MONDAY March 10, 2025 |TheNewsDESK
AS Nigerians hope to see food prices reducing soon, the Federal Government, Monday, disclosed efforts in transforming South-South smallholder farmers and lands into food production powerhouse.
This was made known by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Community Engagement, South-South Geopolitical Zone, Gift Johnbull, during an interactive session with journalists under the auspices of the South South Journalists Forum for Good Governance, SSFGG, while speaking on the importance of agribusiness that would greatly solve challenges facing women and youth in the region.
Johnbull said over 100, 000 farmers are projected to be engaged in the region in this wet season farming as the government is working with farmer cooperative societies to get the real farmers’ data on the heels of the engagement the government had with them in the six states (Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, and Rivers).
She also noted that the region is blessed with fertile land that can grow crops in mega hectares and harvest in huge tonnes, which the farmers could make huge profits.
According to her, the region is not basically an oil and gas hub but a powerhouse for food production, which the Tinubu-led Renewed Hope Agenda is currently harnessing.
She said: “The President is very interested in food security. We targeted a couple of priority crops based on our research, our engagement in the time past, and we picked cassava, rice, cocoa, oil palm, maize, and aquaculture across the region.
“There are several local governments that are strong in certain priority crops unlike the other ones, but, and then we are adding plantain and yam to it but the sixth priority agricultural commodity that I mentioned is what we are actually targeting for now.
“We are looking at 100,000 smallholder farmers because smallholder farmers actually make the last chunk in the agricultural sector right now. If you gather 100,000 smallholder farmers and you aggregate all their produce, that is a large chunk going into the market, and when we have excess, of course, more supply than demand, the price will come down and then we can even have enough to process and start talking about exportation.”
