By Fatima Muraina

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Ondo State Government has been urged to utilize its natural endowments maximally to boost her economy.
The Executive Director, National Center for Agricultural Mechanization (NCAM) Muyideen Yomi Kasali gave the advice in an interview with The Hope .
He said the state is predominantly known for several crops among which he said include cocoa, oil palm, cassava and many others.
His words; “If government can utilize the resources to establish agro industries and also purchase equipment and distribute to farmers, it will help to boost the state’s internally generated.
He said mechanized agriculture will increase productivity and also contribute to her Gross Domestic Product(GDP).
This, he noted could only be realised by deploying technology to the farms .
While emphasizing that most of the farmers are poor peasant farmers, he stressed the need for government to encourage them to embrace technology-driven agriculture which he said would increase productivity.
He urged farmers to group themselves to clusters like cooperative groups so that they could pull resources together to purchase equipment.
” They will be able to purchase the equipment, distribute risk and the profit when money is made”
According to him, it is not easy to produce the equipment because the prime movers are not produced in Nigeria, noting that the country’s steel industry is still not well developed.
He advised governments to subsidize the high cost of equipment for easy access for farmers as they are too expensive to purchase.
“Some equipment are as low as N80,000 but they can still not acquire them. That is why we established about 11 processing Shell machines in Kwara state for women and the government later partnered us for more production having seen the resultant effect and the productivity.”
He disclosed that his agency will produce a cassava processing machine at a center in Info state as he called on the state government to collaborate with them for more production.
Speaking with The Hope during the Farmers Field Day held in Akure, a farmer, Mr Femi Falaye described the field day as a very good one, saying the equipment will encourage farmers and youths into farming.
He said farmers will want government to assist them in purchasing the equipment because they do not have money for the procurement.
He also added that farmers will appreciate any form of assistance in form of loans or grants, saying they will ensure prompt repayment of any loan given.