SUNDAY TRUST
August 28, 20T 1
Gassol community welcomes Kenyan farmer in Upper Benue ~'~ I>:-" ~ -.,..""..,..... 4""
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from TtttIdllg!lI.lIf1ngo
ISSOlcommUnltYIS,nold, qui~1 to"" wh~re nothing "mel! hap~ns and whtrt nobudy seems to h.\,c much
G
intemt, so when I yellow and blue helicopler hovered over the
sl«l'yrivu b;mk town lut Friday, Ihe flMplc Wl:rc excited that .t 1ast
someone Im,'ortanl, with perhaps somethlngtllullUy important wu comlng to them. It turned out 10 be the chicken farmf'r from Ola, <>sun Sule, fomlci Ptesldcnt Olusegun Obasan;o and hit self proclaimed friend. Mr KaJvin Burgess. a
rice farmer (rom
Kcn~. ~king
gr«ner pasl' Ires. 1I was il (arming a pedllion to the rich alluvial plains of I.hc Rlvn Benue afOUnd Gassol Loal Go\'crnme:nl Area of Tanllb3 Siaic. Also on the aplOrnlion trip wen: Ihe Minister for Agricultun:. Dr Aklnwunml Ayu Adt$ina. the Governor of T"aJ'nba SI~I !, Pharm. Danbaba Daufulani Suntai, the State Commissioner for Agriculture,
. Mr Anthony lellason, the Area Mannger of Upper Benue River Basin Devdopment Authority (t:JURBDA) AlhaJi Abdullah! A. Aliyu ami five of Mr BurgeS5 f~rmi ng fri~ ld5 {rum Ken)'a, some
of them $OiI .scienlists. The soil scientists took-samples of the soil for eJl:pe.riments as
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they mlde their way through the over 30,000 heclrcs of the green plddy ncld. 11le soU tests wen:
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to ascertain the sui tabUity of the soil for the variely of riCC' they ¥l'ould want to plant when they eventually acquire the land.. The Area Manager !lId detaIls of the acquisition deal werc yC\ to be known butexprC5s~ optimism that when the partnership between the Federal MInistry of Agriculturc and Burgess pulls through. it would revilallu the once nourishing river basin. In a telephone intervIew with our concspondcol in 'alingo. A!haji Allyu lamented thai the rt...e-r basin was und erutUizcd because the Gell. Ibrahim Babangida regime in Ihe lau: 80s whittled down the- capacity orlhe authority 10 fa.ml rice on a large scale and all-)ocar-round ~The inve5Cor5 are experts in the neld and I bdiC'Ye they have what it takes tu tum around the fortunes or the rh'Cr basin. E"en irription {annlng that we no longer ha\'e the- capacity to do, I believe they will be doing that ," he said. Hehowever said Ihe government and t1le investor. Mr BurgC$S who found the Innd -conducive· were ye l to make a former'bi(tfor1he 3D,OOO h«tres ofland 10 the headquarttrs orthe UBRBDA in YoIa. Adamawa Stale,
adding Ihat once that Is done. the deal will be snled and large sale farming will commence in Gassot An official source at the UBRBDA projecl office in Gasso! said poor yields for the past two decades have di5CQuraged the government from {arming on a large scale, dting mismanagement and soil deterioration as poSSible
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The An:a Manager admllted the need {or soilteslS 10 ascertain the fertility level of the soil and finding a means of n:plenlshing tlle nUlrients. He said he had rKOmmended to the headquarters for soU tt$ts to be: carried out before the colI)lng of Obasanjo and his Kenyan farmer friend.. AI the project office in GassoI, abandoned and rusted {arm machinery liuered the apansl\-e compound. The big farm house too looked dilapldatw and unused, all teU-t3le signs of a gO\-ernmenl agency under Ihe\o\~lher.
The to''In itself is d)·ing. It had secn Its beUer dars since the late iOs and Ihe earl y 805 when the river basin boonl& Now old rusted zlnc houses arc crumbling andschoolsm dea.ylng. Thi::orily bank therc- a vestige o{n nancia l
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