By Fisayo Akinduro, Osogbo

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Osun State on Tuesday distributed 100,000 cocoa seedlings to about 1,000 farmers in Osun State.
The state government also distributed agro-chemicals, hand-spraying tools, limes and other farm inputs to about 1,000 farmers across the Local Government areas of the state.
The government also inaugurated Osun Broilers Outgrowers Production Scheme III (OBOPS) to enhance capacity of livestock production and turn around fortune of the scheme to be more profitable and attractive to farmers in the state.
Farmers in each of the Local Government area across the state got 1,500 cocoa seedlings as priority was given to the Cocoa Producing Local Government areas of the state.
This is even as the beneficiaries lauded the administration for continuously prioritising agriculture to retain its position as the mainstay of the state’s economy.
Speaking at the occasion, Governor Gboyega Oyetola said government’s efforts were geared towards actualising its set objectives to reposition agriculture and make Osun the food basket of the nation in general and Southwest in particular.
He added that the initiative was designed to support farmers and cushion the effects of the erratic weather that occurred last year, which resulted in prolonged drought and flooding in different parts of the state.
Distributing hundreds of thousands of the farm inputs freely to farmers at the Agriculture Demonstration Centre, Aisu, in Ede South Local Government area of the state, Governor Oyetola noted that the initiative was aimed at actualising the agricultural revolution agenda of the government.
In his remarks, the Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Dayo Adewole, assured that the state government would be supplying farmers buds, day-old chicks and feeds so as to aid farmers in launching the scheme in their respective domains.
He disclosed that the Governor had equally put in place workable mechanisms to embark on a tour of milk collection centres across the state.
He urged farmers in to support government in its efforts to revitalise the agriculture sector, particularly livestock production in the state.
In his remarks, the Chairman of All Farmers Association of Nigeria, Osun State Chapter, Alhaji Sulaiman Araokanmi, commended the prompt intervention of government to revamp agriculture in the state.
While commending the State government on the kind gestures extended to them, some of the beneficiaries who expressed delight, lauded Oyetola-led Administration.
Some of the beneficiaries of the cocoa intervention programmes, Mr. Omoloye Akanmu, Mr. Rabiu Omowole; Alhaji Adesanya Aderemi; Mrs. Christiana Ogunsaya; Alhaja Asifat Bukola and Mr. Adedayo Kayode, said the initiative would go a long way to rekindle their hope in agribusiness in the state.