Kogi projects 20 million tons of cassava annually from 2020

Kogi Agricultural Core Delivery Team (CDT) of the State Partnership for Agriculture (SPA) on Tuesday said it plans to attain annual production of 20 million metric tons of cassava by year 2020.

Secretary of the CDT and Assistant Director (Crops), Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) Mr Thomas Agene disclosed this at a meeting of the CDT organized by Synergos Nigeria in Lokoja.

Agene said that the projection would be achieved through the use of technology in mechanised farms as the state resolves to adopt the new technology of 100% mechanization of agriculture.

“We want to use small machines to do away with the traditional hoe and cutlass (Hand tools), for cassava planters and harvesters. Our projection is to hit 20 million metric tons of cassava production by 2020.

“When the tractors are available, the land is available and the farmers are capable with a few persons trained on how to handle the machines, the 100 per cent mechanization will be achieved with a radical boost in production”, he said.

He also called for the establishment of dedicated cassava seed material farms across the state for the production of planting inputs so that farmers would not run out of seed (Cassava stem cuttings for planting) after dry season harvests.

“If we want to achieve stability in cassava production, consumption and processing with the magnitude of industries that are coming up, we need to have farms that are mainly for seed material production.

“For the farmers to have their seeds, it is best to uproot during wet season so that they can have their planting materials, but it is more profitable to uproot during the dry season when the prices are up”.

Agene explained that the farmer benefits more, but loses the planting materials when the seed farms are available, pointing out that there would be no fear of incurring losses.

He said the farmer would uproot his products easily, gets his money as well as improved planting materials from nearby planting farms

The Assistant Director further hinted that the Federal Government had made available chemicals and simple processing machines including water pumps and sprayers at subsidized rates (50 per cent discount) to small holder farmers.

“We need to engage women and youths interested in agriculture by bringing potable machines like the multi-purpose threshing machines capable of threshing between 10 and 20 tons per day”, the Assistant Director stated .

Also speaking, Mr Bob Achanya, Director-General of the state Bureau of Public Private Partnership (BPPP) said the agriculture ministry had no platform for expressions.

Achanya held that the information to make the agriculture sector work depended on the ministry and therefore, advised that it should be more open and pro active in the education and mobilisation of the people towards full compliance and participation in the state’s new agriculture agenda.