rice importation, thereby ushering in food sufficiency and varnishing hunger.
The Ekiti State Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Prince Olabode Adetoyi in his address said that the event would showcase the state’s efforts in agriculture with special focus on rice production, emphasizing that the programme would engage about twelve thousand rice farmers.
Prince Adetoyi advised the teeming youths in the state to embrace agriculture as a way of reducing the dependence on white collar job, pointing out that the programme when operational would churn out 1.5 metric tons of rice yearly.
The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele who was at the event described the coming on stream of the Ekiti Rice Pyramid project as a demonstration of the country’s huge investment in the agricultural sector.
The CBN Boss said the country was determined to expand the agriculture space to achieve the overall objective and attain the potential inherent in the sector.
”What we are witnessing today are harvests from various states in the Southwest and other neighbouring states. This implies that rice production is possible in all states of the federation.This is pursuance of Mr President’s quest for economic diversification, with emphasis on agricultural revolution, aimed at achieving government’s economic sustainability plan”.
Mr Emefiele believed that the event would generate the required momentum to catalyse rice cultivation in the Southwest, and provide a sustainable way of feeding the rice mills springing up in various southern part of the country and the environs.
According to him, the symbolic event would reinforce the optimism in massive production in Nigeria’s agriculture sector, and the need for more private sector investment in the agricultural value chain, coupled with significant improvement in domestic production of the staple food, while reducing dependence on imported food items.
He underscored the fact that achievements recorded in the agricultural sector had shown that Nigeria would indeed attain self sufficiency in the production of staple food items within the shortest possible time.
The Governors of Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Kebbi, Jigawa and others who attended the event, in their separate goodwill messages appreciated the Ekiti State Government for engaging in such profitable venture.
