By Dipo Olowookere
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr Audu Ogbeh, has expressed satisfaction with the $10 million ginger farm located in Rijana, Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
Speaking during a visit to the farm recently, the Minister said he was impressed with the farm and the export earning potential.
He promised that Federal Government will continue to support investors in the agricultural sector.
“It is exciting to see what is on ground here, $10 million worth of ginger cultivated and almost ready for harvest. We are happy about this and we encourage more investors to come into this sector.” Mr Ogbeh said.
The farm, sitting on 1000 hectares land spreading over 7km with 700 hectares of cultivated ginger roots and seeds, is a beneficiary of the Federal Government’s Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme being implemented through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
With 36,000 Metric tonnes capacity storage silos, 30 tonnes per/ha harvest estimate and a selling price of $700 per tonne in the export market, owner of the farm, Mr Kashim Imaam, informed the Minister that, “We already have demands for our ginger from markets in India, China, Netherlands and Dubai that will off-take all our produce when we harvest in January next year.
“We have engaged 1000 workers on this farm, 400 of whom are women. We want to create an incubation centre here to train 1000 young school leavers from the different geo-political zones and empower them as entrepreneurs.
“We solicit government’s support with mechanization in the areas of cleaning, harvesting, slicing and drying machines.”
The Minister was accompanied to the farm by the Director, Agribusiness and Marketing, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr Musibau Azeez; former Governor of Benue State, Mr George Akume; among others.
Adedapo Adesanya