Mr Uchenna Orji, the Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources in Ebonyi, has appealed to the World Bank to extend the Fadama initiative to all the 13 Local Government Areas of state.
Orji, who made the appeal on Tuesday in Abakaliki in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), explained that the extension would ensure food sufficiency in the state.
He described the Fadama initiative as `unique,’ saying the intervention had helped in solving some of the multiple challenges faced by rice producers in the state.
“Currently, Fadama is being practiced in seven local government areas and it is doing wonderfully well because farmers have benefited from it.
“We want the World Bank to expand the initiative to the remaining five local government areas so that by 2017, we should be talking about 10,000 hectares to 10,000 farmers,’’ Orji said.
He said that the state was also partnering IFAD and Central Bank to assist farmers.
“We want the state to regain its status as the largest clusters of rice mill in West Africa,’’ he said.
The Commissioner told NAN that the government had just purchased three parboiling machines worth eight tones each for the three senatorial districts to boil rice produced by farmers.
He said that the ministry recently purchased 13 bulldozers and 40 tractors to support farmers and make rice farming an all season activity.
He said that the government would support massive production, processing and marketing of rice to attract youths into farming.