Governor Mbah
The Enugu State Commissioner for Agriculture and Agro-Industrialisation, Mr. Patrick Ubru, has praised Governor Peter Mbah for his strides in transforming the state into a leading agricultural and export hub in Africa.
Speaking in Enugu on Sunday, Ubru highlighted the achievements recorded in the agriculture sector under Mbah’s leadership over the past two years.
He said the ministry had diligently followed the governor’s strategic blueprint aimed at leveraging agriculture to boost the state’s economy.
According to him, Governor Mbah’s plan is to use agriculture “as the basic driver in moving the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Enugu State from $4.4 billion to $30 billion by 2031.”
He noted that even before assuming office, the governor had “totally and carefully reviewed policies and strategies” and had backed them with Executive Orders and laws to promote crop cultivation, livestock and fishery production, and agro-industrialisation.
Ubru said the ministry began its work with a target of acquiring 300,000 hectares of farmland to facilitate large-scale commercial farming.
So far, “a total of 187,934 hectares across various locations in the 17 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the state had been acquired; and more land to be acquired from willing communities across the 17 LGAs.”
He added that the state had also launched a comprehensive farmer data registration effort.
“Continuous update and registration of farmers data on all agricultural value chains across the 17 LGAs in Enugu State. This is to ensure that Enugu State has a robust and verified data of all farmers within the state.”
“Over 67,000 farmers’ data have been captured featuring the geo coordinates, farm sizes, specialisations, value-chain etc of these farmers and their farms. With over 80 farmer co-operatives registered so far,” he added.
Ubru pointed to significant gains in cassava production, stating that Enugu is now the highest cassava-producing state in Nigeria, thanks to the state’s commitment to the Cassava Ethanol Bio-Refining Project.
“Besides other various programmes with development partners, we are excited about the private sector led, Federal, State and Local Government-enabled Private-Public-Partnership on Bio-economy focusing on Cassava-Bioethanol Value-Chain end-to-end development.”
“This project starts from seed multiplication to ‘out-grower/in-grower’ production with 100 per cent off-take; LGA processing clusters; Biotechnology Industrial Park; zero waste conversion of cassava peels to animal feed.”
“It will also produce zero post-harvest losses through 100 per cent off-take and mobile cassava processing etc and all the way to Cassava Ethanol Bio-Refining.”
He added, “Currently, 460 hectares of land have been cultivated with cassava with the construction of the industrial park ongoing at Egede/Affa communities in Udi LGA; and construction and installation of processing equipment at the Bioethanol Industrial Park at Egede.”
Ubru also announced that the Special Agro-Industrialisation Processing Zone (SAPZ) project would be launched across the state’s three senatorial districts: Enugu North, Enugu East, and Enugu West.
“The SAPZ project’s pilot phase is starting at Owo Community in Nkanu East LGA with 1,101 hectares of land.”
“The Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) and Feasibility studies have been conducted to enable funding partners African Development Bank (AFDB) and others conclude arrangement to release of funds for the second phase of the programme.”
“The report of the ESIA and Feasibility studies have been received and forwarded to AFDB.”
“Given the information from the AfDB and SAPZ National Coordination Secretariat, Enugu State met the minimum requirement and is scheduled to receive funding for Phase II of the SAPZ programme after the AfDB Board haved approval in the middle of 2025.”
According to Ubru, the government has also proposed 260 farm estates across the 260 political wards in the state, with a projected increase in agricultural productivity by 2,000 percent.
The project aims to create 52,000 direct jobs and over 100,000 indirect ones.
“A pilot phase of this project has commenced at Akpofu community with clearing ongoing within communities in Udi, Enugu East and Igboeze North and Igbo-Etiti Local Government Areas among other council area,” he said.
On mechanisation, Ubru said the government is supporting commercial agriculture with the procurement of 1,000 tractors and farming implements. “100 tractors have been received, another 100 on the way, while remaining 800 will be assembled in Enugu.”
He added that the state is also heavily investing in cash crops like cocoa, cashew, and cotton, as well as large-scale vegetable and spice production for both local consumption and export.
“We have established fish and vegetable farm clusters at Owo after site survey have been done.”
“Architectural design-cum-bill of quantity in progress; and did success pilot of greenhouse technology farming and encouraged LGs, institutions and individuals to participate fully in greenhouse farming.”
Ubru said that in December 2023, the state launched the “Enugu Rice” brand.
“On December 8, 2023, following His Excellency’s approval ‘Enugu Rice’ Brand was launched with three LGAs supporting in off-taking paddy rice from farmers that resulted to 150 tons of milled rice supplied to the Ministry by local processors.”
“These local processing infrastructure and equipment are product of interventions by the state and the donor agencies such as IFAD-VCDP, APPEALS, FADAMA-CARE and ATASP-1 among others.”
He also noted that, with support from donor agencies, the state government had provided farmers with irrigation facilities, inputs, seedlings, and training in climate-smart agriculture and modern farming techniques.
Ubru revealed that Enugu had set up a seed gallery and seed bank, and that produce cities were underway.
He added that a recent collaboration with the Ministry of Education would introduce Smart School Farms in all 260 new Smart Schools under the state’s “catch-them-young” agricultural education initiative.
“All these and more are meant to increase productivity, increase food availability, job creation, increase produce production as well as positioning the state as agriculture off-taking point, where there is value-addition, proper packaging and export hub,” he concluded.
