Chidi Onyemaizu 

Imagine this scenario: You are young, forward looking and idealistic. You have always dreamt of a good paying job and cozy air conditioned office after graduation. But here you are, a graduate yet pining away in agony as your dream job is far spread and in most cases nonexistent. And then, a window of being your own boss opens. Hundreds of hectares of farm land become yours. You need not till the soil. You don’t plow it nor manually plant on it. And you don’t also manually do the harvesting. Yes, you are a farmer quite alright but one with a difference. You don’t sweat to farm-no form of manual farming activities at all.

Machines do the sweating while you smile your way to bumper harvest and consequently, bank. And in no time you become a millionaire, job creator and employer of labour yourself! The above is ramrod exactness of what Cross River state governor, Professor Ben Ayade is doing with agriculture and youths in the state. He is irrevocably committed to modernizing farming which is one of the quick win ways to attract people into agriculture.

Mechamised farming is therefore, a new vista in Professor Ayade’s Agro-industrialisation drive. It is geared towards making farming seamless and attractive, especially to young graduates. Ayade: “We are encouraging young men and women to go into agriculture and take advantage of the modern agricultural techniques my administration has put in place to enable them enjoy themselves while earning a living….What I have done about farming is to make it exciting and pleasant..we have a very sophisticated technology with an air condition system so there’s nothing stopping a graduate from going into farming.”

Rather than roam the streets in search of white collar jobs, the governor is primed at creating jobs, through agriculture, for Cross Riverians, especially the youth, so that they become their own bosses and wealth creators. Governor Ayade is a farmer himself and so is acting based on experience. And he did not just happen on the Agricultural sector. Ayade has been a farmer long before he delved into politics, owning several farm settlements, including a large rice farm in Obanliku council area of the state.

The governor is now living out his creed: Hands on the plow, food on the table. Through massive investment in Agro- based industries, he is working to ensure that every family in Cross River is not only able to feed itself but also become an employer of labour. While others talk of Petro- dollars Ayade is more interested in “Agri-dollar”.  “We (Cross River) are pursuing Agri- dollar rather than petro- dollar, he says. Imbued with fecundity of ideas, governor Ayade is not in doubt about what the future holds for Nigeria’s oil- induced economy.

With alternative sources of energy increasingly out spacing crude oil globally, Professor Ayade has the presence of mind to realise that Agriculture is the black gold of the future hence the cardinal flank upon which his Industrialisation policy rests is Agro- Industrialisation. This explains why 90 percent of the state-owned industries he has set up since coming to office are agro-based. And so, to make the Agricultural sector smell of roses, look flowery and get young Cross Riverians key into it, the governor is ensuring that mechanised farming totally displaces subsistence farming in the state. This verges on the principles of the 1876 agro- industrial revolution in Europe. Evidently, Cross River under Ayade is leading Nigeria and Africa towards that path with his unparalleled investment in Agriculture.

To this end the Ayade administration is partnering with the world’s foremost mechanized farming equipment producer, John Deree. The company has supplied Cross River with state of the art farming equipment that will make farmers in the state farm without sweating.

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According to Ayade, “Cross River state is introducing a new thinking consistent with first world practice that farmers don’t have the responsibility for agricultural infrastructure. Agricultural infrastructure is the responsibility  of government. Farmers are only to nurture and tender their farms while the responsibility of infrastructure and utility becomes that of government”

To the governor, one does not necessarily have to sweat and slave to eke out a living through farming. “If you have to sweat in Cross River, you don’t sweat because you are tilling the soil, you sweat because of pleasure because machines will be doing your job”, he says. Governor Ayade’s massive investment in Agriculture had last year earned him effusive praises from President Muhammadu Buhari.

While commissioning the ultra modern automated Cross River rice seeds and seedlings factory in Calabar Jun last year, the President commended Professor Ayade’s Agro- industrial drive saying: It is evident that by conceiving projects such as this, Governor Ayade has a keen eye for tomorrow; focusing on projects that are building a new economic base for the state rather than projects with short term benefits for the purpose of making cheap political points. I salute Mr.Governor’s vision.

It is therefore, my hope and expectation that other states that are yet to fully take advantage of the zero-oil economic roadmap of the federal government will take a cue from Cross River State”.  Governor Ayade’s investments agriculture include the ongoing construction of an ultramodern rice mill in Ogoja which is over 90 percent completed, the cotton farm in Woda, Yala, the cocoa processing plant in Ikom, also about 90 percent completed, the Banana plantation in Odukpani, the feed mill and yellow maize farm in Obubra, the ultramodern poultry farm for export of frozen chicken amongst others.

Upon assumption of office in 2015, the governor made it is clear that industrialization of Cross River  in all ramifications would  underpin his vision for rapid economic growth of the state. Over four years down the lane, Cross River under Ayade has found a pathway on how to decouple itself from over reliance on federal allocation, and is irrevocably committed to that path.

 

Onyemaizu, a media aide to Governor Ayade, writes from Calabar