By Emma Una, CALABAR

To boost its position as the highest producer of cassava in the country, the Cross River State government has earmarked 100,000 hectares of land for cassava cultivation.

Speaking on Thursday in Calabar while flagging off the Cassava Value Chain Draft Implementation Programme, Governor Bassey Otu stated that 90 percent of the population in the state is involved in cassava cultivation and processing making it the highest staple food being consumed state.

“No state in Nigeria can compare with Cross River in cassava production and our economy is dead without cassava because it is the highest agricultural revenue earner for our people,” he said.

The governor, who was represented by his deputy, Processor Anthony Enoh, stated that there is no household in the state that survives without taking one form of cassava meal in a day.

Therefore, “we have to put our best foot forward in the cultivation, processing, and marketing of cassava to make us self-reliant and forget about our oil which has been taken away.”

He said the Policy Framework will teach cassava farmers in the state ways to modernize the traditional ways of cultivation and processing of the product to keep it ahead of other states.

“What we focus on in the state is the people first and this draft policy will give our people the land to cultivate cassava extensively because we have enough land and through this, we can contribute to the industrialisation of the country while emancipating our people financially and providing them employment,” he added.

Dr Johnson Ebokpo, the Commissioner for Agriculture and Irrigation said the Cassava Draft Policy is a vital instrument that will get the backing of the Cross River State House of Assembly to ensure that investors and partners will benefit maximally from investments in the cassava value chain.

“This comprehensive draft policy will prove a road map for the development of our agricultural value chain,” the commissioner said.

He said the state is blessed with abundant arable land which the people of the state cultivate and harvest cassava.