Osun State government has distributed 100,000 cocoa seedlings to about 1,000 farmers in the state.
The state government also distributed agro-chemicals, hand-spraying tools, limes and other farm inputs to about 1,000 farmers across the all the Local Government Areas.
The government also inaugurated Osun Broilers Outgrowers Production Scheme III (OBOPS) to enhance livestock production capacity.
Speaking during the event at the Agriculture Demonstration Centre, Aisu, in Ede South Local Government Area of the State, Governor Adegboyega Oyetola said government’s efforts were geared towards repositioning agriculture and making Osun State the food basket of the nation in general and in the Southwest in particular.
He added that the initiative was designed to support farmers and cushion the effects of the erratic weather that occurred last year, which resulted in prolonged drought and flooding in different parts of the state.
Governor Oyetola hinted that approval had been given for the establishment of 10,000 hectares of farmland to be used as a farm settlement at F3 in Ife-South Local Government in which 400 hectares of the farmland had been cleared to empower one thousand (1,000) youths in the cultivation of arable crops, while 23 hectares of farmland was cleared at Ifon, in Orolu Local Government as a Demonstration Site for youths and women empowerment and agro processing centres.
The governor further emphasized that the initiative would support the systematic replacement of the existing old cocoa plantations and other permanent crops with improved high-yielding varieties to make Osun the largest cocoa producer in the Southwestern part of Nigeria.
Farmers in each of the Local Government Area across the state got 1,500 cocoa seedlings with priority given to the cocoa producing local government areas of the state.
In a remark, the Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Dr. Dayo Adewole, assured that the state government would be supplying farmers with buds, day-old chicks and feeds so as to aid them in launching the scheme in their respective domains.
Also speaking, the Chairman of All Farmers Association of Nigeria, AFAN, Osun State Chapter, Alhaji Sulaiman Araokanmi, commended the prompt intervention of government to revamp agriculture in the state.
Some of the beneficiaries of the farm input distributed by the government who expressed delight, lauded the kind gesture extended to them by the Oyetola-led administration.
Also some of the direct beneficiaries of the cocoa intervention programmes, Mr. Omoloye Akanmu, Mr. Rabiu Omowole; Alhaji Adesanya Aderemi; Mrs. Christiana Ogunsaya; Alhaja Asifat Bukola and Mr. Adedayo Kayode, said the initiative would go a long way to rekindle their hope in the survival and viability of agribusiness in the state.
Adenitan Akinola
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