Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, the governor of Anambra State, has stated that one of his administration’s goals is to turn farmers in the state into employers.
This, according to Soludo, will be accomplished by deliberate assistance provided to farmers in the state, including loans and the gifting of cutting-edge farm machinery that will facilitate their labor and boost productivity.
This was said over the weekend at the beginning of the 2023 farming season in Awka, the state capital, by the governor, who was in attendance through his deputy, Dr. Onyeka Ibezim.
The Adani-Omor Zonal Staple Crops Processing Implementation Unit of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda Support Programme Phase-One (ATASP-1) made agricultural enhancement equipment worth N21 million available to farmers in the state. Speaking to them after the presentation, the deputy governor said: “I have confidence that the equipment presented to you today will turn the beneficiaries into employers of labor and major contributors to the food supply.
“The multiplier effect of this empowerment is what the government of Prof. Chukwuma Soludo has been talking about. We advise you to make good use of the equipment.”
Five farmer cooperative groups from different parts of the state will use the equipment.
The tools comprised a portable thresher, a rubber mill, a rice destoner, dryers, a handheld planter, a cassava grater, a knapsack sprayer, and a hammer mill.
Dr. Forster Ihejiofor, the commissioner for agriculture, indicated that loans from the African Development Bank (AfDB) were used to purchase the equipment, and that the federal and state governments may eventually pay them back.
The 13 recipient farmer groups were chosen based on needs evaluations, according to Romanus Egba, the ATASP-1 Adani-Omor Zonal Programme Coordinator.