National Daily

Edo Govt equips farmers for optimum productivity — Ihensekhien

The unveiling of the 2008 edition of ReachOut Nigeria with Rhapsody of Realities in Lagos last week, a project sponsored by the Christ Embassy Church, assembled cream of Nigerians across the country. Among the eminent dignitaries was the Edo State Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Honourable Ken Ihensakhien. The commissioner took time off for an interview with SUNDAY ODIBASHI where he explained that the agricultural policies in the state address multiplicity of social, economic and security problems. He also expressed the need for equitable representation of all the Niger Delta states in the newly-created Ministry of Niger Delta, among others

WHAT is the agricultural blue print of Edo State Government?
The agricultural blue print of the present administration in Edo State is, first, to make sure that we sustain and promote the interest of farmers in agricultural production in our state. But on a wider scale government's agricultural policies attempt to encompass solutions to social unrest and security threats, measures for poverty alleviation, economic empowerment and improving capacity utilization of the people.

In the process of that, we have come up with several programmes that we know will help our farmers to increase their agricultural output in every farming season. . We realized that the major problem the farmers have is finance because good farming for optimum agricultural productivity requires huge capital, especially in the area of land preparations, acquisition of tools, seedlings and several other inputs.
In Edo State, we have, in collaboration with the Central Bank, First Bank of Nigeria and the Nigeria Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC), put in place agricultural credit scheme to provide soft loans to a number of farmers.

There is the communal farming scheme, that is basically to encourage our youths because we also realized the fact that, many of our youths are migrating from the rural areas to seek white collar jobs in the urban cities. That means we do not have people to replace our fathers who, basically, 80 per cent of them were farmers and at the same time culture custodians. You know that apart from rural farming, our fathers also maintain the cultures of our land and ensure the process of socialization of the young population to make it transcend their own generation. So, we initiated the communal farming scheme to encourage our youths to stay in the precincts to take over from our fathers and sustain the transition of both the rural farming and our customs and traditions for the future generation.
What we are doing in this programme is to acquire some hectares of farmland in each of the three Senatorial Districts in the state. In Edo South Senatorial District, for instance, where the state capital, Benin City, is located, we cited 50 hectares of farmland each in ObaYato and Oguayha Hill. We engage our youths, especially young school leavers, allocate to them one hectare each, that is about 100 hectares for 100 youths and we give them stipends every month to enable them get to the farm and take care of some of their elementary needs; we provide them planting materials and all that. At the end of the harvest season we will now share the products harvested; they will have 60 per cent while we have 40 per cent. We have this programme involving 100 youths in each of the three Senatorial Districts in the state.

You will agree with me that the more youths we are able to engage the better the institutional mechanism for curtailing crime and social uprising in the society. If the youths can find a place where they can find work to do and are assured of earning their living they will have less or no time for crime and social unrest.
In order to also encourage the old farmers, we are not only concerned about the youths, as we have programmes for the youths; we also have programmes for the old farmers. For the old farmers, we have the Allottee Farming Scheme whereby in each of the three Senatorial Districts we have farmlands which are allotted to these farmers and we provide them with inputs like fertilizer, chemical, agrochemicals and others. We also provide soft loans for them, give them planting materials, we plow and fallow for them, till and prepare the land and so on. This has really encouraged them. We believe that at the end of this year, because we are approaching the harvest season, we are going to see a bumper harvest in Edo State.
In the area of inputs, we recently we took delivery of several tonnes of fertilizer which was subsidized by the federal government at 25 per cent and was further subsidized by Edo State at 40 per cent; this has never happened in the state before, and the farmers are quite happy. We got eight thousand and four hundred metric tonnes of fertilizer in this year's planting season. With all that support we know that they are sufficient inputs to make our agricultural yields this year very abundant.
In other areas too, like cocoa and other cash crops, we have been helping our people, assisting them with varieties of chemical which have been very scarce.

Edo is one the oldest states in Nigeria known for rubber cultivation, is there anything the government is doing to revive that scheme?
Basically, Edo State has some rubber estates; one in Oronugbe which we are still retaining hundred per cent ownership; the Ose River Rubber Estate which we have 20 per cent shares, but now the French (that is Michelin) took it over, they have majority shares. Now they are amalgamating the four rubber estates together; these include the Araromi Rubber Estate in Ondo State, the Waterside Rubber Estate in Ijebu Igbo, Ogun State, and the one in Utagba in Delta State. The outcome of the merging will tell what our ownership percentage in these estates would be. But meanwhile we are still in Oronugbe and in Oronugbe we are trying to do our best.
Currently, we have a programme for re-planting; we want to implement tree re-planting as much as possible, we are doing that in collaboration with the federal government.

Being an oil producing state, do you experience environmental hazards in Edo?
Of course it occurs. Though my ministry is designated as Agricultural and Natural Resources, but most of the matters on natural resources are handled by the Ministry of Environment and Transport; we also have an Oil and Gas Commission, they take care of those issues.

As a stakeholder in the Niger Delta, what is your view about the creation of the Ministry of Niger Delta by the federal government? What do think should be the expectations?
The establishment of the Ministry of Niger Delta is long over due, taking into consideration the agitations that have been arising from the South-South over the years. I think with the ministry now, our expectations are very high. The fact that they have established it does not mean that our problems have been solved, but it is an indication that there is solution in sight. Like I said our expectations are high and with this Ministry we expect to see a lot of positive changes in our area.
I cannot imagine an area that produces the bulk, or generates about 80 per cent of the wealth of the nation in that kind of situation the Niger Delta states find themselves. This is just the beginning, the starting point of the country trying to address the issues that have risen from that area which makes major contribution to the survival of this country.
With this ministry, we expect that every area in the Niger Delta will be adequately represented and catered for.

Talking about representation, besides equitable distribution of development projects, would you suggest that every state in the Niger Delta be represented in the ministry, possibly at the Director level?
That is implied. By implication, the creation of the ministry is a consequence of the protracted agitations from the geo-political zone. If it does not address all issues, the agitations will continue to be there. So it is expected that all the states that make up the region will be adequately represented in the ministry, at least at the directorship level.