Anambra state has advanced remarkably towards food sufficiency in the seven years of the Willie Obiano administration. As a major pillar of his development blueprint for the state, Governor Willie Obiano provided funding to support agriculture and created an enabling environment to encourage investment in the sector.
Obiano’s strategic focus on mechanizing and commercializing agriculture and a sustained passion for effective development in the economic value chain, gave impetus to a massive revolution in agriculture. This yielded significant results as harvests became bountiful and outputs grew rapidly.
Under the Governor’s watch, rice production in Anambra state increased from 80,000 metric tons in 2014 to 345,000 metric tons in 2020. A projection of 525,000 metric tons yield has been made for 2021. Popular indigenous brands of Anambra rice are competing strongly in the markets all over the nation. They have also easily become the rice of choice in many homes.
What is more, increased yield in cassava, yam, maize, vegetables and ventures in livestock and fisheries have revealed that Obiano’s agricultural revolution in Anambra state is not only strategic but also holistic. Obiano’s effective partnership with investors launched a bold move to revive the ranching of Efi-Igbo – a breed of dwarf cattle peculiar to Ndi Igbo.
With adequate funding through the Anambra Small Business Agency, ASBA, Efi-Igbo ranches in Eagles Farm, Umuchu Aguata LGA and Wonder Farm, Umunze, Orumba South LGA are thriving today. Same applies to Lynden Poultry Farm which was commissioned in 2018 with the capacity of producing a million chicks a year. Today, Lynden Farms produces 5,000 crates of egg per day and has built capacity to process and package frozen chicken for markets in Anambra state and beyond.
In order to develop fish production and the aquaculture value chain in Anambra state, Governor Obiano created the Fisheries and Aquaculture Business Development Agency, FABDA to harness potentials in fishery effectively and develop the value chain for maximum output. Through FABDA, over 3,000 fish farmers have been trained and empowered for increased productivity by the Obiano administration.
To create entrepreneurial and employment opportunities in the communities, Governor Obiano recently embarked on the building of three fish villages in the three Senatorial zones of the state. In the villages, youths will be trained in the entire value chain while active production and processing of fish continues for local consumption and for export.
Governor Obiano’s passion for agriculture and zeal for maximum productivity spurred him to provide irrigation facilities in farm settlements to promote dry season farming in Anambra state. Even during the peak of COVID-19 pandemic, Obiano yet championed another novel idea for agricultural advancement titled Ugbo-Azu-Uno to encourage productivity even at a subsistence level.
However, the story of Obiano’s agricultural revolution in Anambra state cannot be completely told without mentioning the wonderful partnership between the state government and an indigenous investor, Graphil. This partnership engendered the unprecedented and trail blazing exportation of varieties of vegetables, spices, nuts, yam and other farm products to countries in Africa, Europe and America.
Supported by the Obiano administration with refrigerated trucks, Graphil processes and packages vegetables in Awka, Anambra state and prepares them for export through Lagos. But as work advances in the state owned international cargo airport project, Anambra waits with vigour to take more proceeds of Obiano’s agricultural revolution to the world.
WRITTEN BY IKENNA ANIAGBAOSO
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