Kogi Set To Open Feeder Roads To Enhance Agriculture

Kogi government has revealed its concluded plans to open up rural feeder roads to boost agricultural production and easy evacuation of farm produce to markets in and around the state.

The acting commissioner of agriculture and special adviser (SA), David Apeh said that most agricultural products were meant to serve as food and raw materials for local and international industries, but the resources invested in producing them would amount to a waste when they fail to get to the market.

“In Ibaji local government, we produce cassava and rice and people come from Enugu, Edo, Delta and other states to buy the rice, mill, and label or brand them as Adani rice, whereas, it is Ibaji rice. But we cannot blame them. We produce in large quantities and we cannot get them out to markets in our own state because there are no roads to bring them out. We eat and sell the little we can and the rest is wasted,” he said.

Apeh regretted that cassava production in several areas of Kogi suffers the same fate as Ibaji rice due to lack of access roads to the market. Apeh noted that a lot of farmers in the state produce cassava and sell them out at very cheap price, adding that the lack of market for the produce had often discouraged farmers and even youths from engaging in commercial farming.

“One of the areas the government is seriously looking at is opening up of rural roads for agricultural products to come out,” he said.

He disclosed that the state was in collaboration with some non-government organisations (NGOs) on specific areas of the state economy to attract genuine investors and international donors that could assist the state.