The Cross River Government has inaugurated Project Grow, an agricultural initiative aimed at enhancing food production and addressing poverty in the state.
Mr. Johnson Ebokpo, the Commissioner for Agriculture and Irrigation Development, made the disclosure on Tuesday in Calabar at a training program on good agronomic practices.
The training, facilitated by Project Grow in partnership with Flour Mills, brought together academics, farmers, and other stakeholders in the agriculture sector.
Ebokpo said that Project Grow was designed to achieve massive food production, tackle hunger and poverty, and improve the people’s living standards.
The commissioner said that the Gov. Bassey Otu-led government was fully committed to evolving programs that would improve the quality of life in the state.
“We have had some agricultural schemes in the past that could not fully achieve their objectives; this project will fill the gaps left by such programs.
“We have had the agro-processing initiative, the productivity enhancement scheme, and we have also had the livelihood improvement support project, among others.
“These programs were not able to add up to 30 percent to our productivity; we did not see any significant advancement,” he said.
Ebokpo stated that Project Grow was’more than just an agricultural program’, but a concept aimed at placing Cross River on the path of prosperity.
“This is an initiative that seeks to eliminate fiscal waste; it also seeks to subsidise productivity,” he said.
The commissioner urged the project partners to adhere to the off-take agreement by assisting in the development of essential infrastructure for the scheme.
Also speaking, the project director, Mr. Dennis Ikpali, said that the project was well-thought-out and would be given adequate implementation.
He said that through the project, the state government had established a credit guarantee of up to N30 billion for farmers, businesses, and service providers in agribusiness.
Ikpali said that one of the project’s early successes was the development of 12,000 hectares of land in Odukpani for farmers to commence production.
He said that the government had also conducted digital soil mapping to enable climate-smart agriculture and to minimize guesswork.
“The project targets no fewer than 100,000 farmers, so there is need for collaboration among extension agents, industry experts, academia, and farmers to achieve this goal,” he said.
He also encouraged farmers involved in rice, maize, cassava, animal fodder cultivation, and aquaculture to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the project.
