Ebonyi state piggery farmers Monday expressed the certainty of producing 20,000 pigs in the state within three months.
The state Commissioner for Agriculture, Chief Ogodo Ali Nome, made this known to journalists in Abakaliki after meeting with the farmers.
He narrated that piggery is very lucrative and attractive and tasked the people to go into it even as he said the state was on top of its nutrition conservation.
Ogodoali further said the state had enough food and fruits as a result of high yields and government attention to agriculture as alternative to the dwindling oil revenue.
He said, “We have enough food in the state, the rice which was well cultivated
did well. We built enough incentives. This year we spent over N1bilion on our rural farmers through the local government chairmen. The evidence is everywhere because if you go to our rural markets where fruits are being brought out for people to buy, you will have enough food and it is cheaper than any other place in the country.
“Our content is that we must produce enough food for our people and those very dear to us. As we are speaking, we are making preparation for dry season farming because there is a speculation that our rice will go higher within the season and we need to get prepared to tackle it.
“The federal government has a program in conjunction with Ebonyi state government to make sure that we have enough fruits and food to eat.
The pig farmers just left my office now and all these are components of food. Food is enjoyable with meat, it is a class to eat with meat, puck meat, you know, is white meat so I believe that Ebonyi is working.
“Today, the pig farmers told me that they have the capacity of producing 20,000 pigs in three months in Ebonyi state; which means we are on top of the nutrition conservation in the state. It is no more the time people say that pig is dirty, pig is very clean and it is white meat and it is for the big outside the country.
“People should being to appreciate what we have, we are canvassing that people should begin to go back to cattle rearing at the local level. Before now, we used to have cow ban in our place but now people believe so much in the finished product by the Fulani.”
