Governor Dapo Abiodun has revealed that investors in rice farming and processing are coming to Yewa in Ogun West to do large scale rice business in that area of Ogun State.
Governor Abiodun revealed further that the state is looking for 20, 000 hectares of land for the investors, who had concluded their plans on the project and appealed to the traditional rulers in Yewaland to deliberate among themselves on how to make available suitable land for the envisaged rice plantation and processing.
The Governor explained that the state government won’t commit any dime to the rice farm project as the interested investors had already perfected their funding strategies, vowing to create just the enabling environment to attract more viable investors.
He noted that given the place of Yewa North and Imeko Afon in the areas of agriculture, he would turn Yewaland to the rice capital of Nigeria; to serve as an enduring legacy of his administration.
He spoke on Wednesday while inaugurating the first phase of the 21km Ibooro/Imasayi Ayetoro road in Yewa North Local Government Area.
The strategic road which has created hundreds of direct and indirect jobs, is expected to foster more trade and commerce among scores of communities within and around its corridor.
The inauguration ceremony had in attendance, deputy governor Noimot Oyedele – Salako, former deputy governor Salmot Badru, Chief Iyabo Apampa, Senator Gbenga Kaka, Balogun Agboola Alausa, the Olu of Ilaro and Paramount Ruler of Yewaland, Oba Kehinde Olugbenle, the Aboro of Ibooro, Oba Abayomi Salako, the Olu of Imasayi, Oba Luqmon Kuoye among other royal fathers.
Governor Abiodun said the road would ease movement of farm – produce from farms to markets, reduced rural – urban migration as well as enhance accessibility to hitherto hard to reach agrarian villages.
He equally flagged – off the construction of the second phase of the Ibooro -Imasayi – Ayetoro road, explaining that roads work is an integral part of his administration’s resolve not to develop one part of the state at the expense of the other.
Abiodun said, “Yewa North and Imeko Afon Local Government Areas are known for their agricultural potentials and one of my legacies will be to leave these council areas and have them defined truly as the food baskets of not just this state, but for the entire country.
“I had spoken with the Head of Service (HoS), I have also spoken with Olu of Ilaro and Paramount Ruler of Yewaland to challenge all the traditional rulers in Yewaland that we are looking for a 20, 000 hectares of land
“We want to turn this part of Yewaland into a rice capital of Nigeria. We already have the investors that love the responses to turn this place into the rice development and rice processing centre in Nigeria and I am deeply committed to that as such will be one of the legacies of my administration.
“Therefore, I am throwing it back to you Kabiyesi, go and help us look for land between now and the next two weeks.
“Government is not putting a dime into it but will just be providing the needed enabling environment for the investors to turn this place into a rice capital of Nigeria. Thus is in line with our Public Private Partnership (PPP) agenda. We will lift up the economic prosperity of this place; it will trickle down to individual prosperity and the lives of our people will never be the same again.”
