By Imoh Etimudo
Beyond the bulky trucks of Bulk Purchase Agency that move from one local government area to another, distributing food to the people, especially the vulnerable, farmers in Akwa Ibom State are busy cultivating their farms in line with the policies of Governor Umo Eno in agriculture to achieve food sufficiency and showcase the status of Akwa Ibom State as a reputable food basket in Nigeria.
Governor Umo Eno came with lofty ideas condensed to a great vision for agriculture, and there is a likeable revolution in the sector in the State. It is an intentional effort of the governor for the State to attain food sufficiency and food security, barnishing hunger from the land.
While marketing his manifesto for the people of the State ahead of his election, Governor Eno was emphatic that he was going to ensure that the full value chain of agriculture is achieved in the State; he is achieving that achievement for his people.
That is seen clearly in the acronym, A.R.I.S.E which is the governance bible and leadership compass of his administration, where the first alphabet, “A” stands for agriculture. Agriculture is not just the leader of the pack in cosmetics or rubrics of rheotric, it is gaining first class attention from the governor, and was among his first port of call when he assumed office.
Governor Eno was the leader of a delegation to Songhai Farm in Port Novo, Benin Republic to understudy the secret of the success story of that investment. Today, a replica of it is emerging in Ibom Model Farms, which can pass for a modern day Garden of Eden.
Ibom Model Farms is an integrated farm modelled after Songhai Farm which focuses on crop and livestock with capacity for training and potential for tourism. Very importantly, it aids technology transfer.
Governor Eno’s policy has made agriculture an interesting, exciting and respectable occupation, throwing up high profile and emerging private entrepreneurs in agriculture. He has given agriculture a new look, a new image and indeed a new name – Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, with a competent professional, Dr (Mrs)Offiong Offor as the Commissioner in charge.
The vision of Governor Eno for agriculture is that more farmers in the State will go for tractors and harvesters than they go for hoes and machetes. That is why government has perfected plans to set up equipment leasing yard to support farmers in the cultivation of massive hectares of land.
Meanwhile, farmers are supported with agricultural machinery to aid land preparations for farming in addition to receiving farm inputs, agrochemicals, access to finance and benefitting from the services of agricultural extension officers.
The ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is encouraging farmers to form themselves into co-operative groups for ease of accessibility to government incentives as well as monitoring their progress by the ministry. These clusters make it easy for the distribution of of farm inputs and agric loans as well as seed multipliers.
Governor Eno’s revolution in agriculture is holistic. It covers all forms of agriculture from crop production to fishing, poultry and general livestock. There is sustained distribution of livestock to farmer’s multipurpose co-operative societies such as goats, pigs, fingerlings, and birds for those in poultry farming.
Those in crop production often receive improved varieties of their crops covering cassava cuttings, pumpkin seeds, coconut seedlings and maize seeds.
Cash crops much as oil palm, cocoa and even those into rice cultivation are given the necessary support to enable them make good yield with attendant profits.
At intervals, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development often harvest cassava from their demonstration farms, process and sell to the people at reduced prices in an effort to help reduce high cost of staple foods in the market.
The Umo Eno administration has undertaken the distribution of solar irrigation pumps to farmers for watering their farms. There are many agricultural interventions to support the farmers. These interventions are meant to change unproductive conventions such as farm fragmentations that often impede mechanization.
In his wisdom and good intentions, Governor Eno had merged rural development with agriculture. Hence, the aggressive rural development through the Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project (RAAMP) has equally added value to what has been achieved in the agricultural sector.
There is strong initiatives and policies to tie agriculture to industrialization in line with the value chain promised by the Governor. That is why the governor visited the Akwa Palms Industry with a view to bringing it to functionality.
The governor is passionate about making the people see agriculture as a culture. To this end, civil servants are given work-free days known as farm days where they are expected to go to their farms.
There is a loveable mental shift on prioritizing agriculture and making it look attractive and lucrative for even the young people. This leads to the acceptable invasion of secondary schools and other institutions for awareness and and re-orientation on the importance of agriculture, and that it is not an occupation of shame but a calling to be proud of.
Even the local government councils are not left out. They have farms and equally donate lands to the State Government for agricultural purposes.
Farmers are at the verge of receiving financial grants to invest in their farms for optimum productivity. This is in furtherance to the Governor’s philosophy that there is no alternative to farming. Hence, everyone should return to the farm.
Therefore, while the food distribution programme is appreciated especially as it has put smiles on hitherto frowned faces, Governor Eno has urged Akwa Ibom people to see it as a stop-gap arrangement and not a permanent thing. They are to liken the gesture as manna, knowing that manna does not fall everyday. What to do? Return to the farm. The governor is giving them every support to achieve this.
Truly, Governor Umo Eno has done extremely well in agriculture in Akwa Ibom State, that one is save to say that Akwa Ibom State is an emerging beautiful food basket. Governor Eno is weaving that basket with golden materials. It shall be filled with food from the anticipated bumper harvest from the farm, and hunger shall have no place in the land. Food will not just be available, it will be accessible and affordable in Akwa Ibom State, enormous enough to feed the people and for exports.
Imoh Etimudo writes from Itu Mbonuso in Ini Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.
