Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, the governor of Anambra State, has stated that his administration wants to turn the state’s farmers become employers of labor.
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) provided farmers in the state with agricultural enhancement equipment valued at N21 million. Addressing them, 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.
“Professor Chukwuma Soludo’s administration has been referring to the multiplier effect of this empowerment. We suggest you to use the tools effectively.
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.
