By Our Correspondent
Benue State Governor, Hyacinth Alia has said the state government is targeting support to no fewer than 10,000 smallholder farmers to grow four million oil palms in the next four years.
The governor disclosed this in Markurdi during a sensitization meeting with his Special Adviser on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs and Heads of the Department of Agriculture in the state.
The initiative is to take place under the Benue Alia Palm Project (BAPP) in the North Central State.
Governor Alia who was represented at the strategy meeting by a member of the BAPP team, Mr. Samuel Agwa, said his administration is set to plant One million oil palms yearly ans support 10,000 smallholder farmers to grow oil palms.
”We shall establish five processing mills to enhancevalue addition; create 20,000direct jobs in the oil palm sector; increase oil palm production by 50 percent in the nextthree years and promote sustainable farming practices and environmental protection,” the governor highlighted.
He described theTeren oil palm as the most sought-after variety oil palms due to its high-yielding capacity and potential to boost the income of local farmers.
Governor Alia encouraged the Heads of theDepartment of Agriculture in the state not only to embrace the project but go further by campigning about the initiative to the grassroots to help smallholder farmers to plnt them.
In his contribution during the meeting, the Special Adviser, Dr. Dennis Akura, says the third tier of government in the state is embracing the initiative nothing that this year, a total number of 23,000 oil palm seedlings have been planted across the 23 local government areas of the state.
He said the target is to plant one million oil plams seedlings yearly, effective 2025.