By Nneka Nwogwugwu
The National Agricultural Land Development Authority, (NALDA) is set to establish cassava packaging plant in Ogun State.
The Executive Secretary of NALDA, Prince Paul Ikonne, made this known during a courtesy visit to the Governor of Ogun State, Dr Dapo Abiodun.
Ikonne told the Governor that NALDA wants to reactivate its 700 hectares of farmland in Ogun State including the establishment of Integrated Farm Estate in the three Senatorial Zones of the State along with a garri processing and packaging plant.
He said: “Mr President has directed us to create employment and achieve food security through NALDA’s mandate, we are running projects which Ogun state has been slated to be one of the pilot states.
“NALDA integrated Farm Estate is going to be sighted in the 3 senatorial zones in the state and the Integrated Farm Estate is a concept that takes in everything from production to processing to packaging and marketing and it would also have residential areas for farmers.
“Your Excellency, NALDA would be requesting you to provide the lands suitable for this project and as soon as the land is made available NALDA would commence work.
“Knowing that Ogun state has the largest capacity in Cassava production, our Garri packaging plant would be located in Ogun state, whereby NALDA would be the off-taker from the farmers, they would process it and package accordingly and move it into the market, so putting this plant here in Ogun state would create more opportunities and also encourage the farmers to produce more knowing there would be a reward.”
According to the Executive Secretary, the project is an avenue to create thousands of jobs for the youths of the state, because it would touch on the entire agriculture value chain from production to processing and marketing.
Gov. Dapo Abiodun in response, commended NALDA for choosing Ogun State as one of the pilot States for the Integrated Farm Estates, assured that his administration will sustain the agro-produce programme.
He added that his administration decided to key into President Buhari’s agricultural programmes, which according to him Ogun State is the industrial hub of the country and raw materials needed to sustain industries.
