Taraba state has no business with food insecurity. In fact, the state should be feeding itself and the rest of the country. This has always been the declaration by the governor of Taraba state, Dr Agbu Kefas. The former soldier turned politician often wondered what is holding the state down to achieve its full potentials as far as food is concerned. When the governor recently set up the Food Sustainability Committee, he questioned the rationale of the vast resources the state has without a corresponding outcome in agricultural fortunes. Why should a state with some of the richest soil not having bumper harvest? Why should a state with massive potential for aqua agriculture grapple with food crises?
Dr. Kefas is already finding answers to these key issues. With a very clear blueprint on the agricultural sector, Governor Kefas is harnessing the robust mental energies of experts and actors in the sector. The commissioner of agriculture in the state is a professor of agriculture engineering. There is a high-powered committee comprising traditional rulers who easily the custodians of farming space in their communities. The committee is now serving as the hub for research and monitoring in the sector. A member of the committee, Zanau Maikasuwa, is the Special Adviser to the governor on agriculture saddled with the policy implementation of the department.
Digging in, Governor Kefas has also upped the game further with a tremendous deployment of tractors to the state. This is key because for a very long time, the state lagged behind in its tractors’ needs. The Tractors Hiring Unit of the state was basically dead. The current deployment means a huge boost to mechanized farming.
This, alongside more pesticides and other supports to farmers, is a new kind of energy for agriculture in the state.
Above all, the state government is working assiduously to address security challenges. The governor believes that safer farms will mean more farmlands to be cultivated. It would also secure the roads to move harvests to the markets.
The efforts at reducing the conflicts between farmers and herders; the deployment of more boots on the ground and the general synergy amongst security agencies is helping to strengthen policy implantation in the agricultural sectors.
Bello is Special Adviser Media and Digital Communications to Governor Kefas
