The Federal Government has started to develop an integrated farm estate on the 1,200 hectares of land it just recovered and reactivated in Ekiti State.
The National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) made this known on Friday.
The organisation said that the farm estate was located in Okeako/Irele Ekiti in Ikole Local Government Area of the state.
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A statement issued in Abuja by NALDA’s Executive Secretary, Paul Ikonne, stated that the farm estate, owned by NALDA, had been in existence for over 20 years but was abandoned over the years.
Ikonne said that the agency would develop, reactivate and upgrade the 50 hectares of cashew farm, storage and a processing facility on the estate.
Speaking to farmers in the estate, he said, “We are here to make sure that this abandoned estate comes back to life.
“Your farm produce that you use to take out, you will still take them out to sell but this time it will be fully processed.
“Whatever we are going to produce on this farm will also be processed, we will put processing plants so that we can add value to what we produce.”
Ikonne said the farm estate would have processing, packaging and farming zones, adding that the Federal Government had directed NALDA to revamp the project.
In another meeting with the Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, the NALDA boss said his agency was in Ekiti to carry out the president’s instructions.
Ikonne said the instructions included to recover and reactivate the Federal Government’s abandoned farm estates across the country and utilise them for agriculture to benefit youths in the grassroots.