Ebonyi Govt. acquires 500 tractors to encourage youths in agriculture


 NIGERIA: Ebonyi Government on Thursday said that the government acquired 500 multipurpose tractors and other mechanised farm implements to encourage youths to embrace farming.

Mr Uchenna Orji, the Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources in Ebonyi, who disclosed  this in an  in Abakaliki, said "We are revolutionising agricultural practices to ensure that we get more youths including graduates into the agricultural programme of the state government.
"We have acquired no fewer than 500 set of tractors that perform multipurpose activities that will be put into hiring at subsidised rate to ensure that more farmers have access to the machines.
"Engaging the youths in mechanised farming will ensure the sustainability of our reform programme in the agricultural sector," Orji said.
He said that the government was ready to do anything to encourage more youths to participate in its agricultural programme to better the economy of the state and nation.
According to him, government is committed and determined to change the old pattern of doing farming to ensure that more youths are involved.
Orji noted that the use of crude farm implements and lack of funds had made farming to concentrate in the hands illiterate old men and women in the rural communities who were largely subsistence farmers.
He urged the youths to avail themselves of the many incentives provided by the government including agric loans, grants and subsidised farm inputs to embark on commercial agriculture.
Orji said that agriculture provided best alternative to the dwindling fortunes of the oil revenue, assuring that the government was committed to improving the internally generated revenue (IGR) of the state through agriculture.
"If our youths engage in serious commercial agriculture, we will not only feed our population but will also have enough to sell locally and export.
"Also the IGR of the state will improve, youth unemployment will reduce and foreign investors will come to invest in the agricultural sector of our economy," Orji added. 

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