The frontline governorship hopeful of the All Progressives
Grand Alliance (APGA) for Imo State gubernatorial election holding in 2019, Nick
Opara-Ndudu, has promised to introduce agro-revolution if elected, reports ITRealms.
Speaking at his country home in Emekuku, Owerri North Local
Government Area of the state, where he addressed some party supporters,
Opara-Ndudu said that the time has come when a well-articulated agricultural
policy should be implemented in Imo State to liberate the people from the
scourge of poverty and the lingering underdevelopment now ravaging the state.
The policy, which he tagged “Agricultural Revolution” will
also include the opening up of the rural
areas for vibrant economic activities that will improve the quality of lives of
Imo people while bringing about sustainable growth in the state economy; the
overall aim will be to empower the people economically while engendering
socio-economic development of the state.
He said that agriculture is a springboard for economic
revival of Imo State and that his government will be very active in the sector
because of its numerous potentials.
Opara-Ndudu, who is an astute banker, believes strongly that
if the rural areas were opened up through the provision of adequate road
networks, the people in the countryside would be connected to the cities and
allowed easy evacuation of agricultural produce just as farmers would be
encouraged to increase production.
He also said that the provision of power, pipe-borne water,
hospitals and recreational facilities in the rural areas will stem the menace
of rural urban migration as youths will be encouraged to live in the villages
and take agriculture as a profession.
The former commissioner, whose mentor is Chief Sam Mbakwe,
late former governor of old Imo State, said if given the mandate in 2019, his
government would encourage the return of cooperative farming and commodity
board, the building of storage facilities and local processing of farm produce.
He further said he would revive all the moribund
agricultural establishments in the state such as Avutu Poultry Farm in Obowu,
Adapalm Plantation in Ohaji, and establish new ones, adding that instead of
what obtained in the past, when the state government alone was involved, the
arrangement would be Public Private Partnership (PPP).Companies, both local and
foreign, willing to invest in agriculture in the state, would be encouraged to
do so.
Agriculture, he said, has the potentials to transform Imo
State ailing economy to a resilient one that will stand the test of time and
put it on the path of sustainable growth and thereby reduce the government’s
dependent on federal revenues, adding that all the government needs to do is to
puts its acts together.
Opara-Ndudu said that agriculture has a composite function
inbnu that it provides foods and employment to the people, serves as a source
for raw materials, revenues, exports, among others, even as it will lay the
strong foundation for industrialization of the state as exemplified by the economic Eldorado of
the countries of South-East Asia and China.
Uboshe Uboshe/GEE
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