As part of renewed efforts to support farmers in their quest for food sufficiency, Governor of Nasarawa State, Umaru Al-Makura, on Tuesday, in Lafia said his government has started plans to develop food processing zones in clusters.
Explaining how it will work while receiving a preliminary report from the committee instituted for the project, he said creation of the food processing zone would help to curb food wastage from the huge harvest at the end of every cropping season.
In his views, “The establishment of the processing zone is to create the needed value chain activities in the agro-industrial sector as a prerequisite for security in the state”.
“Our resolve on the project is informed by the quest to harness farm produce right from cultivation to consumption and we are considering building of large warehouses across all local government areas in the state where government intends store surplus crops bought from farmers to be resold later to citizens at subsidized rate.
“Government will collaborate with farmers at all levels to buy up surplus crops harvest to avert wastage and even encourage farmers to produce more.
“The stored food will later be resold to the people at subsidized rate in an event of low crop yield, while some will be routed to the processing zone for value chain addition,” he said.
Corroborating Governor’s position, the State Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resource, Jameel Zakari, noted that the committee has identified a site for the establishment of the food processing zone in Lafia and all necessary studies have been concluded.
