The Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, has said that the launch of MITROS Rice (Mission To Rebuild Ogun State), Ofada Rice, was in line with the Federal Government’s policy of self-sufficiency.
Amosun who disclosed this at the official launch of MITROS Rice in Abeokuta, the state’s capital recently, said the state government is intensifying its contribution to the attainment of Federal Government’s vision of attaining self-sufficiency in food production.
According to him, Ogun State would vigorously pursue the needed partnerships and collaborations with other state governments, with the Federal Government, and most importantly, with the private sector, in order to actualise the vision.
He added that the state would not only be known as the industrial hub of the country but also the agricultural hub, adding that steps were being taken to restore the cultural heritage the state, which was known for the production of the famous Ofada Rice.
He said, “we have established three processing mills in each senatorial district of the state including Sawonjo in Ogun West, Asero in Ogun Central and Ijebu North East in Ogun East, aimed at ensuring easy access to processing mills by our local farmers towards promoting quality assurance of the product. It thus becomes imperative for a people-centred government to come up with policies and implement programmes that will ensure that our people are fed and fed well.
“It is for this reason that agricultural production that will lead to industrialisation remains a major plank of our five cardinal programmes that make up the ‘Mission to Rebuild’ Ogun State (MITROS). We see agriculture as the fulcrum for achieving the much desired wealth creation, employment generation and attainment of self-sufficiency in production of the food commodities for which Ogun State has an economic advantage,” he said.
In her welcome address, the Commissioner for Agriculture, Mrs. Adepeju Adebajo, said the MITROS Rice was born out of the vision of the present administration in Ogun State towards ensuring food sufficiency.
Adebajo listed the benefits derivable from the production of the rice as poverty eradication in the state, improvement of the well-being of people in the state and total elimination of rice importation into the country.
She called on all indigenes of the state and indeed all Nigerians to patronise the locally made Mitros Rice.
In their separate remarks, the Olu and Paramount ruler of Yewaland, Oba Kehinde Olugbenle, the Alake and Paramount ruler of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo, and the Akarigbo of Remoland, Oba Babatunde Ajayi unanimously commended the present government in the State for launching and commissioning the first pyramid of rice in South West Nigeria, praying that many more successes be recorded before the end of the administration.