Food sufficiency: Okowa advocates increase in the activities of extension service officers

TO boost food production in the country, Delta State Governor, Senator Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa has advocated increase in the activities of agricultural extension service officers to farmers.

The Governor made the call yesterday at a one-day interactive session with 2015/2017 beneficiaries of Skills Training and Entrepreneurship Programme (STEP) and Youth Agricultural Entrepreneurs Programme (YAGEP) in Asaba.

According to Governor Okowa, “agriculture remains the greatest employer of labour, it is encouraging that most of our youths that we have empowered to operate in that sector are doing well, but, we must have enough people in the extension service to encourage farmers.”

“I am glad that our youths have embraced agriculture, it will lead to food sufficiency and boost our drive in creating entrepreneurs; we are going to strengthen the mentoring and monitoring unit to ensure that beneficiaries of our empowerment programmes are encouraged to do well,” he said.

Governor Okowa observed that those who have succeeded in their businesses were determined to succeed, asserting, “if you stay resolute, success story will surely come; challenges will surely come but, you need to be resilient to do it right.”

“I am glad that a lot of you are doing well, people in government should be able to patronize you, I am very impressed with the success stories I have heard today,” he stated.

Beneficiaries of the empowerment programmes gave different stories about their challenges, their successes and their prospects and gave commendation to Governor Okowa’s administration for giving them the opportunity to be employers of labour.

Mr Itdjere Ericson, Mrs Linda Nnabundo, among others, suggested that with the level they have grown within two years of establishing their businesses, they were capable of training beneficiaries of the skill acquisition programmes and called for patronage from the state government.
Meanwhile the governor has also called for consistency in policy implementation in the country for Nigeria to make progress. Speaking at a one-day “policy dialogue with the state executive council and the legislative council on investment in nutrition” at Asaba, Governor Okowa observed that one of the greatest challenges facing the country is consistency in the implementation of policies.

He also, stated that Nigerians will have access to good nutrition if the federal government makes policies in line with the population of the country.

“As a country, we will be planning wrongly if our plans does not go in line with our population, such plans will be problematic,” he said, adding, “for us to have healthy families, birth spacing is very important, we must keep the number of our families within the range we can cater for.”

Specifically speaking on the theme for the event, “prioritizing investment in maternal and child nutrition – key to sustainable development,” Governor Okowa observed, “a lot of persons are ignorant of what it takes to bring up a child that is a major problem we need to address.”

“Issue of poverty can also be linked to the effects of recession, but, there is need for collaboration with the local government councils for effective advocacy aimed at addressing ignorance,” Governor Okowa who attended the event with his wife, Dame Edith said.

He disclosed that Delta State government has done a lot to ensure a healthy people, noting that the state has more than 60 government hospitals and more than 400 primary healthcare centres located at different parts of the state.

Earlier in an address, the Commissioner for Economic Planning, Dr Kingsley Emu said, “with inflation and scarcity of money, most families are increasingly finding it difficult to purchase basic necessities of livelihood – food, shelter, and clothing; the rest is poor nutrition, lack of care, ill-health and death.”