From Isaac Job, Uyo
Akwa Ibom Commissioner for Agriculture Dr Offiong Offor has said that the state government’s Songhai Farm Model has not been abandoned.
Speaking in Uyo on Tuesday while interacting with our Correspondent, Offor disclosed that the Songhai Farm model will form the basis for the development of modern farms, especially for youths across the 31 local councils in the state.
She explained that the state government is strategic in its efforts to break the monopoly and negative influence of market unions that have been fingered as one of the major causes of the rising cost of foodstuffs in markets across the state.
Offor said one of the focal points in the administration of Pastor Umo Eno is increased food production which will remain the only strategy that could crash the price of foodstuffs in the state.
The commissioner disclosed that over 100 youths have been trained for the implementation of the Songhai Farm Model Initiative while the programme itself is being executed in phases beginning from the nursery phase.
“The Songhai Farm initiative has not died down. You see, farming is not something you snap your finger and everything falls into place. It is a process. The activities at that model farm are in different periods. So what we are currently doing is land preparation for gardening. If you pass through there you will see that a great deal of work has been done.
“So we are walking on timelines and what we are currently doing is cultivating vegetables. So if you go there you will see that the land has been prepared.
“Agriculture is time-bound and you know that the varieties of what we are growing there are improved varieties that take a short time to yield and in improved quantities. So it is a process and we are on course.”
Offor mentioned that the Local Government farm plantations have been taken over by the Councils with most of them now embarking on crops that their area has a comparative advantage.
The commissioner said schools have been supported with improved seedlings to encourage pupils and students to learn early enough how to engage in farming in order to develop an interest in it in furtherance of the state government’s call for a return to agriculture.
Market unions have always been in existence before the recent astronomical rise in food prices while it could be counterproductive to break their influence and monopoly with high-handedness.
“When the Governor introduced the Bulk Purchase Agency, he met with the traders and told them that they are part of the process and that they need to play down on their unions and that one does not necessarily need to belong to the union to sell something in the market.
“You also know that this union thing has been with us for a long time and you can’t just snap your fingers and stop it. But we have dialogued with the traders and resolved that whatever you have to bring to the market let everybody have an opportunity to sell.
“For now, the market union members are agents in the Bulk Purchase programme and have played down their influence in recent times in those commodities covered in the intervention, like garri, beans and rice.
“And that’s why we encourage people to patronize the produce market where the original farmers bring their produce to sell at a price much lower than what you get at the conventional market,” she said.