The expansive Food Security programme initiated by Governor Rauf Aregbesola received a major boost on Sunday as the World Bank and French Development Agency (AFD) began a week-long tour field trip inspection visit to nine farm settlements across Osun State.
Leader of the Governor?s Advisory Team on Agriculture, Dr. Charles Akinola received the World Bank Team before they embarked on the field trip to Akinleye village, Iwo Farm Settlement and Pataara Fadama Community.
The initiative which is expected to engender multi-million Naira support from the international financial institution and agency was led by Mr. Nicholas Peltiter of the World Bank and the Regional Co-ordinator of Rural Access and Mobility Project, Engineer Ubandona Ularamu.
On arriving Osun State, the team headed for inspection visit to prioritized road network projects and Fadama Agriculture support communities in Iwo zone of the state.
Speaking during the inspection, Dr. Akinola explained that feeder roads being opened up have demonstrated the determination of Governor Rauf Aregbesola to launch bumper food harvest as well as enable farmers to convey their farm produce to the market for sale.
According to him, farmers are scattered around the nine farm settlements located in different part of the state adding that one there is an obstruction mounted by inaccessible roads from the rural areas to urban centres.
He said: ?This is a major push to in crease agricultural production. Take cassava as an example. If you load cassava into a tipper, 80 per cent of it is water. When a truck is carrying cassava, it is carrying water which is very heavy. How much of it can a farmer carry on his Okada (motor cycles)? This is why the decision by Governor Aregbesola to open up these roads is strategic to increased food production?. While at the Ologun-Ebi village where the World Bank had partnered with Fadama to construct ten-room lock up stalls for farmers to store their products for sale of their farm products to traders, Peltier had asked several questions on the relevance of the project to farmers. Responding, the farmers commended the initiative and expressed gratitude to the state government for the upliftment of their communities. Project Officers Fadama, Mr. Ganiyi Adediji and the General Manager of the Osun State Agricultural Development Corporation, Engineer Adelere Oriolowo jointly briefed the team on the developments which the project had brought community associations under the all xxxxxx to the communities. Adediji told the team that the Fadama Community Association usually hold their meetings every Monday had been provided with basic tools including market information to assist them plan for the sales of their products using radio and television programmes to reach their target audience. He also told the team that Fadama also uses cell phones to reach the farming groups explaining that the project has a complete directory of Fadama III project. The General Manager of OSSADEC in turn briefed the team on strategies adopted to open up access to the farming communities hitherto cut off by Odo Oba River and streams. These feeders roads linking the Iwo Farm Settlement spanning about 49 kilometres, Oriolowo explained, have now been linked through the efforts of the state government to enable farmers bring their farm produce into the town and prevent wastages which they used to suffer before now. Members of the World Bank team are expected to hold a meeting with the Osun State Government today to fashion out the modalities for further financial assistance on the Osun Rural and Economic Advancement Programme (OREAP) among others.
No comments:
Post a Comment