SIX new farms of five hundred hectare each are to be established in Rivers State as part of Songhai Rivers initiative to boost food security and create employment opportunity for indigenes of the state.The state government and Zambian farmers partners are to establish a poultry farm that would produce an average of two hundred thousand birds per week.The executive director of the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency (RSSDA), Noble Pepple, revealed this while signing a Memorandum Of Understanding with the Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST) aimed at using agriculture to mitigate poverty by promoting food security.He explained that the agreement signed between the agency and the university would result in the establishment of RSSDAs integrated model regional farms at Onne. This implies that the agency would be taking over the Rivers Institute for Agricultural Research and Training centre.Pepple stressed that this model farm would serve as one of the Songhai Rivers Initiative satellite centres, providing support and service to farmers, cooperatives and organisations within catchment local government areas around where the farms are located.He revealed that the 500 hectare Songhai Rivers Initiative farm Bunu-Tai in Ogoni area of the state, which was described as a centre of agricultural research, training, entrepreneurship, skills and technology transfer, has been completed and is in the process of commencing operation.RSSDA was thus to establish an academic linkage between the universitys Faculty of Agriculture and a world renowned University of Agriculture and centre of excellence. According to the agency, this is aimed at opening up opportunities for exchange programmes, collaborative research and productive mentorship for the benefit of the student populace and teaching staff.The RSSDA boss revealed that the agency would set up a special agricultural scholarship scheme to provide sponsorship for deserving Rivers indigenes admitted into the key agricultural disciplines in the school.Pepple said another key aspect of the agreement was the endowment of a professorial chair in the core agricultural discipline to support research, teaching and academic excellence in agriculture.I believe that our focus on agriculture is both appropriate and timely. The capacity and power of agriculture to mitigate poverty by promoting food security, creating sustainable jobs and livelihoods, and driving rural development is universally acclaimed he said.Pepple noted that Port Harcourt is presently the third highest consumer of poultry products in the country and because most of the products are supplied from other states, the government decided to go into partnership with Zambian farmers who, with the aid of technology, currently produce an average of 500,000 birds per week in their home country.With the collaboration between the agency and the university, the RSSDA boss explained that Governor Chibuike Amaechi, has stressed the importance of agricultural development in the state, especially as a key driver for job creation.The vice chancellor of the university, Professor Berineme Fakae, regretted that agriculture which was the mainstay of the countrys economy has been relegated to the background despite its relevance to human existence.Fakae appealed to multinationals to emulate RSSDA by collaborating with the institution in other spheres of human endeavour.
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