New agric policy for Delta underway

A DRAFT policy on the transformation of the agricultural sector of Delta State would soon be tabled before stakeholders as part of measures to grow the economy beyond oil as well as empower the teeming unemployed youths in the State.Besides, the move is to reposition the agricultural sector to make Delta a front line state in agriculture in line with the federal government's Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA).The state Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, who disclosed this yesterday in Asaba at a town hall meeting with stakeholders, said that the overall objective was to find the way forward.Uduaghan, who presided over the meeting said the state can improve on its agriculture programmes and give the necessary assistance to farmers to enable the state grow in agriculture.He explained that the meeting was held to know the challenges faced by farmers in the state, the strategies put in place by the Ministry of Agriculture to curb these challenges and to hear from the state agriculture consultants on how the existing roadmap have been implemented.The governor noted that his administration was committed to building a state beyond oil stating that the money realised from oil would be used to develop other sectors, which agriculture has been identified.'The assessment of Delta State in agriculture today is that we are not doing well and I agree. A lot of people believe we can do better and I also believe that. This is the reason why we have called for this meeting to know the way forward.'This meeting is to see how we can engage our youths and women that are jobless. We have no reason not to be a frontline state in agriculture, there is nothing we cannot produce in this state. I believe all we need is to review and implement our agriculture roadmap,' he said.Uduaghan noted that his government would assess all the farms set up under the Youth Empowerment Programme Through Agriculture (YEPTA) to assist surviving farms with funds and revive the once already shut down.He added that the YETA programme recorded only 25 per cent success because so many of the beneficiaries were not interested in farming, while the committee in charge also had its fault.Uduaghan explained to the farmers that the state government was discussing with banks and financial institutions on how to help reduce interest rates and prepare standard bankable documents to enable the farmers get loans from the banks.He stated that his administration would provide the needed assistance to farmers especially in the area of providing them with agriculture inputs and subsidising it.While briefing the stakeholders on the action plan of the Ministry of Agriculture in achieving the vision, Barrister Misan Kubeinje explained that they have identified seven areas of interest to assist farmers in the state.He enumerated the areas to include cassava production, rice, plantian, rubber, cocoa, fishery, oil palm and livestock, and explained that his ministry was keying into the Federal Government agricultural programmes to support farmers in the state through the provisions of fertilizers, land, funding of cassava projects of which N2 billion have been budgeted for this year.
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