Umo Eno Guns for Food Security
Have you read the ARISE AGENDA? It is the vision of the Akwa Ibom State Governor-Elect, Pastor Umo Eno for growing the economy and developing the State.
Top on the list of the ARISE Agenda is Agricultural Revolution. Then there's Rural Development, Infrastructural Maintainance and Expansion, Security Management and Education Advancement. As distinct as they seem or even are, these subsets are intertwined and overlap.
Let's deal on this piece with Food Security or if you like, how Pastor Umo Eno intends to tackle Food Insecurity.
I trust you would agree, a hungry man is an angry man. Climate change, rising cost of food, famine, hunger drought, absence of pastures and grazing fields, fuel most of the wars we have in sub Saharan Africa and other parts of the world.
Where there is no food security, it is difficult to manage security of lives and property efficiently. As the predominant obligation of every Government, a strategy must be devised to ensure sustainable security and peace for general development to thrive.
Pastor Umo Eno’s strategy to accomplish this is working to ensure that Akwa Ibom people have enough food to eat and export. According to the October 2022 Cadre Harmonisé, a Government led and UN-supported food and nutrition analysis, an estimated 25 million Nigerians are at risk of facing hunger between June and August 2023 (lean season) if urgent action is not taken.
Pastor Umo Eno, going by his vision, will prevent Akwa Ibom State from slipping into this miserable index. There's no justifiable reason for any child to go to bed hungry at night. So, he places premium on triggering an agricultural revolution in the State.The pace of which should match up with its population growth.
Pastor Umo Eno has his determination set on investing in farming and agricultural technology to boost production and food security in Akwa Ibom State. To achieve food security, Pastor Umo Eno has drawn up a very clear vision and road map of what he has described as pursuing a holistic Integrated Farming.
This will be executed as a Settlement, complete with residential estate, social and technological infrastructure, security Police post, schools, health facility, supermarket and recreational facilities all available.
This Shongai-Farm model is conceived to address unemployment, arrest the alarming Rural- Urban drift and tackle not only environmental degradation but non utilisation of the massive arable land which is God's Gift to Akwa Ibom State.
The integrated Farming vision which encompasses, animal husbandry, fishery, large scale cultivation of cash crops, waste management and conversion to wealth and Agricultural extension management components, is proposed for Ini Local Government Area with allowance for satellite settlements in other Locations around the State. It has a projected 100 acres of land, commencing with an initial 50 acres for coverage.
The Integrated Farm is also planned to inculcate a tourist component. Families, corporate organisations, researchers, holiday makers can visit the farm settlements for holidays. The farm settlements shall have hospitality industry outfits that can offer them seamless accomodations and will become a foodstuffs commercial hub.
Envisaged to provide not less than 50 jobs at take-off, the integrated farm model will, on the short term and long- term guarantee over a hundred secured jobs, ancillary and auxiliary services, countless associated downlines and off- takers across board.
There is no gainsaying that with the Integrated Farming Estate as his flagship programme, the incoming Governor has understandably elected to invest in the area of the State's most promising comparative advantage including palm oil, coconut, cassava, maize, seafoods and diary products among others.
On this model, human capacity building and investment in Agriculture which is a plausible shot at economic diversification and revenue generation can become a mainstay of the Akwa Ibom State economy.
Already on the drawing board, Pastor Umo Eno and his incoming Deputy Governor-Elect, Senator Dr Akon Eyakenyi have embarked on strategic meetings and commissioned a business plan on food security for implementation in a bid to hit the ground running from their first day in Office. Are we ready to key into this agenda?
