C'River Gov't restates commitment to oil palm production, profiles farmers for subsidized sprouted nuts
By Ebi COLLINS
Cross River state government has concluded the profiling and enumeration of oil palm farmers interested in acquiring the improved variety of subsidized sprouted nuts in a bid to expand oil palm production in the state.
The Commissioner for Agriculture and Irrigation Development, Hon. Johnson Andiambey Ebokpo led a joint team on monitoring of the enumeration exercise for Oil Palm farmers in the State.
Recall that the Senator Bassey Edet Otu-led administration initiated the Cross River State Oil Palm Development Initiative (CRODI) and procured 3.5 million improved sprouted Oil Palm nuts from the Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR), to distribute to farmers in a bid to boost the Oil Palm subsector of the State.
To achieve a seamless distribution and ensure traceability of data, the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation Development in collaboration with Food Systems Land Use and Restoration Impact Project ( Folur-IP) of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Solidaridad trained enumerators and further deployed them to the 18 Local Government Areas of the State for profiling of Farmers interested in purchasing the subsidized sprouted nuts at the cost of 100 naira per nut from the Government.
To assess the level of compliance in the exercise, Commissioner Ebokpo deployed three teams to the three Senatorial Districts of the State.
At Okuni Community of Ikom local government area where he visited, the Commissioner expressed satisfaction at the level of turnout for the exercise, stressing that at the end of the exercise, the State will have traceable data of Oil Palm farmers and be able to measure the production output in the State.
He said: "By the time we conclude the distribution of the 3.5 million Oil Palm sprouted nuts, you can imagine the output in terms of production.
"The activity is not limited to commercial farmers, small holder farmers can equally buy as little as 10 sprouted nuts", he added.
The Agriculture and Irrigation Development Commissioner encouraged intending Oil Palm farmers to equally key into the programme and informed that the farmers will be supported in nursery development and with provision of free seedlings of economic trees such as bush mango, avocado, soursop, among others, to promote agroforestry.
Ebokpo commended the State Governor for the bold vision of positioning the State in the global map of Oil Palm development and called on the elites to mobilize farmers in their Various communities to participate in the exercise.
At the time of filing this report, the monitoring team had visited a good number of communities including Afrike 1 and 2 in Bekwarra, Egbe Mbube, Ogoja; Atiekpe, Obudu Urban 1; Ekori- Yakurr, Ochon- Obubra and Ikot Effiom in Bakassi Local Government Area.
The exercise was also monitored by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Ekpe Bassey, Senior Special Adviser to the Governor on Agriculture, Prof. John Shiyam, Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Tree crops, Mr. Fidelis Effa, the State Chairman, Oil Palm Growers Association, Rev. Ojikpong Nyiam Bisong, State Project Coordinator for FAO Folur-IP project, Mr. Cletus Ogbidi and the Programme Manager Cross River State Agricultural Development Programme, Mr. Bassey Emogor.
Other team members were the Director of Tree crops, Mr. Ubi Ubana, Director Agric. Services, Mr. Henry Etta, Director Finance and supply, Dr. Obun Dan and the Technical Adviser to the Commissioner, Mr. Brian Ugbe.
The team also used the opportunity to create more awareness through targeted community engagement.
