S’West govts plan massive land clearing for farming

The South-West Governors, on Wednesday, agreed to strengthen farm security by creating specialised units within the Amotekun corps.

This was part of the resolutions reached at the roundtable on food security hosted by the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria Commission in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

Present at the meeting were the five Commissioners for Agriculture from Ekiti, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, and Oyo states: Ebenezer Boluwade, Bolu Owotomo, Olayato Aribo, Babatola Faseru, and Olasunkanmi Olaleye respectively, while Mr Emmanuel Audu, the permanent secretary of the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture represented the state’s commissioner.

In his opening remarks, the Director General of the commission, Seye Oyeleye, said, “It is important to dispel unfounded rumours that the region has lost its capacity to produce its food.”

He, therefore, urged the commissioners to come up with the recommendations that the state governors can easily implement “within the next few months.”

Other resolutions reached at the meeting were geared towards boosting agriculture.

These include: “massive land clearing, enhanced security, and large-scale production of short-term crops like maize, sweet potatoes, and vegetables.”

Other plans included  “revitalising moribund dams for irrigation, improving mechanisation across the value chain, adopting a cluster farming model, expanding input distribution, and establishing an electronic agriculture database.”

Other participants at the meeting included  Dr. Theophilus Onadeko, the recently appointed Managing Director of the South-West Agriculture Company, SWAgCo, a subsidiary of the Odu’a Investment Company Limited and Chief Kola Akosile from NACCIMA.

The South-West Governors’ Forum had recently met in Lagos, committing to massive industrialisation and agricultural revival in the region.

At the meeting, where the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, was elected the new chairman of the forum to replace the late ex-Ondo State governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, the six governors reiterated their call for the establishment of state police to address the worrying insecurity in the country.

 The governors commended the House of Representatives and the South-West Caucus for their efforts at passing the South-West Development Commission Bill, saying it looked forward to its speedy passage by the Senate.

“The meeting commends President Bola Tinubu on the groundbreaking of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road, the proposed Lagos to Sokoto road and encourages the Federal Government to rehabilitate other Federal roads in the region,” their communique read.