Ondo State lifts oil palm farmers with N2b to boost production
By JOHNMARK UKOKO
In a bid to boost production and increase output in palm oil production, the Ondo State government has supported oil palm farmers with N2 billion.
Governor Olurotimi Akeredolu made this known during the Cocoa Conference at the Government House in Akure.
Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the governor, Richard Olatunde, said the state government supported palm oil farmers with N2 billion for producers of palm oil to put the state on the world’s map as a major palm oil producer.
He said: “Since February 2017, our government has been striving hard to put everything in place to ensure the sustainability of the scheme and to inculcate the necessary entrepreneurship skills into our youths with a view to making them employers of labour.
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“The state government through the Ondo State Agricultural Enterprises Commission (OSAEC) has provided all necessary requirements like land, equipment, shelter, basic facilities, technology, training and other logistics to achieve the objective, thereby creating a new generation of farmers that can move into the sector and compete anywhere in the world.”
Also, the governor said his administration was making efforts to see that the state become the largest producer of palm oil in the country, adding that 70,000 hectares of land had been allocated to investors for palm oil and cocoa production to make agriculture more attractive to the youths.
On the security situation of the state, Akeredolu noted that the Amotekun Corps stations would be built in farming areas to protect farmers, saying the state government had approved the recruitment of additional 350 personnel into the Amotekun Corps to strengthen its operations.
The governor also said the state had trained no fewer than 400 indigenous and Fulani Pastoralists on the feedlot operational system of livestock management at the instance of the state government in partnership with the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and the United Nations (UN).
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