ABRAKA – The Delta State Government on Sunday commended the Federal Government for starting its cassava project in Abraka, Ethiope East Area of the state.
The state Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Mr Misan Ukubeyinje, made the commendation in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abraka while inspecting the farm.
The commissioner noted that the benefits of the project to the state, in particular and the country in general, would be enormous.
He said that the demonstration phase of the project would entail the cultivation of 500 hectares of cassava.
He said: “We are happy that this first phase has absorbed 20 youths from the area to assist the two Brazilian agricultural engineers in the planting of cassava.
“As you can see the process is a mechanised one where tractors are used to clear, harrow and prepare the land as well as plant the cassava stems with minimal human assistance.
“At this stage not many hands are required, but the value chain on cassava will create more than 500 jobs in this location alone when the project comes on full stream.’’ [eap_ad_2] Ukubeyinje said that when the project became fully harnessed, it would not only create jobs, but also create wealth and generate foreign exchange for the country.
“The state will benefit more from the project when the entire expanse of land spanning over 6,000 hectares is cultivated, with the mills put in place to process the produce.
“Our target is to produce high quality starch and other by-products from cassava for sale and export.
“Processing the cassava will help to check glut and the price of the commodity will be reasonable to keep the investors in business.
“This will directly and indirectly create more than 500,000 jobs,” he said.
Ukubeyinje urged the people to embrace government’s agricultural transformation agenda as one of the ways to diversify the county’s economy.
The commissioner said that the commencement of the project was an indication that the federal government’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) was on full course. (NAN)[eap_ad_3]
