Delta Working to be Food Basket of the Nation – Onyeme

The Deputy Governor of Delta State, Sir Monday Onyeme, has said that the Governor Sheriff Oborevwori-led administration would make the state the food basket of the nation.

Sir Onyeme made the disclosure on Thursday in Asaba during a meeting of the Delta State Food Security Committee.

According to him, “This government is giving agriculture all the seriousness that it deserves and I am sure that the Governor Oborevwori administration will be remembered forever for opening up agriculture in Delta State and for making us the number one state in food production in the country.

“I thank our Governor for setting up this committee, we should be ready to be practical, we should be ready to go to farm and our people will be grateful that there is more than enough food on their tables,” the deputy governor who is the Chairman of the Committee said.

He listed what the committee is expected to do to include, “boosting the Youth Agricultural Programme with a guaranteed off-taker, that is, somebody who will buy off the farm produce; expanding the project beyond the youth and going communal, that is, a situation where the community will give us land, we open it up, prepare it and give back to the community and the community also pays back after the farming  season.

“This going back to farm initiative will make the rural areas feel the impact of good governance, the small-scale farmers will become medium and later, large-scale farmers.”

The Secretary to the State Government, Dr Kingsley Emu, had said that the committee would work to mitigate food insecurity in the state and the country in general.

It was revealed during the meeting that the state has more than 8,000 hectares of land for agricultural purposes.