The Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, has announced that the state government has transitioned from subsistence to large-scale agriculture.
Speaking to journalists, the governor explained that this transformation was driven by insights gained from the Edo State Oil Palm Programme (ESOPP).
He noted that the experience of managing large-scale oil palm plantations has been applied to developing commercial cassava farms, which are now used for manufacturing flour and ethanol in the state.
The governor said: “We still produce food in Nigeria at the subsistence level, which is inefficient. It is sad because before the Civil War, we had commodity boards and people were investing in larger-scale farming, which was more efficient.
“Agriculture was the mainstay of the economy, and we didn’t have crude oil at that time.
“So, subsistence farming for 200 million people is not just going to work. We have got to think about production on a large scale because we’re a huge country.
“But do we have that culture of agriculture? We produce food like every part of Nigeria.”