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Raymond Ozoji, Awka
Programme Manager of the Anambra State Agricultural Development Programme (ADP), Mr.Jude Nwankwo, has stressed the need for farmers in Anambra state to adopt best agronomic practices to engender better yields and more productive agricultural practices.
Nwankwo gave the advice in his office at the ADP complex Awka, while speaking with select journalists at the weekend.
He explained that the ADP encouraged farmers to use the right agro-imputs during cultivation to enable them to have bumper harvest, stressing that there are wide range of opportunities in the agro industry.
The ADP programme manager who said there is a difference between a certified seed and grain, noted that certified seeds perform better when planted because they have been properly examined and recommended by agro experts and their efficacy and productive value were not in doubts.
He also said that the ADP was currently into Free Imput Delivery Programme, where he noted that farming imputs were given to farmers free of charge to ensure that improved seeds spread across the state to control and curtail the diseases they usually experienced in the past, noting that ADP equally gave farmers lime to enable them to control acids in the soil in line with the information they will obtain from ADP best practice officers in the hinterlands.
Nwankwo noted that ADP has four zones in Anambra state located at Otuocha, Onitsha, Aguata and Awka, emphasising that Anambra state seeks to replicate its achievements in rice and yam production.
The Anambra ADP Programme Manager stated that the federal government closure of the borders was good for farmers as the move would encourage local production and patronage, noting that agriculture in Anambra state has gone beyond hoe and machete and that farmers were becoming more acquainted with new technologies in the agro-allied sector thereby encouraging mechanised farming.
According to him, the entire nation wants to eat indigenous rice in lieu of foreign rice that may have long expired stressing that the health benefits of local rice and other locally made goods cannot be over-emphasized.
