By Peter Okutu

ABAKALIKI—EBONYI State Government, weekend, said it had concluded arrangement to engage the services of 39,000 farmers to boost rice production across the 13 local government areas of the state.

The state Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Mr Orji Uchenna Orji stated this while briefing stakeholders including local government chairmen, development centre Coordinators, Headmasters of schools, members and Staff of the Secondary Education Board, SEB and the State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB among others on the programmes and policies of the state government on agriculture and activities for the 2016 farming season.

Orji who stressed that the farmers will drive the rice production agenda of the state government charged council chairmen and cevelopment centre Coordinators to immediately go into land preparation between January and March and liaise with the ministry to ensure that the parcels of lands were mapped out and allocated to the listed Co-operative societies.

Explaining further, the commissioner noted that the state government had secured N2 billion loan for the over 774 Co-operative societies registered with the ministry to boost the state’s policy on agriculture and make Ebonyi the destination for food sufficiency and food security.