Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago of Niger State has reiterated his commitment to put in place measures aimed at cultivating over 4.5 million hectares of land in the state within the next 8 years.
The Governor stated this while speaking during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Alternative Bank on sustainable development during the ongoing retreat for top government officials at the Toys Institute along Kaduna-Abuja Road in Tafa LGA of the State.
He noted that only one per cent of the state’s arable land has so far been cultivated, adding that the state government intends to procure some earth-moving equipment, such as caterpillars, bulldozers, pallet loaders, and graders, among others, on a long lease to prepare land for cultivation of about 4.5m hectares, which is half of the state’s cultivable land, in the next 8 years at the ongoing retreat for top government officials at the Royal Institute on Kaduna-Abuja Road in Tafa LGA of the state.
The governor stressed that the state is already discussing with Almarai, a Saudi Arabian multi-national dairy company, the production of Alfalfa plants of economic value, emphasising that the protein content of the plant will be studied to improve the seedlings for planting.
The Governor thereby directed the Chairman, Niger Foods Limited, to liaise with the financial institutions to achieve the desired result of the collaboration.
Meanwhile, the signing of the MOU, which was done as a basic segment of the economic drive of the state, is to maximise the opportunity of harnessing its agricultural potential in sugarcane plantations, with an estimated output of 50,000 metric tonnes of sugar annually, including the production of methanol, 40,000 metric tonnes of animal feeds, the generation of 11 MGW of electricity, and about 4,767 job opportunities.
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