AGRIC BOOST: ANAMBRA STATE GOVERNMENT DISTRIBUTES OVER 1,000,000 TREE SEEDLINGS 21-07-24
By Sadiq Aminu The Federal Government has promised sustained partnership with the Anambra State Government in its agricultural development programmes to boost food sufficiency in the country.
The Minister for Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Mohammad Abubakar, stated this in a message to the launch of the 2024 distribution of 1040,000 (one million and forty thousand) economic tree seedlings to residents of the state.
Represented by the Director Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Anambra State, Mr. Arthur Mbuba, the Minister expressed deeper collaboration with the Anambra State government in the agricultural sector.
He announced that the Federal Government, in conjunction with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), had commenced the distribution over 2,000,000 (two million) bags of assorted bags of fertilizers to famers in all the states of the federation, including Anambra State to increase food productivity.
The Agriculture Minister while extolling Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s administration for its agricultural development programmes, noted that about 2,530 farmers from Anambra State were shortlisted to benefit from the ongoing distribution of farm inputs to facilitate this year’s wet season farming by the federal government.
Governor Chukwuma Soludo, who launched the programme at Fegge in Onitsha South Local Government Area, said that Anambra State intended to distribute about 1,040,000 (one million and forty thousand) seedlings this year, recalling that 1.1 million seedlings were distributed between 2022 and 2023,
The Anambra State Governor explained that the seedlings currently being distributed throughout the 326 political wards comprised 700,000 oil palm seedlings, 200,000 bread fruit seedlings, 50,000 bitter kola seedlings among others.
He further maintained that with the initiative, within the next few years, his administration would have distributed about 10 million economic seedlings, which he said would give rise to a new industrial ecosystem in the state and Nigeria at large.
For his part, the Commissioner for Agriculture in Anambra State, Dr. Foster Ihejiofor, emphasized that government was poised to harness the immense potentialities of the state agricultural sector to drive social progress and create economic opportunities for all.
Africa 247 correspondent gathered that the 2024 distribution of 1,040,000 (one million and forty thousand) seedlings was targeted at one million households in the area.