By Emma Obi
Special Correspondent, Calabar
“My people perish for lack of knowledge” (Proverbs 29:18).
To avoid this, the Cross River State Commercial Agriculture Development Project (CADP) has introduced Market Information Kiosk (MIK) to educate, inform, and enlighten farmers on the prices of inputs and crops.
It will facilitate farmers’ access to markets locally and internationally through internet facilities, explained Agriculture Commissioner, Anthony Eneji, while cutting the tape to declare the MIK open in Calabar.
At the click of a mouse
Eneji, represented by his acting Permanent Secretary, Frances Adie, said the MIK is located in Marian Market, popularly called IkaIka Oqua Market, “because it is the hub of commercial activities in Calabar, so as to afford traders the opportunity to walk into the kiosk, browse through the internet and know market prices within and outside the country.
“This will link them to other markets and assist the state to have a database of market prices.
“The United States of America uses similar strategies to help the government know which state will produce a particular commodity more at a particular time of the year consequently; they will buy at a time of surplus and store for the lean period.”
World Bank input
MIKs will soon be created in Ogoja, Ikom, and Ugep so that “the three Senatorial Districts of the state will have a code to help people from the comfort of their homes and offices to click and get market surveys.”
Duckhan Amah, Commercial Agriculture Development state project coordinator, also emphasised the importance of the MIK.
“Through this World Bank assisted project, traders can browse and know how much a jerry can of palm oil sells in Cross River, Kano, and in Plateau States at a particular time,” he said.
“How much a bag of cocoa, animal feeds, fertilizer, etc., costs in Port Harcourt or in Maiduguri.
“This will help farmers make informed decisions on where to take their goods for sale or where to buy agricultural inputs.
“This technology will help us get out of the analogue style of market surveys.
“A data will be fed into the system and with just a click on the computer; you get the prices of agricultural produce nationally and internationally.”
Cross Rivers ahead
Historically, Cross River State took the lead in areas such as politics, social, and economic; and Amah noted that although the MIK project is in five states – including Lagos and Kanuna – Cross River has also taken the lead in creating it.
The project will link farmers to international markets, support them in building mills to process and add value to their produce.
“The project received $26.34 million from the World Bank. Out of this, we have built 13 farms and access roads in 11 Local Government Areas of the state so as to make it easier for farmers to bring out their produce,” he disclosed.
Up to N2.5 million.is given to each farmer as grant and “with this, some of the farmers will become employers of labour.
“We also select mostly women and youths randomly to train and empower them so as to reduce unemployment in society ….
“We believe that the balance of the money that is left is enough for us to touch many more lives and transform agriculture in Cross River within the shortest possible time.”
Impact on farm yield
Amah expressed satisfaction that the project has created a tremendous impact in updating farmers’ technology for pruning and harvesting to increase their yield and income.
Batch One beneficiaries of the project wrote to Governor Ben Ayade “to appreciate [his] kind gesture targeted at alleviating and reducing youth restiveness occasioned by unemployment in the state.”
The initial 100 beneficiaries, comprising 60 males and 40 females from across the state, specialise in poultry (23), aquaculture (12), rice (14), and oil palm (51).
They thanked Ayade for approving N247 million for agriculture in his first year in office, and pledged to support the state government “to make poverty a history.”
