Luke Chukwu, an agriculturist and a core farmer with one of the largest hectares of agric farms in Imo State, says that red oil palm plantation is one of the most useful plantations in the world today because nothing is a waste from it; this is as he produces about 12 tons of red palm oil monthly, SABY ELEMBA in Owerri
reports exclusively.
A former executive chairman of Ohaji/Egbema and later member Imo House of Assembly for Ohaji/Egbema State Constituency, Chukwu, noted that agriculture has the potential to revive the Nigerian ailing economy from recession because “the agricultural sector of our economy has a lot of potentials for us to diversify our economy.”
Chukwu, who had a stint in the teaching profession for 18 years, described the agricultural professional as a noble one and that no other profession could be compared to it in the world today because of its importance, stressing that a farmer is an employer of labor.
“Today, all the labor I put in, engaging myself planting of oil palm trees, they are now yielding and the joy is there. I invested much in land purchasing, and the ones I inherited from my father will lead me to success,” he told BDSUNDAY, during a tour of a section of his large expanse of oil palm plantation at Umuapu in Ohaji/Egbema Local Government Area, Imo State.
At his Oil Mill company at Umuapu, where so many workers were seen busy with one job or the other, Chukwu told our reporter that he had spread his hand in many types of agriculture – farming, pineapple orchard, cropping where he had set aside 30,000 yam tubers for 2017 farming season, cassava and animal husbandry rearing over 200 goats in his goatry section.
His only regret is that he lost about 300 pigs through theft during tenure as a lawmaker in Imo House of Assembly my attendants in the farm sold them, those who are rearing pigs make a big money Chukwu stated.
Meanwhile, he is advising the Nigerian youths to pay less attention to white collar jobs, in the alternative to go into full-time agriculture or into other private sectors because “it will pay them better than wasting time walking around looking for non-existing white collar employment”.
“Having obeyed the advice of my father and went into agriculture, people who are in various fields and graduates from our higher institutions of learning should embrace agriculture to boost the economy,” it pays to be a farmer Chukwu finally advised.
