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| HON. OGUN |
Respite is here for famers
in Esan North East and Esan South East Local Government Areas of Edo State as
Hon. Sergius Oseasochie Ogun, a member of the National Assembly, in association
with SOOF, have organised a five day seminar which kicks-off today, Monday, July
27, at 9am, at St Benedict Catholic Social Centre, Ubiaja, Edo State.
Tagged Root Crops in industry: Sustainable uptake of
edible roots crops as industrial raw materials in Esan land in food, confectionary
and bakery industries, the seminar, which has as resource persons,
officials of the National Root & Crop Research Institute (NRCRI) Umudike,
Abia State, will train farmers on the use of cocoa yam and high yield cassava
stems among others.
Commenting, Hon. Ogun said:
“My political platform is an opportunity for me to do more for the people. Today
we are going to be having training for farmers and the recourse people are coming
from the National Root & Crop Research Institute, Umudike, and for the
whole week (Monday to Friday), they are going to be training farmers on the use
of cassava, cocoa yam. We are talking about high yield cassava stems which they
will make available to the farmers after the training.”
On the reasons why he decided
to embark on the project, Hon. Ogun
continued: “Almost every forth night there is a bus load of youths
leaving for Europe through the desert in search of greener pastures and most of
them die in transit so all this is geared towards stopping that trend.
“The idea is to set up
something for the cooperatives and create wealth but my real target is actually
the youths. If in the next one year they can see what is happening to the
farmers and the cooperatives, we shall attract a lot of youths. We are talking
about high yield cassava which has awesome potentials. “Glucose syrup which is
used in the confectionary industry is costing Nigeria a lot of foreign
exchange. We import it to the tune of N2billion annually. Meanwhile, we have
the potential to manufacture it locally. With this project we won’t be able to
service the market but it is a starting point.
“Bakers also don’t have enough
flour so they can also use cassava to bake. As soon as the project begins to
run, we will get land and build a farm village for the youths and assist them
with tractors. We can make the agricultural sector as glamorous as Oil and Gas,”
Ogun added.
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