Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele has hailed Cross River State Governor Ben Ayade’s agricultural revolution programme, noting that the efforts have made the state a force to be reckoned with.
Emefiele, who spoke at the launch of the 2019 wet season rice farming programme at the Ayade Industrial Park in Calabar, was represented by the bank’s Calabar Branch controller, Chuks Sokari. According to him, “the resoluteness to agriculture by Governor Ayade has created hallmarks which the entire world recognises”.
He said: “The seriousness demonstrated by the governor in the renewed zeal to project and promote agriculture has made Cross River a leading state in the comity of states in the nation.”
Ayade urged Cross Riverians to go into aggressive farming, insisting that the only way to industrialise the state was to do a balance between the green and white collar jobs which would lead to agro industrial revolution.
“The only way we can industrialise is by agro industrial revolution. I am pleading with everyone, if you don’t own a farm you are doing a disservice to all the industries I have set up. Let us prove to Nigeria that we are really the best, take agriculture seriously and prove that we are a shining example,” Ayade said.
The governor, who praised President Muhammadu Buhari for his agriculture initiative, and Emefiele for providing N10.8 billion for the state, promised that the state remains ready to partner the Federal Government to drive a digital rice planting system.
Ayade added: “Any man or woman with only one source of income has already prepared his or her roadmap to failure as you cannot blame your star or God. If everyone here owns a farm, Cross River will not need to depend on federal allocation, and that is what I want to do before I leave office, to see the state not depending on federal government.
“Where will I get the maize, soya beans and other raw materials for the factories we have set up if we are all wearing tie and going to office? We have the soil, the land, fertility, capacity and financial support, so let us do a balance between the green collar and white collar jobs as nothing stops me in the morning to be in the office and in midday on my farm.”
President of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria Alhaji Aminu Goranyo praised Ayade for his rice production initiatives, saying the he stands out as the first governor to train over 1,000 farmers.
In his presentation on ‘Sustaining agricultural business, the Cross River model’, Chairman of CSS Farms and Trading Centre, Keffi, John Kennedy Opara, noted said: “Ayade remains a blessing to many people as God has used him to make agriculture number one in the country. The farmers trained here have seen the future, hence Cross River will be first agricultural state in this country. The future we did not work for, we cannot capture, hence we must do the needful for a sustainable agricultural revolution.”
He advocated high quality training, technology and creativity, strategic partnership as well as monitoring and evaluation for external services as panacea for sustainable agriculture.