philanthropists empower Enugu State rural farmers with agro inputs

The Chief Executive Officer, Paschal-Rico Group of Companies, Chief Pascal Aneke, and Switzerland returnee, Mr Sunday Ozokolo, on Sunday, distributed agro inputs to rural farmers in Ezeagu Local Government Area (LGA) of Enugu State.

The duo, who hail from Ezema Mgbagbu-owa Community in the LGA, said the vision was to reawaken the spirit of agriculture among the rural dwellers in the area.

They said that they were unhappy over the way the youths of the area neglected farming, which could serve as their legitimate means of livelihood.

The items that were distributed included motorcycles, agro chemicals and cash.
Ozokolo said that agriculture has the potential to solve the challenges and problems people face in today’s world.

He said, “I have been abroad and saw how people there are doing it in agriculture. So, when I returned, I saw that some of my people are lagging behind in agriculture. So, there was the need to empower and encourage them to embrace farming.
“We give them prizes based on what they cultivated from Ezeagu soil and this year, we chose yam,” he said.

Ozokolo also said, “Whoever his yam becomes the overall best goes home with the biggest prize, followed by second, third and other consolation prizes.

“First prize goes home with a motorcycle and two agro chemicals, second prize goes home with a motorcycle and one chemical, while the third prize goes home with only a motorcycle”.

He said that four farmers would go home with consolation prizes of one carton of agro chemicals each, plus cash.

On how they would differentiate Ezeagu yams from others, the philanthropist said they invited agricultural experts to verify whether the yams presented were Ezeagu yams or not.
He gave assurance that the event would be made annual in order to encourage his people to go into farming.

Also, Aneke appealed to the youths of the area to embrace farming and see it as a means of livelihood.

He said that the empowerment was to promote agriculture in the LGA, state and South-East in general.

He said that the LGA has a large expanse of land for farming but regretted that most of the youths were unwilling to farm.

“The few that are farming, government should help them with access road to transport their produce to markets in the state,” Aneke said.

A Guest Speaker and Community Woman Leader, Mrs Ifeoma Obidiaso, who delivered a lecture on “Agriculture as a developmental means in the rural area”, emphasised the massive benefits of agriculture to youths.

Obidiaso advised that women in the rural areas should be encouraged to go into large scale farming.

She regretted that farming in the area was gradually going into extinction and hoped that the empowerment programme would help to revitalize it and make communities understand the importance of agriculture in their environment.

“There is need for people to go into farming as a means of driving away poverty, develop themselves and sustain themselves through it,” she said.

A farmer, Mr Jonex Okongwu, expressed happiness over the empowerment, saying it was the first time such a programme was happening in the area.

He thanked the sponsors for the initiative and described the gesture as “an empowerment that will help farmers”.

NAN / Foluke Ibitomi