BY ENYIM ENYIM

ONITSHA—Anambra State government is to purchase 100 tractors in the first week of May as part of plans to boost agriculture in the state.

Commissioner for Agriculture, Chief Nnamdi Mekoh, who dropped the hint yesterday in an interview with Vanguard, said the tractors would be made available to farmers and harvesters on hire basis, adding that improved maize, rice and cassava cuttings would be made available to farmers by the Ministry of Agriculture.

“We are also making arrangement with Rainbow Chicken in South Africa to come here and make chicken cheaper for us here. It is expected that they would be producing 1.5 million chickens daily.  And this would offer jobs to thousands of our unemployed youths,” he said.

According to Mekoh, the government of Governor Obiano is committed to total revolutionisation of agriculture in the state, with the N5.9bn appropriated for the Ministry of Agriculture, against the N1.6 bn that had been appropriated in the budget before now.

Besides, he said the state government under the former governor, Mr Peter Obi, had accessed N1.2 billion from Agricultural Credit Bank that would be disbursed to small scale farmers this year.