RECENTLY in the news was United States discovery of shale and gas in commercial quantity which has made them to stop buying Nigeria crude oil in commercial quantity. Invariably the recent development will surely affect Nigeria’s revenue considering that crude oil is the major source of the country’s revenue and the US was the highest buyer of our crude before now. It was as a result of this development that people have been agitating and calling on our leaders before now to diversify the country’s economy to make it less dependent on oil.

Economic experts have argued and advised before now that the agricultural sector should be explored and developed as alternative to the current oil-based economy. Some of our leaders paid deaf ear to the warning and failed to do the needful simply because the monthly Federation Allocation must come.  Now that America has stopped buying Nigeria’s crude in commercial quantity, the monthly federation allocation must definitely reduce.

It is only states that explored alternative source of income by developing their agricultural sector that will survive the effects in the nearest future. One of such states is Abia whose governor, Chief Theodore Orji anticipated this situation and started aggressive and sustained agricultural revolution in the state from the inception of his government.

His government was the first in the country to introduce Youth-In-Agriculture Initiative which was aimed at encouraging and supporting youths in practising commercial farming. Since then, many unemployed youths in the state have been trained and supported by government to practise agriculture in the state. Some of them are today employers of labour.

The government has established liberation farms across the 17 council areas in the state where the youths are being trained in different agricultural practices. At Bende, two rice mills were established to enable rice farmers within and outside the environs to process their rice. Also constructed and stocked in the area were fish ponds of various sizes.

At Akpaa Mbato in Obingwa, the state government purchased 24 plots of land now being used for agricultural practice. Abia Palm Estate in Ohambele in Ukwa East council area which was comatose before now has been revitalised. The same treatment has been extended to Abia Rubber Company and Cashew Plantation.

For years, Chief David Onyenweaku, a prominent son of the state has remained the number cocoa farmer in the country. The state government has provided more than a million cocoa seedlings free to cocoa farmers in the state since 2007.Also, the government has been making provision for a capacity building programme called  farmer field school in collaboration with STCP/IITA. It has done this through the establishment of 15 schools located in cocoa producing communities of the state.

At Lodu Ndume in Umuahia North is a massive cassava plantation with a large number of farmers employed there. Government has been subsidizing agro-inputs such as fertilizers, seeds, seedlings, agro-chemical to more than 214, 000 farmers in the state since 2007. Also subsidized by the state government  were 55 tractors for farming across the 17 council areas in the state. In the area of payment of counterpart fund, the state government has paid counterpart fund for FADAMA project 111 and the FGN-NDDC community based Natural Resources Management Projects. A total of  25,262 farmers have benefitted from the projects, while 21, 216 farmers have also received trainings on best agricultural practices with government support in the state.

To ensure that the agricultural produce reach the city for use, the government since coming into office has engaged in massive road construction and rehabilitation in the rural areas where these farms and farmers are residing. Obviously, the government’s massive intervention in the sector  is paying off today as the state is gradually becoming the food basket of the nation.

It was as result of this giant stride that Governor Orji was recently honoured with the award of Agriculture Governor of The Year in Lagos at the AGRIKEXPO third PAN West Africa Internal Agric Exhibition. His government’s efforts in agric sector if sustained by successive governments in the state will be a major  source of revenue for the state in the face of dwindling oil revenue in the country.

DONALD UMAHI, a commercial farmer, wrote from Abam, Arochukwu, Abia State.