Akwa Ibom State government said it disbursed more than N1.2billion as interest free loans to 2,000 cassava farmers in the last two years and have curbed the monopoly of market unions in the pricing of foodstuffs in the state.
This is even as a study by correspondents in the state revealed that government’s drive towards food sufficiency is hampared by the low capacity utilization of its multi faceted cassava processing mills and lack of committment from beneficiaries of government agricultural loans.
State Commmissioner for Agriculture, Dr Glory Edet who was speaking to correspondents on the sustainability of the state government’s subsidized sales of Garri last weekend in Uyo said the loan scheme was a delibrate move to reduce the astornimical price of Garri, a staple food in the state by boosting the production capacity of cassava farmers.
Edet pointed out that the initiative was not limited to increased cassava production, disclosing that 1,000 each of maize and vegetable farmers also benefitted from interest free loans even as her ministry distributed 700,000 cocoa seedlings to cocoa farmers and boosted livestock farmers with improved breeds of goats and other animals.
She explained that the present utilization of the cassava mills is dependent on the quantity of cassava from its demonstration farms across the state but said that government has in addition acted as off checkers by buying from small holder cassava farmers to increase processing capacity and empower the farmers to sustain production.
The ministry she said has sustained the sell of more than 150 bags of 120kg bags of garri daily at a reduced price in different parts of the state to ameliorate the hardship on residents and force the stabilization of the price of the commodity in the open market
“Akwa Ibom is blessed with a good soil and in Governor Udom Emmanuel we have a Governor known for his passion for Agriculture by making it keyin his eight point agenda and he believes that through agriculture we can reduce poverty, feed well and stabilize the economy.
“One of the staple food in this part of the country is cassava and through it we get other things like garri and fufu and so on. The Governor is not only interested in teaching people how to cultivate cassava but in processing it because it will be unfair for us to cultivate and then take it to other parts of the country for processing.
“In the area of cultivation, we have been encouraging farmers with Interest Free Loans. Last year we gave over 2,000 farmers N250,000 for each of the over 5,000 hectares they cultivated. We also gave them free improved varieties of cassava stem and this has boosted production in the state.
“We also established Cassava Processing Mills across the state so we can cultivate and process. We are also selling Garri at subsidized rate to help break the monopoly of the unions because we discovered that the unions were charging traders between N300,000 and N500,000 to be admitted and because of that they increased the price of the commodity they sell inorder to recover their money.
“So we invited the unions from the various markets in the state and stopped them from making it compulsory for people to join their union with that kind of money because if you don’t keep the market open, some people may just have a basin or a bag to sell and you can’t come and tell such people to pay N500,000.
“We have also told them that they can’t reduce the number of sellers in the market because we found out that they created artificial scarcity because for instance in a market of 1,000 sellers they will tell say 50 to sell on Monday, maybe 150 on Tuesday and so on. So we have stopped that and now sellers are free to go and sell without restriction.
“To break the monopoly too we have harvested the cassava we planted in our demonstration farms. We have also processed them and selling them at three cups for N100 when it was a cup for N100 in the open market and we ensured we take them to major markets around the state like Akpanandem, Itam, the market in Eket, Abak and planning to go to Oron in addition to selling at the State Secretariat three times a week.” She explained.
But the broader initiative according to the commissioner has been on increasing the scope of the state government’s Green House with increased emphasis on the training and empowerment of individual holder farmers with funds, equipments, agro chemicals, fertilizer and improved varieties of seeds and stems.
The ministry, she said has also expanded its swampy rice production capacity to include individual holder farms in Okobo, Uruan, Ibiono Ibom and Nsit Ubium LGAs in addition to existing plantations at Ini Local Council.
Edet further stated that with a processing capacity of 900,000 coconuts per day at the state Coconut Processing Factory, the Ministry has stepped up training and enlightenment for individual and school holder coconut plantations across the state.
The commissioner who said that the success of the state government’s food sufficiency drive is hinged on more small holder farms, increased processing and storage capacity added that the initiative has recently been expanded to accommodate crops like lettuce, flutted pumpkin and ginger production through the Ginger Association.
She maintained that the efforts were a holistic strategy to ensure that the state government’s target of local production of at least 80% of food consumed in the state by 2023 is achieved.
But correspondents who visited some of the cassava mills however discovered that the mills are underutilized even as only a small percentage of the populace have benefitted from the government’s subsidized sales as many who could not access the sales points either by reasons of location or inadequate information have continued to buy at exorbitant prices.
Though the mills if fully utilized have the capacity to produce enough for the populace at a reduced price, it was discovered that apart from few individual farmers and cooperatives who patronize the mills, government’s efforts to mass produce the commodity have largely remained inadequate.
For instance it was gathered that the mills have capacity to produce more than 350 bags a week but their current weekly production have not been more than 50 bags even as the commodity sometimes are not readily available for consumers to purchase at the state Secretariat.
Many residents are of the opinion that government procure much of the commodity for sale from neighbouring states, wondering how the its food sufficiency drive would succeed.
It would be recalled that the state commissioner for information and strategy, Mr Ini Ememobong had said that the sudden increase in price of Garri was not borne out of insufficiency, but, “caused by a decision by the association of garri sellers who did not only unilaterally increase the price of garri, but rationed the product to create a state of scarcity.”
“As a government we did not fold our arms, we opened our warehouses and sold garri at reduced prices. This intervention has helped to reduce the effect of the price increase on the people.” The Commissioner explained.
