By Victor Akinkuolie, Ado-Ekiti
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Apparently to tackle what it called post harvest losses by rural farmers, Ekiti State Government reiterated its readiness to embark on aggressive construction and rehabilitations of rural roads across all the local government areas of the state.
Coordinator, Ekiti State Rural Access and Agrictultural Marketing Project (RAAMP), Mr. Rufus Adumo, who disclosed this in Ado-Ekiti, also advocated for proper maintenance culture on Nigerian roads to make them last longer.
Adumo, a former lawmaker in the Ekiti State House of Assembly, said that most of the Fadama roads in the country are in bad shape which had made access to rural areas and farmland difficult to farmers, adding that many farmers in the State suffer huge losses annually due to lack of access from their farms to the markets.
“The project is designed to create access for farmers and those people living in the rural areas to have access to the market in order to sell their farm produce and make more money so that they can contribute to the economy of the State”
According to him, “Ekiti RAAMP”, has three interventions that had been approved which include rehabilitation, backlog maintenance of about 73 kilometers of roads for rural areas for this year.
Adumo pointed out that the body is intervening in some state roads saying the concept is to create access from the farms and prevent post-harvest losses.
He said all interventions on rural access roads would be in all the local government councils already divided in phases, which included “Igirigiri/Ado-Odo-Ado, Ben Folarin/Oke Aso/Ilawe road, Ogotun, Oye/Are, among other roads in the state.
“We will also intervene in some roads totaling about 131 kilometers on “spot improvements” in all the local governments”
The Coordinator said the 12 roads that would be executed may be spread among twelve contractors that would deliver on the roads because this is a performance based contract.
