…as Kwara govt empowers 2,019 farmers
As part of efforts to ensure food security, and stable power generation and distribution in the State, German Missions in Nigeria and Ogun State Government are considering partnership arrangements targeted at boosting the food production and energy transition in the State.
Weert Borner, the Consul General from German Embassy, who paid a courtesy call on Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun in Abeokuta on Thursday, declared that Germany was looking at increasing its ties with the State in the areas of agricultural production and energy transition.
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“The two major areas we want to focus in increasing cooperation between Ogun State and Germany is the agricultural sector; meaning better production, better methods of agriculture, plus making agriculture more sustainable and environment friendly and of cause supporting Ogun State in food security for all of Nigeria.
“The second area is the energy transition to improve the build up of renewable energy and the grid development in Nigeria,” he said.
Responding, Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State said his Administration was considering partnership in the area of merchandised farming, adding that the State Government would be supporting small farmers across eight extension services by teaching them how to grow.
“I will like to explore with you and have partnership that we can find with the German government in supporting us in our new resolve to up the ante in food production. Our new policy now is to partner anyone who wants to come and farm in Ogun State by providing the land, by ensuring that the lands are accessible, by also clearing the land.
“To that extent, we are looking for partners in the area of merchandised farming and providing tractors and other forms of merchanized farming techniques that will help us in achieving our plan. In the last few days, we’ve been deliberating on how to ensure that we contribute our quota to the food security agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“We believe that we can easily be the bread basket of this nation and we are devising new strategies to achieve the objective in the shortest time. We have an ambitious plan of ensuring that in the next 12 months, this becomes easily visible across the state. We welcome partners that will assist us in that part,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Kwara State Government has supported 2,019 indigent farmers in the State with agricultural tools and processors in the third phase of the KWARA FADAMA CARES intervention.
Items received by farmers at the ceremony included knapsack sprayers with PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), Fish Smoking Kilns, Rain Gun Sprinklers, Water Pumping Machines with accessories for fish farmers, Poultry Feeders and Drinkers, Small Ruminants, Maize shellers and Soya Beans Threshers.
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It will be recalled that there were two phases of disbursement by KWARA FADAMA CARES with Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq flagging off the first phase in 2022, in Oke-Oyi, Ilorin East LGA, where a large number of indigent farmers got both crop inputs and assets.
A press statement by Sangodare Ayinla, Communication Officer, KWARA FADAMA CARES, indicated that the flagging off the third disbursement exercise, Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, stated that interventions by Kwara Fadama CARES were tailored towards easing hardship in the Country, noting that such would go a long way to reducing hunger and poverty.
