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From Okwe Obi, Abuja
Cross River State Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade, has commissioned CSS’ food processing and packaging factory at Gora, near Abuja.
Ayade observed that agriculture and agro-industrialization held the key to a prosperous future, adding that it was time for the country to fully return to agriculture, devoid of the usual primitivist mentality if the country must prosper beyond her present economic quagmire.
He stated yesterday that all forms of industrialisation start with agro-industrialisation, emphasising that Nigeria must replace its primordial and cumbersome methods of agriculture to mechanised farming which would lead to economic development.
The governor called on the federal government to take a facility tour of CSS farms in gora, Nasarawa State to understudy its entire design, architecture and operations with a view to replicating same across the country.
While commending Prof. John Kennedy Opara for leading the pack in agro-industrialization, agro- innovation and food security, Ayade said: “I think it is quite timely for Nigeria to realize that we can’t keep importing everything. It is time to altruistically embrace technology driven agriculture.
It is time to begin to create jobs for our people, increase the food force in farms, reduce restiveness, banditry, armed robbery and kidnapping.
The basis of all the insecurity we find in Nigeria is characterised by unemployment.
“Agriculture actually speaks to the subject. That is why it is very imperative for me to keep sending young men and women from Cross River to CSS farms to learn modern techniques and skills in farming to enable them earn a living through agriculture and its value chains.”
Addressing over 150 youths from Cross River who are on a 3-week intensive training at the CSS Integrated Farms, Prof. Ayade said: “We didn’t send you here for pleasure. We are sent you here to work and learn.
“Most of the factories and food processing factory at CSS fit into what I have done in Cross River State. So, are here to garner knowledge that will make you green millionaires in the nearest future.
“You are the ones to provide the raw materials the factories in Cross River State need to stay in business. After your training, those of you who need support, will be given support under the CARES programme.
“I will send as many youths as possible here before my tenure ends. Over 3000 have been trained already, more will still be trained because we are now expanding our value chain.
“So, we will need some more raw materials. We have set up factories. We have a massive biscuit line and we don’t want to use wheat flour; we want to go using fortified cassava flour to produce our biscuits.
“We will fortify our flour with special vitamin A and energy to have military biscuits, the first of its kind in the world and all of these call for backward integration and innovation and research. But this can only happen when you have the industrial platform to be able work.
“That is why Cross Riverians will continue to come here, to gain advanced knowledge and skill in modern farming techniques, come back to the state, grow our cash crops and raw material dependence, and then ship into the factories that will now process them for export through the Bakassi deep sea port under the kinetics of the superhighway”.
Earlier, beneficiaries of the training, expressed gratitude to the governor for what they termed a ‘life changing experience’, saying Ayade was empowering them to become next green millionaires.
Agatha Morphy, one of the trainees said the knowledge and skills gathered at CSS farms would be invested back into the state to further help boost her economy through agriculture and food value chains.
