The Ekiti state governor, Mr Biodun Oyebanji, Sunday restated his administration’s commitment to food security for residents of the state through collaboration with investors in agribusiness and young farmers.
He said his target for 2025 is to record significant increase in production in the sector to feed the people.
Governor Oyebanji gave this indication while inspecting the Bring Youth Back into Agriculture Project farms in Oke Ako Ekiti, Iyemero Ekiti and Gede in the North Senatorial District at the weekend.
The ghovernor who was accompanied on the visit by some top government officials stated that the state’s budget for 2025 would focus more on agriculture to ensure food sufficiency and make Ekiti the food basket of the country.
While noting that his government’s deliberate investment in agriculture was already yielding the desired positive results, the governor said his government in the last two years had prioritised investment in agriculture, boost capacity of farmers and create a market for farm produce as part of efforts to enhance food production and tackle food insecurity.
Governor Oyebanji also expressed appreciation to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for providing necessary impetus for the state to thrive in agriculture and other sectors and promised that his administration will continue to provide economic opportunities for youth in the state and position them to be employers of labour.
The governor added that the state has also improved on its agricultural policies and guaranteed the needed infrastructure and support to drive the state’s agriculture development plans, adding that his administration was looking at ways to scale up food production and make the state self-reliant.
Speaking further, Governor Oyebanji said the 2025 budget, aside focusing on agriculture and food security, would prioritize the welfare of citizens, adding that his administration in the last two years had done a lot in infrastructure and he would de-risk the agricultural value chain by scaling up security, provide electricity and rehabilitate roads to farms.
“I’m superbly excited on the outcome of agriculture strategy, few months ago, we flagged off this programme, ‘bring back our youths into agriculture’ and I believe strongly that the only way to prosperity is productivity and bring our youths back to work, government has to provide the platforms for them.
“We partnered with our people and YSJ, a private sector agric company to work out a strategy of bringing back our youth to agric where government cleared land for them free of charge, subsidised inputs by fifty percent. I am just going round today to see the outcome of this efforts and I am happy that it has turned round this way.
“What this has taught me is the fact that Ekiti youth are not lazy, Ekiti youth are productive, they can work and what they need is just the platform. I have always been saying it that Ekiti can rival with any states in the federation, but as a government, we need to provide the platform for people to exhibit their potentials and this is what we have done.”