Ogun govt moves to boost irrigation farming

THE Ogun State Government has revealed that it will be scaling up its agricultural programmes, employ smart agricultural practice as well as irrigation farming to benefit all categories of farmers and guide against draught in the new year.

Speaking at the “Budget 2021 Media Parley” in Abeokuta, Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr. Adeola Odedina said the move would enable to expand Agricultural opportunities to all farmers, disclosing that the Ministry would focus on its engagement with the World Bank, International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) as well as the African  Development Bank (AFDP), among others, with the view to making the State the official special agro-processing zone.

“Our Agricultural agenda is very much on course, we are going to step the game in 2021 with our engagement with the  World Bank, IITA and particularly the African Development Bank in our renewed drive to make our dear State the official agro-processing zone. “We will also be looking at Climate Smart Agriculture because in other parts of the country, they are talking about the flood, however, in our state, we are only being confronted with drought, that means, were taking particular attention to irrigation facility in 2021 and these will guarantee the employment of more people”, he said.

The Commissioner added that the ministry will be looking also at abandoned Agricultural activities of dam irrigation service to further afford more farmers the seamless advantage of all-year-round farming. Odedina expressed the hope that the approval of the new framework for land use will no doubt, make land access a smooth process in 2021, saying investors don’t need to go through the rigour of acquiring land as obtained in the past.

He submitted that the State’s Anchor Borrowers Programme will be expanded as Cotton, Oil-Palm, as well as Cocoa production, will receive a boost, reiterating that government had allocated 10,000 hectares of land to Cotton farmers in the state.