Bumper harvest awaits Ondo farmers — Adefarati
By Fatima Muraina
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The Ondo state Commissioner for Agriculture, Otunba Adegboyega Adefarati has assured that farmers would experience bumper harvest in 2021.
Adefarati spoke in an interview with The Hope yesterday in Akure.
He said the state has queued into many agricultural World Bank assisted programmes which will be fully implemented this year.
Among these is the LIFE -ND where 4,250 youths would be engaged for the next six years.
The programme which is sponsored by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) had earmarked $10M to take care of farmers who are into cassava, Cocoa, and Poultry.
He also said that the L-Press programme for the live stock will be implemented from the first quarter of the year to cater for goat and Sheep, poultry and piggery to enhance about 5,000 farmers in the state for the next six years.
The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) sponsored programme for Cocoa and Oil palm value chains, Adefarati declared would also kick off this year.
The state, according to the commissioner is encouraging farmers to go into irrigation farming , moving away from rain-fed agriculture to ensure that there is food sufficiency in the state.
While praying for a better friendly climate for farmers this year, Adefarati encouraged people to go into agriculture which he said is the only way out of the economic situation in the world over.
The President of Ondo state Farmers Congress, who is also the Chairman of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (ALFAN), Mr Abayomi Monilari said farmers are hoping for a bumper harvest this year.
His words: ” We hope for a better farming season, many farmers are into Irrigation system of farming now. Many are cultivating seriously and massively .
“Our farmers are being encouraged with the little fund on ground,” he said.