Cross River State government has earmarked 100,000 hectares of land for cassava cultivation.
The state government said with increased cultivation of cassava crops, the state can take pride in place in food production and rank as the largest producer of cassava in Nigeria.
Governor Bassey Edet Otu stated this yesterday in Calabar at the flag-off of the cassava value chain implementation programme.
Represented by the secretary to the state government, Prof. Anthony Owan Enoh, the governor said 90 percent of the state population is involved in cassava cultivation and processing making it the major staple food in the state.
Otu said, “No state in Nigeria can compare with Cross River in cassava production and our economy is dead without cassava because it is the highest agricultural revenue earner for our people.”
In his remarks, the commissioner for agriculture and irrigation, Dr Johnson Ebokpo, said virtually every household in the state survives by taking one form of cassava meal in a day.
Ebokpo said the Cassava Draft Policy is a vital instrument which will get the backing of the Cross River State House of Assembly to ensure that investors and partners benefit from investments in the cassava value chain.
