By Ifeizu Joe
Anambra State government has revealed that its target is to industrialize agriculture in the state and make farmers earn foreign exchange for their farm produce.
The State Commissioner for Agriculture, Hon Ben Odoemena stated this on Wednesday during the inauguration of Ideal Agro Allied Produce Limited, a tuber crop processing company sited in Akwaeze, Anaocha Local Government Area of Anambra State and founded by famous industrialist and businessman, Chief Ikenna Okafor.
Odoemena said the administration of Prof Chukwuma Soludo will support farmers to engage in industrial scale farming as against subsistence farming which only produces for consumption.
He said: “We’ll encourage farmers to farm in commercial scale, and this would not only guarantee food sufficiency, but also earn farmers foreign exchange. With the establishment of tuber crop processing plant, there would be no fear of unsold farm produce rotting away, but would rather be processed and exported.
“I’m happy that my first assignment after swearing is the inauguration of an agro processing plant that will ensure zero wastages in tuber crop. What we have here is the secret of agriculture in civilized climes.
“In Anambra, we want to support industries like this because the Soludo administration has plans to support industrialized farming. We have passed the period of planting harvesting and eating. We want to start cultivating, eating and exporting to enrich ourselves.
“We want industries like this to drive agriculture and support what we intend to do in agriculture because if you harvest and no one buys them, it will waste. But this company has made the job easy for us to talk about the industrialization of agriculture. This is part of the things Anambra will invest in and we will support businessmen like this.
“The technology this company has will help to ensure that your products are processed and exported for you, so that you can earn foreign exchange for your product.”
Earlier, the Chairman of Ideal Agro Allied Produce Limited, Chief Ikenna Okafor in his address stressed that food security is very paramount for any society to succeed, adding that his company recently ventured into yam cultivation in large scale on a 200 plot farm in Ufuma, and has been earning foreign exchange from his produce.
He said the motivation to establish the tuber crop processing plant company was to ensure that there is zero-wastage of unsold farm produce. He stated that the company will process unsold tuber crop for farmers to avoid getting spoilt, packages them for export and remit proceeds to to farmers, after deducting their processing and handling charges.
“We have gotten the approval of food processing agencies in America, Europe, United Kingdom and also NAFDAC in Nigeria. We will process your yams, potato, casava and other tuber crops and will ensure that no part of your crop is wasted. We want to use this to create employment, and also help our farmers export their produce to earn.”
The inauguration was attended by different farmers group across Anambra State, including government officials who inspected the various processing machines parade by the company. The Director of the company, Dr Esther Okafor described the initiative as novel, while praising the chairman for his knack for new discoveries.
