The Anambra State Governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo has introduced regenerative agriculture as the pathway to food sufficiency and repositioning the state’s economy.
Governor Soludo performed the function at the flag-off of the 2022 Farming Season in Anambra State at Dr Alex Ekwueme Square, Awka yesterday.
According to Governor Soludo, his administration is championing the reenactment of the palm revolution which built the old eastern region, as a way of going back to where the founding fathers stopped.
While stating that beyond planting palm trees, his administration is also going into coconut production to generate income, the Governor said that the value of the crude oil is depreciating, revealing the efforts of the federal government in diversification, beginning in Anambra State.
The Governor expressed his administration’s readiness to partner with communities and individuals who are interested in going into palm and coconut farming, projecting that if it continues for the next ten years, Anambra will be earning billions of dollars in export as a forerunner to the introduction of the industrialisation, leisure and other new economies.
The Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr Foster Ihejiofor harped on the governor’s commitment to not just agriculture but the well-being of Ndi Anambra, stating that they will work with Anambra farmers, to systematically migrate from chemical-based conventional farming to regenerative biologically-driven farming.
Dr Ihejiofor stressed that to drive the process, they created Sustainable Agriculture Task Team (SATT), to download and domesticate best farming practices for Anambra, stressing that when fully implemented, it will drastically curtail the cost of farm inputs, thereby increasing the wealth of Anambra farmers, while lowering the cost of food for all.
The theme of the event is ‘Empowering Women and Youth through Regenerative Agriculture for Sustainable Development.
Farmers across the 21 Local Government Areas were in attendance.
Dominica Nwabufo
