Wemimo Akinsola, the Senior Special Assistant to Ondo State Governor on Agric and Agribusiness, has disclosed the readiness of the state government to create Sunshine State Agricultural Company as part of its efforts to boost food security through empowering youths across the state.
Akinsola, who disclosed this on Wednesday in an interview with BusinessDay in Akure, noted that the move was going to save the people from hunger in the future because of a peculiar problem in the state regarding land use, which was very unfortunate.
According to him, it was high time the state stopped being the primary producer of goods and also giving the lands away, but also needed to follow up with the production of farm produce, which would generate employment for the citizens.
The SSA, who praised the governor on his different moves for food sufficiency, said food security was a paramount issue for the governor to ensure that people would be fed.
He said that for the state to flourish more, food processing must be taken seriously, while the government must try to sensitise the people of the state to start processing their products.
“It’s high time we stopped being primary producers of goods, giving our land away for primary use without follow-up.
“So we must make sure that it is our people who benefit from it, because it is from production that you make employment. Once you have to harvest, processing is where the key thing is, and we have to tell our people to actually be able to process.
“So we are proposing to have a sunshine agro-company. The company will be run by people who have companies. Notable companies and good investors that are here will build the infrastructure.
“And for us to be able to invest in agriculture, we need to build a proper infrastructure for agriculture. I’m looking at the tractor zones in the three central districts.
“This is the only way we can have food security, it has to be private, and the government is working hand in hand, and you know, how private, they have to make money.
“We need to produce and process what we need in the state. We are building the infrastructure and processing our primary production,” he said.
Akinsola, who also spoke on the security measures being put in place to save the state forests from criminals, said security personnel have been deployed across the 18 local government areas to ensure that farmers are safe.
“Also, we are improving our electricity. Since the governor came, electricity has been working in the South. So we are bringing a project to the South to employ 7,000 people.
