IDRIS AHMED, LOKOJA.
Cotton Producers and Merchants Association of Nigeria, (COPMAN), Kogi state chapter, has commenced cultivation and farming of cotton at Ejiba, Yagba West local government area of Kogi state.
Over 250 hectares of land has so far been cultivated and the improved seed of cotton from India have been planted.
Coordinator of COPMAN in Kogi state, Mallam Azeez Danladi, told pressmen on Tuesday after an Inspection of the farm by officials the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that the association needs another 150 hectares of land for extension of the projects in Kogi state in view of the success so far recorded.
Danladi explained that Nigeria agricultural sector has become attractive, as raw materials needed to feed textile industries can now be produced locally and soon be exported for foreign earnings.
While commending the Central Bank of Nigeria for the Anchor Borrowers programme to boost agriculture across the country, the Coordinator also appealed to youths to take to farming, not only to feed the nation, but to also feed local industries with raw materials.
Mallam Azeez Danladi also appealed to the Kogi state Governor Alhaji Yahaya Bello, to encourage the cotton project in the state by making cultivable land available for massive production of the commodity.
He sought the assistance of both the federal and state ministries of Agriculture to provide inputs and accessories to encourage the farmers.
The officials from the CBN expressed satisfaction with the progress made by the cotton farmers and promised to expedite actions that will assist them to achieve the objective.
It would be recalled that Nigerians have advised to agriculture as a means of diversifying economy, after so much depending on petroleum.