Farmers receive 3.6 million seedlings from FG

The Federal Government has commenced free distribution of 3.6 million seedlings of high-yield varieties cocoa pods to farmers across the country.

The distribution, which was approved by the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), was done in conjunction with the cocoa producing states.

Minister of Agriculture, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, at the distribution held at Owena village, on Ondo road, said government was ready to revive the agriculture sector.

The minister, speaking through the South-West regional director of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Dr Julius Odeyemi, regretted the dwindling fortune of agriculture in the country.

“Nigeria has a history of a prosperous, viable and vibrant cocoa industry in the past. The cocoa industry provided us with foreign exchange and revenue which built for us our enduring infrastructure, institutions and edifices.

“Sad to say, however, that due largely to the neglect of agriculture as a whole, the cocoa sector also suffered adversely and now, from being the second largest producer, we are a distant fourth. Even Indonesia has overtaken us with some 500,000 metric tonnes,” he said.

The intervention, he said, was meant to improve cocoa production capacity, adding that the first batch seeds were provided free, for beneficiaries with counterpart funding from cocoa-producing states.

The Ondo State Commissioner for Agriculture, Ademola Olorunfemi, said the impact of the intervention would soon begin to yield results.

 
Source: Tribune