By Ogenyi Ogenyi,Uyo
Akwa Ibom Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr Offiong Offor has said that the state government’s Songhai Farm Model remained on course and would form the basis for the development of mordern farms especially for youths across the 31 Local Councils.
She has also said that government is being strategic in it’s efforts to break the monopoly and negative influence of commodity unions that has been fingered as one of the major causes of rising cost of foodstuffs in markets across the state.
Offor told journalists on the heels of the one year anniversary of Governor Umo Eno’s administration in Uyo that increased food production remained the only strategy that could crash the price of foodstuffs and restated the unwavering committment of the Eno administration to achieve this goal.
The commissioner said that over 100 youths have been trained for the implementation of the Songhai Initiative while the programme itself is being executed in phases starting from the nursery phase.
“The Songhai Farm initiative has not died down.You see, farming is not something you snap your finger and everything falls into place. It is a process. The activities at that model farm is in different periods. So we are currently doing is land preparation for gardening. If you pass through there you will see that a great deal has been done.
“So we are walking on timelines.and what we are currently doing is cultivating vegetables. So if you go there you will see that the land has been prepared and parcelated.
“Agriculture is time bound and you know that the varieties of what we are growing there are improved varieties that take a short time to yield and in improved quantities. So it is a process and we are on course.” She explained.
Offor said the that the Local Government farm plantations have been taken over by the Councils with most of them now embarking on crops that their area have comparative advantage on.
Schools, the commissioner also said have been supported with improved seedlings to encourage pupils and students to learn early enough how to engage in farming inorder to develope interest in it in furtherance of the state government’s call for a return to agriculture.
The commodity unions Offor explained has always existed before the recent astronomical rise in food prices while it could be counter productive to break their influence and monopoly with high handedness.
“When the Governor introduced the Bulk Purchase Agency, he met with the traders and told them that they are part of the process and that they need to play down on their union and that one does not necessarily need to belong to the union inorder to sell something in the market.
“You also know that this union thing has been with us for a long time and you can’t just snap your fingers and stop it. But we have dialogued with the traders and resolved that whatever you have to bring to the market let everybody has an opportunity to sell.
“For now, the market union members are agents in the Bulk Purchase programme and has played down their influence in recent times in those commodities covered in the intervention, like Garri, Beans, Rice
“And that’s why we encourage people to patronize the produce market where the original farmers bring their produce to sell at a price much lower than what you get at the conventional market.
“But then the market unions have been with us before now and in every part of the country. If you say it is something you are going to do automatically you will be setting a high standard. It is not only in our state and not peculiar to food items, because you also see their influence in other products like electronics and others.” She explained.
The commissioner called on residents of the state to avail themselves of any oppurtunity to grow crops and rare animals even at subsistence levels inorder to reduce the amount of money family spend on food and also help to crash the price of food in the market.
Offor added that the state government had always supported such people through Coperatives while funds have also been made available to genuine farmers who are in the state Farmers’ Database at no interest to improve on their agricultural endeavours.
It would be recalled that the Governor in company of the agric commissioner and some members of the state executive council payed a working visit to Songhai Farms in Benin Republic after which the Governor promised to replicate the Songhai Model in Akwa Ibom in a renewed move to encourage more youth awareness and participation in agriculture, help families grow some of the things they eat and reduce over dependence of the state on others states for their foodstuffs.
