THE NATION, 17 AUGUST, 2012

SACRIFICE

APPEAL

Okorocha urges leaders on sacrifice _'ma

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Page 45

FRIDAY, AUGUST 17,2012

s late_ The m ill wu install ed by Japanes( Internationa l Cooperad. ,n .~gency orCA) and comlnissionoo in 1996 but was soor I bandoned.

Govern.), Peter Obi said the ha ndover was t he culminal 0' of three years of negotiatiol l5.

The gO\'I".nor said one: major concern :o r runl was the fact that the nill wqu ld offer employru nt to many Ni~eriaru; t nd help to feed the nahon.

Anambra, Fed Govt revive rice mill HE abandoned rice mill at Omor, Ayamelum Loca l Governmen t Area of Anambra State is coming baclc to life, thanks to the effort of the state and federal governments in addition to other partners.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Developme nt, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina said the mill, which was abandoned over 18 years ago, worked for only 10 hours due to poor infrastructures.

HOrnor mill in Anambra

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From Odogwu Emekl Odogwu, Nnewl State ... worked 10 hours in 10 years, meaning it worked one hour per year because of low power and poor infrastructures," he said in Abuja.

But the Min ister added that N3.2b has been p'Tovided to restore the rice mIlling facility and provide necessa ry infrastructures through coll abo rations betwee n four

ministries of the federa l government with Anamb ra State

as well as private partners.

The Ministries are Federa l Ministry of Works, Federal Ministry of Power, Federal Ministry of Water Resources and the Agriculture ministry.

History was made in Anambra when the federal government handed over the biggest rice mill in West Africa capab le of processing not less than 15,000 metric tons of rice yearly 10 the

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for themselves, the ir i as well as helping to f3lst the stall"s productIVity ind",.

fi~~el:~ram~e~~:5i:ir~~~~~ p loyed youths in the smle before II rolled out its job-creation schemes.. The governmen t set up the Yo uth Volunteers Corps through which aboul5,iXXl were employed into various deJn'rtmwts of government. There was also the Young En tre pre neurs

Scheme through whose gTa,duates were lTained in business and provided with funds to set up their {'rivale firms. The Skill Acquisition Centre was yet another measull!' to create jobs, in wkich over SOO youths ilcquired differenl entrepreneurial skills.

The lalesl in the series of pn> ~rammes initiated by the adminIStration is the Youth Commercial Agriculture Development Programme (YCAD). ThiS programme, apart from engaging the youth in commerciar farm-

ing. is also ta rgeled a l increasIng food production.

Essentially, YCAD is to "systematically incentivise youths into sustainable commercial agriculture. The ileH

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- Gove rnor Fayemi (middlelshows of( C"-S5olV" tubers h"",.ested from the stilte ilgric ,cheme

Ekiti tackles unemployment • Youths take to commercial farming By tfedayo Sayo

Settlement where of land have been oh. s:rognmm~ Bo, there is e extension of power supply to the settlement

to man life easier for the [;trmers in the settlement and to encounge more youths to take part in the pr.,. gramme. Undu it, ~'armers are 6eing provided with land preparation, tractor services, inputs services and marketing services at subsidised prices".

The government under its land preparation and investment scheme

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will acquire, prepare land and share ilrnong young farmers in blocks under"YCAD programme.

AI the end of the harvest season, each beneficiary i5 expecte<1 to pay back the facility in lUrid. The YCAD programme will take care of the markeling responsibilities and post-harvest losses. Benefit ing youths may sell their produce to Fountain Agriculture Marketing Agency (FAMA) or CWilomen of

ices on 5eJ\ iced blocks; "Supply of com,", ttia1 farm management skills and Citpadty building services by Ur-IDI'-AMSCO Team; "Technical t uppOr1 from Agricul· ture Exle:uion Staff of the state AgricultLra l Development Programme, F, \DAMA, Ministry of Agricultule a nd Niltura l Re5OUrC."e5,r"l tnerService Providu; ·Training of fanners free of cha rge input usage by service erov,ders, wheR! the need arise; Training In other agricultural enlerpriSl! !1uch as poultry, fisheries, aqua.cu.lture and her: keeping for S.JI' p\f menlary income;

their choice.

Essentially, the components of the YCAD lilclude: • AIlOOltion of ploughed service b locks to partIcipating youth farmers fo r commercial ilgricul1un.1 production; 'Structure all()cation of land with expansion opportunities; "Supply ofinputs 5uch as seeds, agro-chemicals, fertiliz· ers. sacb and services to facilitate marketing of produce by FAMA; "5~pply agncultural cultlvil;lion servlI::es s uCh as tractor services, harvesting srrvices and other serv-

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THE NATION FRIDAY, AUGUST 17, 2012

N[W~nra

Anambra, Fed Govt revive rice mill • Continued from Page 4S

to include Anambra Sta te in

He tnanked ;1\ those that

Commodity

Out-grower

helped 10 ma ke the handover

Development and Extension

possible. pledgin;J not relent on

Service Centre (CODEq since the

the s late's commitment

stale, according to him, has met

~dicale ('lI;1:n!mE-

to

poverty.

