WorldStage Newsonline– Ondo State Government has disclosed plans to establish an agricultural company for food security and job creation in the state.
Mr Wemimo Akinsola, Senior Special Assistant to Ondo State Governor on Agriculture and Agribusiness told newsmen in Akure on Wednesday that the government’s plan was to save the state from hunger.
He said that it was high time the state stopped being primary producers of goods, but now, it would venture into production of the farm produce to generate employment for the citizens.
The SSA, who praised the governor for his moves for food sufficiency, said food security was a paramount in the state economy and the people’s wellbeing.
He said that for the state to flourish more, food processing in Agric business was where the profit lied and the government was sensitising the people to start processing their products.
“We need to follow up on food production and make sure that our people can actually benefit. It is from production that you make employment.
“So we are proposing to have a Sunshine agro-company; the company will be run by people that have notable companies and good investors here; they will build the infrastructure here.
”For us to be able to invest into agriculture, we need to build a proper infrastructure for agriculture; we are looking at the tractor zones in the three central districts,’’ he said.
Akinsola said that the project execution would be private and government partnership, adding that once the planned project is achieved, ‘’we can have food security.’’
He said that once the company kicked off, the state would not export its farm produce to other states but worked with the farmers for processing and make market available for them.
According to him, we can produce and process what we need in the state; we are building the infrastructure and we are building the processing of our primary production.
Akinsola said that forests in the state were safe as the military has been deployed to ensure that farmers were safe and also to encourage more youths to go into farming.
“Security personnel are in our forests right now, securing the place for us to be able to take the land back from encroachers.
“So we’re getting investors who have the capacity to move in there and start to clear large areas of land; that will enable other farmers to move in and do work.
“We are improving our electricity; since the governor came, electricity has been working in the southern senatorial district; we are bringing a project to the south and it’s employing 6,000 to 7,000 people.
Akinsola, however, said that off-takers were available for ethanol and they would use about 12,000 hectares of land in the south as they were the major players and would also employ a lot of people.
