Mr Sunday Akintomide, Permanent Secretary, Ondo State Ministry of Agriculture, says the ministry will embrace modern innovative ideas to boost agriculture in the state.
Akintomide made this known on Monday in Akure during a paper presentation by the Enterprises Grooming Institute Ltd, an Agro-organisation.
The papers presented were titled: “Agro Business as it Relates to NIRSAL Micro Finance Bank and Agric Small Medium Enterprises Investment Scheme(AGSMEIS) for Farmers’.
The permanent secretary said the ministry was open to ideas and innovations that could turn around fortunes of farmers in the state and thereby improve food production and by extension the economy of the state.
According to him, it will not augur well for the state to lag behind by practicing agriculture using antiquated system.
“We are in information age, where new philosophies, ideas and such are evolving daily. These are being used by individuals and corporate bodies as well as countries of the world to improve all facets of agriculture.
“And I think Ondo State in particular and Nigeria in general need to tap these ideas from successful practitioners.
“This ministry is ready and ever willing to have people who are doing these to pass them onto our teeming farmers.
“Let them come forward and show it. In conjunction with other stakeholders we can get all the farmers imparted with the knowledge,” he said.
Earlier in his presentation, leader of the team, Mr Ajisefini Ayodeji, explained that the group was in the state to teach farmers the way to turn farming into business.
Ayodeji, who said that Ondo State was blessed with a good vegetation for farming, explained that agriculture as business would benefit the farmers and make them richer by being more productive.
“When our farmers move to the level of treating their means of livelihood as a business, it will have a multiple effect on the economy.
“I think our farmers should embrace cluster farming system and have processing plants for their produce. These will help them to get going as businessmen in agriculture. I have been to Ondo, Owo, Ile-Oluji and other areas of the state, where I sensitise the farmers,” he said.
The team lead also said that his institute assists people to obtain information about windows of loan opportunities available in the banks and other financial institutions as well as means of benefitting from them.(NAN)
