Niger State governor, Mohammed Umaru Bago at the weekend took many by surprise as he personally participated in the harvest process in one of the Niger Food Farms powering the government’s Mechanised Agricultural Revolution Agenda.
The governor personally mounted the harvester as he flagged off the Niger Foods corn harvest in what he referred to as a bid to achieve his feed the nation agenda through mechanised agriculture.
Bago was at one of the corn farms of Niger Foods along Bida road and participated in the harvest using a combined harvester.
The governor who participated in the large scale harvest enthusiastically, said there are more than 100,000 hectares of corn fields of Niger Foods spread across the state and that 100 combined harvesters have been deployed across the farms.
He said the use of the combined harvesters would reduce losses between 80 and 90 per cent, even as the State is expecting about a million Metric Tonnes (MT) of corn this year aside from Rice, soybean, sesame, guinea corn and millet.
The governor, therefore, called on the State’s Task Force for Price Control to immediately come up with measures that would curtail the activities of aggregators that stockpile food items in their warehouses, thereby leading to hike in prices of food items.
At the Emi Guye community location of the farm, where he participated in the harvest , he interacted with the people and directed that some basic amenities such as water and solar energy be provided for the community and other adjourning communities to enhance their farming activities.
The village head of Emi Guye, Alh. Usman Mohammed, who spoke on behalf of the people, appreciated the governor and commended him for his development strides in the state.
