By Adadareporters
State and local government authorities in the South-East Region of the country are to be blamed for the food insecurity currently ravaging the zone, Chief Charles Agadenyi Nwodo, former national chairman of the Progressives Action Congress, said.
Speaking with newsmen on Wednesday, Chief Nwodo said the region’s failure to accord the deserved attention to the agricultural sector ‘is out of ignorance knowing that food security is the base for good living’.
In his words, “We have fertile land in Ebonyi State. We had been the feeder of rice in Nigeria. We have the Adani Rice in Enugu State established by our founding fathers of the Independence. It would have been a very perfect food chain of supplies. Today, those things are being neglected. People struggle for elephant projects that will never be realised, and abandon the real sources of wealth.
“There are also other agricultural settlements, even owned by the federal government, in the region, which are abandoned. Some of them today are home to kidnappers and herders of cattle. The one at Okpuje in Igboeze South LGA of Enugu State comes to mind. Anambra Cashew Industry at Oghe, Ezeagu LGA, is also there. The Nachi Vegetable Oil plant is gone. Several palm plantations are all forgotten. It is so across every state in the region.
“It is high time we got back to agriculture. But there must be security. The state police that are now being canvassed by the federal government should be fully supported by state governments and state Houses of Assembly. When there is security for those who farm, there will be food abundance. We believe the state police and geographical mapping of agriculture, so that each zone would produce what they have comparative advantage in, will make our country at large a developed nation. How could war-ravaged Russia and Ukrain be supplying grains to those who are at peace? It is rhetorical and irony. Facing agriculture will create youth employment and criminality will reduce.”
Speaking also, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Ebubeagu Felix Okafor, urged South-East governors to initiative ways of harnessing the zone’s farming potentials.
In his words, “I commend Charles Soludo of Anambra State for using the state funds for subsidy palliatives to purchase tractors for farmers in the state. Other states in the region should emulate him. They should get our farmers to work both in providing security, improved farm seedlings and equipment for lease among other palliatives. It is a pity that South-East states have no synergy of research with various agricultural specialised institutions in the region.”
