Nigerian regional government to partner with South African farmer group

The Governor of Nigeria's Imo State, Chief Ikedi Ohakim, has said that using advanced technology and new methods in agriculture would ensure food security in the country as the state is set to partner with a South Africa farmer group.

The Governor made this remark while receiving the management of West Africa Holdings; a South Africa farmers group led by Tobie Visser who came to submit a proposal tagged Agric Nova on how to use Advanced Technology and Modern Methods to boost food production in Imo State.

Governor Ohakim said that improved agriculture was one of the cardinal points of his agenda in office and if well managed and sustained would feed the people, generate revenue for Government and provide employment for the teeming youths who roamed the streets in search of white collar jobs that where not existing.

Ohakim recalled that before the oil boom in the seventies, proceeds from agriculture sustained the economy and reiterated that he would restore agriculture to its enviable position as the mainstay of the economy in the state before crude oil was discovered. He said that 5,000 hectares of land of which the State Government owns more than fifty percent has been mapped out by government for intensive commercial farming by the South African farmers to boost agriculture in the state.

Speaking earlier, Mr. Tobie Visser who led the group to Imo state thanked the Governor for the opportunity given him to revolutionize agriculture in the state and promised that he would make the best use of the opportunity using agric nova techniques, a carefully- researched advanced method of commercial farming that would boost commercial farming and animal husbandry in the state within a period of five years.

The Sun