Edo State government is tapping into the Agricultural sector, as one of the ways to create jobs and develop the state.The state is planning to replicate the Green Revolution phenomenon, to deploy high-yielding crop varieties, mechanise agriculture and improve lives in the state.
Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Communication Strategy, Mr. Crusoe Osagie, told The Guardian that the state has drawn up a roadmap anchored on its comparative advantage in oil palm production, cassava and maize cultivation, as well as other key crops such as rubber, cocoa and timber.
These plans, The Guardian learnt are reasons the Edo State Alaghodaro Investment Summit was birthed to revive moribund agricultural sector.
“In a recent visit to Singapore, government sealed deals covering investments in agriculture, specifically, oil palm and cassava to feed the processing plants of Tolaram Group.”
To tackle challenges of guaranteed certified inputs, Edo State government revamped the hitherto moribund Edo Fertilizer company in partnership with Wacot Limited. It also has a standing public-private partnership arrangement for the supply of high quality seeds to farmers in Sobe and other farm settlements in the state.
The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo at the commissioning of the plant expressed delight at the 500 direct jobs created by the investment, noting that more youth will be engaged as a result of the ancillary economic activities that would be generated by the fertilizer plant.
The Group Managing Director of WACOT, Mr. Rahul Savara, said the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative has made local production feasible and sustainable, assuring that the Edo Fertilizer and Chemical Company would be made up of 95 per cent indigenous workers