The government also seized the opportunity I ~ appeal to the

Federal Ministry of Agricul ture , \

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all the requirements. He also appealed to the Federal Government to hasten the construction of silos in the sta le.

Obi has been praised for his relentless effort in getting the federal government to hancf over

q r. Adesina th~r~~d~t.,a inspected the rice the rice mill. describing Governor Obi as a miln of vision, committed and ml I d ef,Cn°b'mg dedicated leader who is ver)' Governor Obi as passionate in developing and a m~ o:f vision ~~~~tioning the agricultural pointed out that Obi conunl'tted hasAdesina sustained prudent and an ~ 1e~d er IiV~·Ii· transparent management of 0 IS resources. verv Rass ionate The t..Hnister of Agriculture his Ministry would equally abo"u~'t d e've1op10ng said work with the Ministry of Water ' ti"· Res ources to resusci tate the an d epOfiJ. onmg collapsed Anambra Irrigation the agrid J..ltural Project at Hite-Ogwari 10 drive the Inill. He lam",nted that such fi ector in c riti cal and viable mill , with ins~ected f

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' Obi (left) receivH the ins truments of the m ill h;mdove r Crom Prof Sheik Ahmed Abdullah the economy and reduce rice importation m the country. has lying wash~ while the country ~roaned undertheburdenofrice Importation at the cost of over

N360b annually.

Obi called for integrated and comprehensive turnaround of the project that would re vita lise tJle mill, the irrigation project the

canal and access roads . H e assu red that the state government is committed to fulfillin~ . its side of the partners lp.

I I~anlbra J .=========-~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ ::~~::~~::~~::~~ ~~ Ekiti· tac kles unemp1oyment n;;;I"~;~~~;;':':~:::';"':~= j

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capacity to turn out at least 30.000 metric tons of rice annua ll y. create jobs, s trengthen

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'Structured disbul'S!ment of loan using voucher an( c.irect payment systeIlJS; I ~truch' n'<i repayment system for Joan acquired using estates and pI'(lCeed.; trom farm.

Speaking whil! p resenting a credit facility of 'II·ISQ million to the fil'S! ~et of 1511 participants in the YCAO prO);I'ilJrune on Monday August 6) 2012, th!! tate governor, Dr lCa vode Faye.n stressed the need [(,r g o\'emrr ellts to develop a base for an indu:;ive and resil· ient ecl)lU)mj' by diversifying the economy 1through a focused commercial agricultw al development a'\.l~d a.

______ _____________ vidual business.

The go\'erno r who was in company of the Minister o f Agriculture, Dr Akinwumi Adesina said ·without effective policies and agenda on youth de\'elopment, the benefits of economic srowth will continue to bypass a sl$nificant proportion of Nigerians, mcluding our teeming population of youths.

"Deliberate policies focused on building capaCity and incentivising youth into agriculture must be embarked upon. Policies that wiU aa;gressivcly create an enabling en\'!ronment for youth participation in agric-business should be the bedrock of our diversification.

HAs a governor, my focus and attention is on deliberate policy measures and targeted investments aimed at facilitating the participation of youths in practicmg modem agriculture, as commercial en· tity.

"This is currently being framed by my aggreSSive managerial and entreprencul'Ship capacity building r:~as~~~_ for emergent farmers He told the graduate farmers that the mana~erial and entrepreneurship trainln& programme they had just gone thtough was to prepare them for a future in agricu lture and consolidate their knowledge as rommercial agric-business manag~.

He hoped tha t the new farmers will be successful in their new fOWld

vocation sayinll ·be rest assured that my admimstration will provide a stron g and protected enabling environment, with required access to resources nceded to susta in and give en trepreneurial youths with the advantage required In operating successful agricultural busmess H

He added that he Ivill not relent in his efforts to ensure that access

to finance, developed land. technol· ogy and necessary market are guaranteed.

HLet me announce to you that I hal'e approved almost NSOO million credit facilities, at a single digit in-

~:~~:!~i~~~n~~ C,:rg~~~

tive Union. Today you will all~ve access to an expandable credit facility of not less than NI.4 million each to boost commercial production of high value crop such as rice, cassava, oil palm and cocoa he s tressed.

Fayemi further noted that his administration with the support of Uni ted Nations J)el'elopment Programme (UNDP) had fmalized the engagement of the service of a business support manager to consolidate management of their indiH

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management skills, will help in hand·fiolding them to drive a suc· cessful commercial agncultural operation.

Be5ides, he pointed out that with several millions of naira commUted to the purchase of fMTT1 equipment such as planters , boom spra yers, seed drills among othel'S, the manager will support them in the usage of these equipments for commercial plantation.

The governor explained that with almost N2 million for them to open iO hectare land for commercial operation, the state government had made adequate preparation for the provision of already developed land for each of the partidpants5ilYing 1000 hectares of newly a~uired land is being 0j.ned and developed into lraclorab I" land for their uptake. Also over 2,000 hectares of goverrunent land has been allocated ror their operation and O1ltivation.

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You will all have access to an expandable credit facility of not less than Nlo4 million each to boost commercial production of high value crop such as rice, cassava, oil palm and cocoa

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