C’River govt awards N1.16bn contract for 250 hectares banana farm

The Cross River state government has awarded N1.16 billion contract for 250 hectares banana farm project in Odukpani local government area of the state.

The Commissioner for Agriculture, Professor Anthony Eneji disclosed this to our correspondent in his office in calabar on Wednesday saying that work on the site has commenced.

“We are working on our banana farm, we have given out a contract for the establishment of a model banana farm at Odukpani and we began the land clearing last week and the land preparation has started and equipment has been moved to the site.

We have acquired about 250 hectares of land but we are starting with 100 hectares first,” he stated.

“We also have another location in Boki on the same project. We have reliable and experienced people who handle banana projects and through them, we have established market for the farmers.

It is a state government initiatives and the contract value is N1.16 billion for this first phase. The state will take charge of it, if private partners want to join us, we will give them conditions to follow.”

The commissioner said that the pilot commercial banana cultivation was part of the state government’s plan to diversify its economy. “Government is determined to take agriculture to a sustained commercial level capable of replacing oil as a major source of revenue.”

According to him, the communities around the plantation site will benefit from the project because it will offer employment opportunities to them noting that the communities will also benefit from the good road network and other social amenities that the plantation will attract.

Though, he said the project was entirely state government initiatives but in due course, it will be handed over to private firm that will handle it as business given that government was not a good business operator.

On raw materials, cotton that will feed the garment factory, the commissioner said, “Garment Factory needs raw materials which is cotton and we are planning to plant cotton in Yala local government area.

So far, we have acquired over 2000 hectares of land and we are negotiating with the communities, we shall plant cotton to feed the garment factory.”

Interestingly, on cocoa processing factory in Ikom local government area which the Acting President was slated for commission but could not due to distance Prof Eneji said ”The contractors have been mobilized to the site and work is ongoing.

The same story is with rice mill in Ogoja local government area. We are trying to own our product which is rice, not Abakalikirice.”

He regretted that the state grow rice but have no processing plant, “we grow rice here but we don’t have processing facility that is why traders go to buy it in Abakaliki, we have awarded the contract and work is ongoing simultaneously with that of cocoa processing.”

Consequently, the commissioner explained that the essence of rice city is to give us the technological knowhow to be able to produce our own rice seeds, screen them and identify those that can grow well in the state given our ecology and so the state can produce its own seeds to meet requirements and also sale it to other states.

“This will also help us in modern rice production. We will have a laboratory there, we will screen until we get a stable variety”.

And on why the price of garri was high in the state he said that moving it across our bad road from the North or Northern part of the state, Benue down to calabar or Uyo in Akwa Ibom State, it is a top deal.

It is also an issue of demand and supply here and then, there is no substitute to garri.

“We are focussing mostly on cassava planting, so far, there are about 360 hectares of land we are trying to develop for cassava. Last week, National office for FADAMA 111 came here, we held a midterm review and one of the requests we made was that they should help the state to establish a multiplication centres for cassava cuttings in the state; they need to give us even if it is in kind.

Though the cassava cuttings are expensive in Ibadan, we should be able to buy some and reproduce. This could be replicated in the three senatorial district of the state.

We are the largest producer of cassava in the country and to satisfy the entire cassava grower in the state, we need to have extra-large multiplication centres.