…COMMENDS UMO ENO’S BACK-TO-FARM INITIATIVE
By UKPONG UKPONG
A group of young professionals in Akwa Ibom State, under the aegis of Emerging Leaders Platform, EL, plans to put an end to the scarcity of staple foodstuffs majorly garri, maize, beans, vegetables, and others by partnering with government and other relevant private sector players.
According to the group’s National Coordinator, Engr. Bobby Ekanem, who spoke with this reporter recently, the Emerging Leaders launched its farm project by acquiring, through the assistance of the Cross River Basin Development Authority, CRBDA, 20-hectare farmland in Ikot Ntung, Nsit Ubium Local Government Area.
“Right there in Nsit Ubium, we’ve cultivated maize and cassava on 2 out of the 20-hectare land as a demonstration farm.
” These are staple foods needed in the State. Currently, we’ve harvested part of the cassava, processed it into garri, and bagged it. The good thing is that we’re not selling because it was a demonstration.
“So, the idea is to send out to various persons of value in our society to make them realize the effectiveness and efficacy of supporting young people in our society to contribute towards development.
So far so good, we’ve had a lot of applause. We just finished an interview on Excel FM and one thing we harp on is investing in the ongoing agriculture revolution especially involving the youths in every aspect of it.”
He thanked the state governor, Pastor Umo Eno, for the success of the demonstration farm, saying “We thank His Excellency, Governor Umo Eno, who was heavily represented by his son, Rehoboth, who eventually became our Chairperson.
“Our being able to get most of our partners like the CRBDA, TATA (International) Nigeria and others was because there was significant government involvement.
The Honourable Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. (Mrs.) Offiong Offor, and her colleague, the Honourable Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Comrade Ini Ememobong have been very instrumental to the success of our demonstration farm.”
Baring his mind on the back-to-farm initiative of the government, he pointed out that “it is a very commendable and laudable initiative of the governor. It underscores the agricultural revolution of the ARISE agenda. What we would love to do, which is our responsibility as Emerging Leaders, is to add value to all these policies and initiatives of government.
Ekanem described the Emerging Leaders platform as “a belief system that tends to cluster youths from different disciplines and professions for the sole purpose of adding value to our society through the establishment of clusters which reflect various sectors of the economy from agriculture to education to legal to manufacturing to engineering and others”.
“All our clusters are formed representing and imaging the real sectors of the economy for full participation and efficient contribution to growth.” He stated.
Engr. Bobby, who doubles as a certified agribusiness consultant, disclosed further that “one sector we are playing in the agribusiness is the pre-upstream sector.
“These sector categories are mostly training, seminars, and general farm education. This is important, as everyone is going back to the farm and even some states have declared a state of emergency on food insecurity thus trying to make citizens embrace food production and farming.
” With this in view, one strategic thing to do is to teach farmers new methods of farming.
“One of our experiences in Ikot Ntung was the same when we now understood that we need to make a farming community and one way to start this is investing in the pre-upstream sector where farmers are well trained on new agricultural practices, well trained on how to take care of themselves, trained related social and health issues like gender-based violence, HIV/AIDS and all of these things.
“This will give them a sense of belonging that they are part of the program. With this, there will be less need for campaigning to get people back to the farm because the farmers will now see themselves as valuable people. They’ll function more in that ecosystem”. He enthused.
Looking forward to attracting development partners for the group, the National Coordinator, said “We have had talks with several prospective partners within the state, nationally, and even international bodies.
” The idea behind the demonstration farm was to have a NEEDS assessment. When starting such a project, you must begin at the demonstration level where you study the needs of the project. We’ve been able to use data mining and information we got out to know which aspects we need to put more effort into, where we got it wrong, and how to correct it. So, from our last production, we’ve been able to pinpoint where we need to do what.
“When we’re going to board our partners, we even have the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), who came to us through their Agroallied department. They were at the flagged off of the demonstration farm and were enthusiastic and ready to partner with Emerging Leaders”. We’re also appealing to every player in the agribusiness to partner with us because it is worth it and will solve issues of unemployment and youth restiveness while creating wealth. We’re making farming very attractive, easy to engage, and profitable.”
