BY SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
A Lawmaker, Honourable Harrison Ogara representing Igbo-Eze South Constituency in Enugu State House of Assembly has called on members of his constituency to embrace agriculture as a means of breaking off the cycle of poverty ravaging Nigeria today.
Hon. Ogara made this call recently at a free agricultural empowerment training for farmers in his local government area.
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The training which was held recently at St. Mary Catholic Church, Ibagwa-Aka, headquarters of Igbo-Eze South Local Government Area of the state was in partnership with South Field Agro Network International and the Enugu State Agricultural Development Programme (ENADEP).
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The theme of the training entitled: ‘’Rebuilding the Economy of Enugu State Through Development of Agriculture’’ was targeted at creating awareness to the farmers on how to produce organic products such as fertilizer and pesticides for improved food production.
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In his remarks, Hon. Ogara said it has been his dream to pull people out of poverty and better their lives through improved agricultural practices in the area.
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Ogara said the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) sometime ago showed that 133 millions Nigerians live in multi-dimensional poverty, a situation he added was uncalled for.
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He said the only way to remedy the situation is through massive involvement of Nigerians in a well supported agricultural programmes and practices that could attract both the old and the young to embrace farming. He emphasised that providing alternate methods of improving soil fertility for enhanced food production could be an added advantage.
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This, the legislator said informed the training on how the farmers could produce organic fertilizers and pesticides on their own.
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The Legislator regretted that despite the huge benefits derived from agricultural practices, many, especially the youths have abandoned the system in search of none existent white collar jobs and Okada riding.
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‘’From inception, it has been my dream to pull people out of poverty. The MBS’ statistics show that about 133 Million Nigerians live in multi-dimensional poverty.
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“But the question begging for answer when we have this kind of situation is, what do we do? The answer is certain and that is, going back to farming. As a person, I was brought up through agricultural process and my father trained all his children with agricultural proceeds. Unfortunately, the situation is different today as most of our people, particularly the youths have abandoned farming for white collar jobs, without realizing that agriculture is the mainstream of the nation’s economy and provides employment to the masses’’, he said.
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The lawmaker said that free training on organic products was one among others programmes packaged for farmers in his constituency, adding that in due course they would be tutored on how to engage in fish, snails as well as poultry and piggery farming.
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This he said, would be in collaboration with the Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Nigeria, Nsukka for more robust and quality training of the farmers.
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While expressing optimism that after the trainings, the people would be able to feed themselves and generate income to keep their bodies and souls together, Ogara urged them to put what they learned in practice for better results.
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Also speaking, the Coordinator of South Field Agro Network International and one of the resource persons in the programme, Mr. Francis Ibekwe noted that farmers face dearth of fertilizers and other agricultural inputs because they are being hijacked by non-practising farmers.
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According to him, South Field Agro Network, which main work is the production of organic fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides sees it as imperative to assist farmers in Enugu State and environs by sensitizing them on production and use of organic products to enhance food production.
“We partner with Enugu state through the Enugu State Agricultural Development Programme (ENADEP) and in conjunction with Enugu State government to reach out to the rural farmers and train them on how to produce these essential farm inputs’’, he said.
Ibekwe commended the State Governor, Peter Ndubuisi Mbah for recognizing the importance of agriculture in the state and working towards providing adequate and reliable data base to ascertain the real farmers, and ensure that they are given the leverage for effective farming system.
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In his speech, the Programme Manager of ENADEP, Dr. Ogbonna Onyishi, represented by a former Director, Technical Services in the Unit, Mr. Benjamin Onunze called for soil testing to determine the soil nutrients lacking before farming.
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This he said is necessary following findings that farmers could after suffering in the farm get nothing in return because of the acidic nature of the soil they planted crops.
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A participant in the training, Mrs. Priscilla Ogochukwu Ugwu who hails from commended the sponsor of the programme, Ogara, saying that it was the first of its kind in the constituency.
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