Anambra State Government says it will introduce a special agro-integrated aqua culture and agro production system for farmers across the state
The special system is to enable farmers scale produce to meet up with both local and international markets demand.
The State Commissioner For Agriculture,Dr Forster Ihejiofor, made the disclosure while briefing newsmen on this year’s World Food Day Commemoration in Awka.
According to him, the system driven by some new innovative technologies
“These technologies are designed for vertical propagation systems. In other words, you can do multi-layer production in a small land space.
“We are hoping that by the time we are celebrating this year’s event in November, we would have a scorecard to give Anambra people and our farming population on these production systems,” he said.
While describing the theme for this year’s commemoration “Water is Life, Water is Food, Leave no-one behind” as key and apt, the Anambra Agriculture Commissioner underscored the importance of water to survival of humans to include, primary resource for food production, processing as well as digestion.
He said the global celebration remains a pointer to the need for the society to evolve a collective action to initiate policies and programmes that would ensure food security and address challenges militating against accessibility of food.
“We are looking at mainstreaming backyard and urban farming that gives families full control over what they eat starting with vegetables and food crops.
“Most of them can be planted inside bags and containers around homes, so that families even know what they are eating and at the same time reduce the number of people trooping to the market scrambling for the little food that make it to the market,” Dr Ihejiofor said.
He also urged Anambra people to key into the Regenerative Agricultural practice adopted by the state government tailored around natural process of food production that recycles nutrients, describing it as most sustainable way to farm, climate friendly and environmentally preservative for production of rich, healthy food.