Date: 2012-01-24

AS part of its revenue generation drive, the Kwara State government will soon embark on large scale planting of maize, rice, soya beans and cassava. Speaking during his visit to Shonga Farm, a commercial public-private farm in Edu Local Government Area of the state at the weekend, Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed said the reason for the plan was to cater for the needs of farmers in Shonga, particularly poultry and dairy farmers, who would need to feed their fowls and cows in order to increase their productivity. The governor, who said modalities had been mapped out to ensure the smooth take-off of the farm as soon as rain commences, called on the people of the state to grow the crops in large scale, saying there was ready-made market for them. He identified lack of irrigation facilities as the only major challenge facing the farmers, and called on the Federal Government to assist the state in the provision of irrigation facilities to encourage all-year-round farming. "The state government has tried its best to encourage the farmers but it is not enough because the project is capital intensive," the governor said. The governor also said that the state government had set aside a substantial amount of money to encourage commercial farming in the state. "It is high time Kwarans seized the opportunity of the presence of New Nigeria Farmers in the state to diversify and see farming as a productive job to better themselves in particular and the state in general. "This time around, the issue of unemployment and youth restiveness should be a thing of the past. Our people should go back to the farm and we, as a government, are ready to assist," he said. The governor said that the recent strike action embarked upon by the NLC on the fuel subsidy removal had serious effect on the extraction and sales of the milk, and appealed to the federal government to devise a coordinated progress of managing dairy industries among others across the country. He expressed satisfaction with the improvement on the farmers, adding that the commercial farming had come to stay in the state.