EKSG attracts $300m investment in agric

The governor also boosted the sector with a credit facility of N80 million and tractors worth N100 million as part of activities to mark Fayemi’s third anniversary in office.Speaking at the 2013 World Food Day held in Ado Ekiti, the governor disclosed that the investments are from reputable indigenous and international agricultural institutions including Agricultural […]

The governor also boosted the sector with a credit facility of N80 million and tractors worth N100 million as part of activities to mark Fayemi’s third anniversary in office.
Speaking at the 2013 World Food Day held in Ado Ekiti, the governor disclosed that the investments are from reputable indigenous and international agricultural institutions including Agricultural Company (AGCO) which has partnered with the state government for the establishment of 2000 hectares of mechanized rice, soybean, and cassava farms while New Vision Technology is establishing a $165 million agric city.
Fayemi  added that Dutch Agricultural Development and Trading Company (DATCO) is working on the establishment of high quality cassava flour processing factory, Vegefresh has taken over the moribund Orin cassava processing plant and has successfully upgraded the capacity of the plant from 10 tons to 60 tons per day production while others including Datlex, RENL, GIL, Arewa Cotton, and Spectra among others have partnered with the state to use the vision of the present administration to make the state the food basket of southwest Nigeria.
He stressed that the cheques and tractors being distributed are targeted at beneficiaries whose operations will impact the agric sector, even as he stated the zero-tolerance of his government to non-farmers who hijack the benefits and supports meant for genuine farmers.
While lauding the support of multilateral institutions including the World Bank, African Development Bank, UNDP, DFID and FAO for the various drives in the sector, the governor noted that the Youth Commercial Agriculture Development (YCAD) programme has capacitated some 250 youths to cultivate 1,900 hectares of cassava, 53,000 cocoa seedlings, 109,560 oil palm seedlings, 60,000 fingerlings, 6,230 kilogrammes of fish and 60,000 broilers.