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Stakeholders during the flagging off the cultivation of 2,000 hectares of commercial maize in Odukpani Local Government Area, Cross River state
The Cross River State Governor, Bassey Otu, has revealed plans to help farmers in the state increase their revenue over middlemen who buy off their produce and sell at a higher price without going through the pains of the farmers.
Otu stated this on Wednesday while flagging off the cultivation of 2,000 hectares of commercial maize in Odukpani Local Government Area through the state government’s Project Grow Initiative.
Otu, represented by the Accountant General of the State; Mrs Glory Effiong, said the initiative was designed to curb food insecurity and create a sustainable economy in the state by having farmers cultivate and companies like Flour Mills off-take.
Effiong said the Project was a testament to what resilience could achieve, noting that the occasion was symbolic to celebrate the commencement of mechanical planting of maize over a commercial area of 2,000 hectares.
“The Project Grow initiative is a market-driven strategy aimed at stimulating private sector investment in key agricultural value chains such as maize, rice, cassava, aquaculture and animal fodder.
“It is my dream that every resident of Cross River will live above the poverty line because the Nigerian economy has shown a wide gap between the rich and the poor but this initiative aims to bridge it,” She added.
Effiong said it is expected that after 6 years, this project would allow the market players in each of the value chains to understand themselves and engage independently while bringing Cross Riverains into the money system to tackle multidimensional poverty.
Also, the Director of Project Grow, Dennis Ikpali said that in the past, farmers in the state planted maize at subsistence level but Project Grow was helping them commercialise the whole process by cultivating 2,000 hectares of land.
Ikpali said the maize acquired by Project Grow was early maturing, high yielding, disease and drought-resistant and had the capacity to produce four tons of maize per hectare.
“This means that within four months of planting, the 2,000 hectares of land has the capacity to generate 8,000 tons of maize and by market computation where a ton of maize is N600,000, we are looking at 10 to 12 billion naira income flowing through the system,” she stated.
One of the beneficiaries, Mrs Mary Ayi, who was given a hectare said she used to plant cassava but was ready to go into commercial cultivation of maize because of its shorter duration, adding that she would plough back whatever she got to enlarge her farm.
Another indigene of Odukpani, Nsa Okon, said he was quite satisfied with the implementation process of Project Grow while calling on those yet to receive their portions to be patient as the implementation was in phases.
For effective cultivation of the land, each farmer was said to receive one million naira loan from partner commercial banks and upon harvesting, the maize would be taken off by Flour Mills Nigeria, another key partner of the project.
