The newly established eight-metric-ton cassava processing mill in Idoma community, Cross River State, is set to create 1,000 direct jobs, according to Hon. Johnson Ebokpo, the state’s Commissioner for Agriculture and Irrigation Development.
Inaugurating the plant on Thursday in Idoma, Biase Local Government Area, Ebokpo highlighted the project’s role in community development, noting that the government planned to replicate the model across other LGAs.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the initiative which is part of the Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprise for Niger Delta (LIFE-ND) project, also includes a 1.3km farm road, a mini-bridge, and 15 hectares of cultivated cassava farmland.
He said the project was an integrated approach to community development because development would not end with the production of food, the community requires road access, flood control and the ability to add value.
“With these facilities, the community will be kept busy all year round because as the cluster produces cassava, another group of incubatees who were trained to process continues from there; it is highly commendable,” he said.
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Similarly, Dr Abiodun Sanni, the National Project Coordinator, emphasised the project’s goal to curb youth restiveness and empower women through integrated agricultural infrastructure.
“There is a major link here; the 1.3km access earth farm road leads to the mini Bridge, which in turn connects to the eight-metric tonnes cassava processing mill and the 15 hectares cassava plantation for incubators of the project,” he said.
Chief Steve Omori, the Paramount Ruler of Idoma, praised the project while narrating how IFAD built classroom blocks in the community, which ended their children’s travel to other communities to write the West African Examination Council (WAEC) examination.
Omori promised to protect the new facilities as they protected the classroom blocks constructed by Ifad in 2010 for the community.
One of the beneficiaries of the project Ms Comfort Anthony, expressed gratitude, noting significant improvements in their livelihoods due to the training and resources provided.
NAN also reports that The LIFE-ND project in Idoma has trained 59 participants, with 15 receiving farmland for cassava cultivation using high-yield, disease-resistant TME 419 cassava stems. (NAN)