Address problem of land clearing, Ondo urges FG

The government of Ondo state has appealed to the Federal Government to assist it with fund to address the problem of land clearing to enable the administration of Governor Akeredolu achieve it target of empowering 18000 youths.
The permanent secretary, Ministry of agriculture and rural development, Mr Odusanya Segun, made the appeal recently during the stakeholders consultative meeting on the 2019 agriculture budget organised by ActionAid Nigeria, Oxfam in Nigeria, ECOWAS Commission and Ministry of Budget and National Planning, in Lagos.
He said the cost of clearing land for 18000 youth to be engaged on a pilot programme, “Youth On Ridge Programme, is weighing heavily on the state.
“The federal government must always assist states through the budget.
We in Ondo state will request that the federal assist the state to bear the cost of land clearing for the 18000 youth we are engaging on the “Youth On Ridge Programme” at N250,000 per hectare is huge.
The federal can assist through the Anchor borrowers Programme.
It will go along way to encpurage the state.
Listing some of the achieving of the government in such a short time in office, Mr Odusanya, said the state government is also training over 2500 youths on cassava value addition by Ondo State Agri-Business Empowerment Centre (OSAEC) while also partnering with Cocaset Nigeria limited on sugar production, DAWN commission on rice production, Dabgote Groups on rice production, establishes eqq powder processing factory at Emure and working on the NNPC cassava ethanol project at Okeluse.