Ondo State government has successfully registered 95 percent of the farmers in the forest reserves across the state as part of efforts to curb criminality and insecurity in the state.
The State Governor, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, had earlier this year directed all herdsmen and farmers who were occupying the forest reserves illegally to register with the state government.
The State Chairman of the Ondo State Internal Revenue Service (ODIRS), Mr Tolu Adegbie, while speaking during a meeting with farmers and other stakeholders in Akure stated that a total of 32,881 farmers had registered with the government.
He explained that official showed that there were 14 forest reserves in the state, inluding 483 camps and 57,758 hectares of cultivated land in the reserves.
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Adegbie noted that each of the farmers would pay a sum of N10,000 per hectare as rent annually, while the service of a consulting firm – ODK Consult had been employed to distribute the assessment letters to the farmers.
He added that the farmers would thereafter pay into the bank account of government based on the number of hectares they were cultivating.
He said, “You will recall that Governor Akeredolu has ordered that everybody operating in the forest reserves of Ondo State should go and registered when the issue of insecurity in Ondo State became so bad because we don’t know the legal and illegal occupants of the forests.
“The registration exercise has been going on for a while but not properly done.
“The ODIRS now came in and we have been able to capture about 95 percent of the farmers and we have a total of 32,881 farmers in the forest reserves.
“The government now charged the farmers token as rent based on the number of hectares they are cultivating. But the farmers were there illegally ab initio.”
