by crossriverwatch admin
The Cross River State Governor, Senator Liyel Imoke today debunked claims that the state is a civil service state and that the public sector is the highest employer of labor when he declared that agriculture is the greatest employer of labor in the state.
The governor made this declaration as part of the discussants on a live broadcast of the ongoing 19th Economic Summit themed “Growing Agriculture as a Business to diversify Nigeria’s Economy” in Abuja.
In the live broadcast on Channels Television a few hours ago and monitored by CrossRiverWatch in Lagos, Imoke said: “We in Cross River have positioned ourselves as the destination for investment in Agriculture by making sure there is ease of entry, by making sure there is security, by making sure there is access to land and of course access to support and resources from the state but what is also important is for us as a people to understand the value of Agriculture and to be part of agriculture that is why every member of my exco, if you are going to be in my exco, including the governor, is a farmer. So for us, it is important that we also understand and appreciate the challenges of farming.”
The governor claimed that since he got into office as governor, he along with all members of his exco have become farmers so that they can understand the challenges the farmers are facing with a view to resolving them.
“Since I became governor, I have become a farmer with over 2,500 hectares under cultivation and the same thing goes for every member of my exco. So we understand the challenges of farming and we are able to appreciate why we need the reforms that are ongoing in the sector. It is important that once this is in place, even the young people who seem not to be interested in agriculture will actually become truly interested in agriculture because it makes sense for them to do agriculture as a business.
“So under our Songhai Farm Project, we are training and developing the skills, we have over a hundred of our graduates skilled in agriculture doing agriculture business, they are investing in agriculture and making profit from agriculture. There is no greater employer of labor in Cross River state other than Agriculture and we must understand that whether it is from the commercial agriculture investors like Wilmer, PZ, Dansa foods who are currently employing close to 10,000 Cross Riverians, the key thing for us is that not only do we understand agriculture, but that we can continue to understand and create opportunities both for the small scale farmer and the large commercial farmer.”
The governor encouraged investors to come to the state and invest in the vast opportunities that his administration is creating promising that the state is putting in place structures to promote private capital utilization that will enable the economy survive even without crude oil revenue.
follow us on twitter @crossriverwatch
Leave feedback about this