Governor Oborevwori Unveils N2bn Special Fund For Farmers

Governor of Delta State, Sheriff Oborevwori, has hinted of his administration’s resolve to disburse N2 billion Special Agricultural Intervention Fund to farmers this month.

The governor disclosed this yesterday after inspecting the Accelerated Agricultural Development Scheme (AADS) at Mbiri Farm Settlement and the Agro-Industrial Park, Aboh-Ogwashi in Ika North-East and Aniocha South local government areas.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mbiri Farm Settlement houses 30 greenhouses for the cultivation of tomatoes and other vegetables, while the Aboh-Ogwashi is for rice milling and other grains processing.

The governor said his administration would continue to improve on the agricultural value chain to ensure food security and job creation in the state.

“If you go through my MORE Agenda, I said that there is going to be sustainable agriculture sector reforms. I also said that the agricultural value chain will be sustained.

“And seeing what the immediate past administration has done here, it gladdens my heart.

“The commissioner for agriculture has briefed me that we have this kind of farm settlement in the three senatorial districts.

“We are going to support them because we have N2 billion Special Agricultural Intervention Fund and we will disburse that money within this month.”

On the state of the access road to the farm settlement, Oborevwori said, “We will work with the Ministry of Works to see how we will manage this road to enable us to take this produce out.

“I asked a question on how many tonnes of tomatoes we can get in each of the green houses and I was told that it’s about three tonnes.

“So, you see that out of the 30 greenhouses we have here, 11 are already cultivated and that will give us about 33 tonnes of tomatoes.

“You see, our people go to the North to get tomatoes and this place has been existing for some decades now. So, this farm settlement is a very good choice to do this greenhouse planting for the production of tomatoes and other vegetables,” he said. (NAN)