As the campaign hots up in Edo State for the scheduled September 10, 2016 governorship election, the All Progressives Congress (APC) guber hopeful, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has expressed his determination to make agriculture drive the state economy if and when elected into office.
In a press release issued in Benin-City at the weekend by the Godwin Obaseki Campaign Organisation, Mr. Obaseki said his administration is poised to make agriculture, the mainstay of the state economy as was the case decades ago.
Our vision, he emphasized, is to strengthen the viability of the business of agriculture once again in Edo State, stressing that the state would leverage on its comparative advantage to become what he called the “agribusiness hub” in Nigeria.
Obaseki further explained that the ultimate mission for willing to push agriculture on the front-burner was to create, after a successful take-off, a minimum of 200,000 job opportunities (conservative estimate) through agriculture and agro-industries in the state over the next four years. The APC candidate maintained that his strategy would be to focus on the key crops that are best adapted to the local environment for large-scale production.
“We have mapped Edo State across key crop lines and will develop Crop Enterprise Zones (CEZ) in the different areas based on comparative advantages and availability of land”, he declared.
“We can no longer afford to accept the dubious statistics of lack of supply of raw materials to food processing factories across Nigeria. In Edo state, we will not only work smart to ensure food and nutrition security for our people, we will ensure supply security for agribusiness investors in Edo state, and Nigeria at large.”
“While our major focus will be on oil palm, rubber, cassava, rice and cocoa, we will also explore growth opportunities in fruits and vegetable farming, aqua-culture, animal husbandry and poultry”, he added.
To actualize his agro-vision, Obaseki also assured that he would put in place effective policy and administrative framework that would provide the enabling environment for agribusiness to thrive in Edo State by enacting investor-friendly policies while also providing the necessary administrative support for facilitating private sector agribusiness investments and effective project implementation.
Roads and general infrastructure development, he also promised, would receive the utmost attention of his administration to improve farmers’ access to both their farms and the market and thereby enhance production, processing and marketing of farm produce along the agricultural value chain.