The Anambra State government is seeking to revitalise industrial-scale palm and coconut production, commodities that contributed to the transformation of the old eastern region, the governor has said.
Chukwuma Soludo, the state governor on Wednesday, in Awka, the state capital, flagged off the farming season with what he termed ‘regenerative agriculture’ as the pathway to food sufficiency and repositioning of the state’s economy.
According to him, his administration is championing the reenactment of the palm revolution which built the old eastern region, as a way of going back to where the later M.I.Okpara stopped.
Beyond planting palm trees, the governor said his administration is also going into coconut production to generate revenue.
He said declining revenues from crude oil is encouraging the Federal Government to seek to diversify away from fossil fuels and that the State was ready to champion the cause.
The governor expressed his administration’s readiness to partner with communities and individuals who are interested in going into palm and coconut farming.
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Soludo projected that if the current enthusiasm is sustained over the next ten years, Anambra would be earning billions of dollars in export revenue and would serve as a forerunner to the introduction of the industrialuzation, leisure, and new economies.
Foster Ihejiofor, commissioner for Agriculture in the State harped on the governor’s commitment to not just agriculture but the well-being of Anambra people, stating that they will work with Anambra farmers, to systematically migrate from chemical-based conventional farming to regenerative biologically-driven farming.
Ihejiofor stressed that to drive the process, they created Sustainable Agriculture Task Team (SATT), to download and domesticate best farming practices for Anambra, stressing that when fully implemented, it will drastically curtail the cost of farm inputs, thereby increasing the wealth of Anambra farmers, while lowering the cost of food for all.
The theme of the event is ‘Empowering Women and Youth through Regenerative Agriculture for Sustainable Development.
Those that attended the event included farmers from the 21 local government areas in the state.
