The Cross River State government will significantly improve its revenue base through the export of cocoa, the state governor, Senator Liyel Imoke, has said.

As a policy of the present government, some people could be expected to own at least, 10 hectares of farmland, to encourage other natives to go into farming.
He said that it was time young people understood that farming could be a source of wealth because it was disheartening to see graduates of agriculture opting for banking rather than creating jobs for themselves through farming.

A statement from the office of the governor on Wednesday, quoted him as saying that his government would pay attention to the construction, reconstruction and rehabilitation of feeder roads and provide fertiliser at subsidized rates to the farmers.

Imoke, who gave the indication while receiving members of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria in the state, also spoke of the plans by his government to provide the needed infrastructure to sustain and increase the gains of agriculture in the state.
He said cocoa, which was produced in commercial quantity in some parts of the central senatorial district of the state, would be processed ion the state before export.
According to him, ”farming if well done, is a good way to do business and go with the message that government appreciates farming and our state will not only be sufficient in food production but in food exportation while cocoa will be processed here before export”.

He said there was the need to take agriculture beyond subsistence farming to a level where it could sustain the economy of the state, stressing that it was his desire to ensure that the state became the leader in agriculture in the country.

Source: punch