Speaking at the partnership meeting, the Ekiti LG boss who led delegates from Ekiti LG to IITA said the his administration has identified the need to embark on agricultural development in his area since the LG is an agrarian community.

"Ekiti LG is an agrarian community and we are popularly known for cassava plantation and garri production; our agricultural development will revolve round cassava and garri production" he stated.

Further speaking with the DDG partnership of IITA, Ken Danshiell, Akintoba presented a three agenda partnership to the Institute on agricultural development.

"We plan to partner with IITA on establishing three garri processing units in Obbo Aiyegunle, Koro and Osi respectively where garri can be processed in a mechanized way, so that our garri which is popular in the northern part of Nigeria can meet up to standard, through modem processing and packaging" he said.

"Also, we want to train ten farmers in each ward on modern cassava plantation, introducing them to improved cassava stems, and modern use of cassava. A total number of 100 farmers will be trained on this scheme. We equally plan to train 100 youths and equip them for commercial spraying" he added.

Akintoba made it known that the local government will also extend its cassava farm from seven hectares to 20 hectares and commence demonstration farms in each ward where inter-planting of commercial crops will be done.

Responding to Akintoba, Ken Danshiell, the Director General Partnership of IITA appreciates the Local Government thoughtful decision to partner with IITA, being the first local government in Kwara State to partner with IITA. A partnership committee was set up to articulate the partnership terms as the projects are set to commence soon.