AS part of its resolve to ensure standard measurement usage for food items in Ebonyi state, the government said it is ready to partner with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)-assisted Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP).
The State’s Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Chief Ikechukwu Nwobo, disclosed this during a meeting with the public on the usage of standard measurement in Abakaliki, the state capital.
Nwobo stated that the government was committing everything to end the menace of sub-standard measurement by dishonest traders in the state.
According to him, “I recently visited five different rice mills using an undercover mechanism and discovered several irregularities by rice sellers occasioned by the usage of sub- standard measurements. This is high-level conspiracy and domestic-economic sabotage against the citizens and the government will henceforth punish perpetrators.”
“Organisations such as IFAD-VCDP will apart from the enforcement, assist in providing the standard measurement for traders to eliminate excuses for using substandard ones. This is a part of the advocacy that we are promoting and the standard measurement can be distributed to traders freely because it is a humanitarian venture, he said.
In his remarks, IFAD-VCDP State Programme Coordinator (SPC), Mr Sunday Ituma, said that his team had carried out a number of researches on the issue and was willing to partner with the government.
“We distributed several weights-instruments to the rice millers to commence standard measurement usage while conducting interactive meetings with policy-makers, stakeholders among others,” He said.
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