Thirteen designated communities and farmers in Cross River State have received 3.5 million oil palm seedlings and nurseries in the last seven months from the government to expand their farms.
Confirmed this in a statement, the Commissioner for Information, Erasmus Ekpang, said it was part of an aggressive elevation of the state’s oil palm production status, noting that oil palm was one of the cash crops they were poised to promote.
He explained that this would be done from a N30bn commercial agricultural development fund called “Project Grow” meant to bolster the sector.
He said it was the single largest agricultural productivity reform which the government had embarked upon to promote all-year-round agricultural production.
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He also disclosed that the administration had approved the Cross River State-Wide Irrigation Infrastructure Development Project (SWIID), adding that they were attracting investment in the cassava sub-sector.
Towards this, be said that the state had developed its Cassava Value Chain Development Policy framework for Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) due to be launched in a few weeks.
Erasmus further said that they had approved and commenced the extension of the current Small Holder Cocoa Development Scheme to include development of cocoa estates in Akamkpa, Akpabuyo, Odukpani, Ikom Obubra and Bekwara LGAs under Phase 1 while regeneration of existing ones was ongoing.
