The Federal Government has rated Ekiti State highly for its significant agricultural interventions and investments towards ensuring food security in the country.
The national report, tagged 2024 Wet Season Agricultural Performance in Nigeria by the National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services (NAERLS), is certified by the National Technical Committee on Agricultural Statistics under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture.
According to the report obtained by our correspondent, the Ekiti State Government was commended, among other states in the region, for its deliberate efforts to improve agricultural productivity in the state.
The report acknowledged the growth witnessed by the state in major crops such as maize, rice, cowpea, soybean, yam, and cassava in terms of land area, production, and yield per hectare.
Aside from encouraging mechanised farming in the state, the report lauded the Ekiti state government’s agricultural investment in training no fewer than 7,542 farmers across the 16 local government areas of the state.
Additionally, the state was adjudged one of the few that procured and supported farmers with necessary seedlings and agrochemicals during the 2024 farming season, contributing to high levels of productivity along the agricultural value chain, including livestock production.
The report reads: “Ekiti State Government procured and distributed 7,053.5 litres of herbicides, 1,239 litres of liquid insecticides, 123.32kg of powdered insecticides, 199 litres of liquid fungicides, and 213.8kg of powdered fungicides. The inputs were deemed accessible and affordable by farmers.
“Additionally, 1,250 sprayers were distributed by the Ekiti State Government during the 2024 farming season.
“Ekiti State successfully distributed 40,000 day-old chicks and 134 tonnes of poultry feed, maintaining accessibility and affordability.”
Reacting to the latest report from the Federal Government, the Ekiti State Commissioner for Agriculture, Ebenezer Boluwade, said the rating is a testament to the commitment of Governor Biodun Oyebanji’s administration to agricultural revolution in the state.
The commissioner revealed that, over the past two and a half years, the administration has invested in the agriculture sector to ensure the socio-economic development of the state in line with the shared prosperity agenda.
He said part of these efforts includes the creation of close to 100 farm clusters for communities and cooperatives, as well as no fewer than 13 farm hubs across the state, which have accommodated youths interested in agriculture.
According to him,”To curtail the excesses of middlemen who capitalised on farmers’ lack of market access, the state set up Ilu Eye Agro Trading and Aggregation Company Ltd last year to buy back products from farmers and retail them to citizens in order to bend the food inflation curve.
“The retail strategy, coined Ounje Ekiti, will be marketed online and through physical footprints in the market space.”
Boluwade maintained that the investment is already yielding the desired results across the value chain, promising sustained government efforts to make Ekiti the food basket of the region and the country.
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