Zulum seeks cultivation of 65,000 hectares

Borno State Governor, Prof Babagana Umara Zulum on Monday hosted an
agro-facilitating team from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), with
the governor targeting the cultivation of 65,000 hectares of various
crops, to begin this year.

The meeting, held at the Borno liaison office complex in Abuja, was
attended by six officials from the apex bank, led by Mahmood Nyako, a
Deputy Director, whose team included CBN’s head of Anchor Borrowers
Programme (ABP), Chika Nwaja, and Mohammed Garba Said, who heads the bank’s fish farming intervention programme.

Borno State Commissioner for Agriculture, Bukar, the Chairman, Borno’s
mega farms project, Hon. Musa Inuwa Kubo, were on Zulum’s team.

The governor said Borno was interested in keying into CBN’s Anchor
Borrowers and commercial agriculture programmes to cultivate 30,000
hectares of sesame seeds, 10,000 hectares of maize, 10,000 hectares of
sorghum, 15,000 hectares for cultivation of rice, groundnut and cowpea
with each to take 5,000 hectares.

The cultivation is to take place in farms in the Borno central, south
and north, in line with the governor’s aggressive efforts to restore
agriculture in livelihood protection for internally displaced persons
and resettled communities.

Zulum also at the meeting, indicated keen interest in Borno taking
advantage of CBN’s fish farming intervention.

Teams from Borno government and the CBN are expected to hold another
meeting in Maiduguri next week to agree on areas the bank will support
“huge investment to create value chain in fish farming”.

Zulum had identified communities in Borno where citizens engage in
fish farming, pointing out that his administration would invest in
ways the citizens would have increased in yields for wealth creation
and to enhance food sufficiency in the state.