Ekiti State Governor, Mr Biodun Oyebanji has revealed that his administration would adopt and utilize opportunities in the organic system of farming for rural development, and sustainable agricultural practice in the state.
He said this while playing host to a team from the Justice Development and Peace Initiative (JDPI) championing organic farming, led by the Bishop of Ekiti Catholic Diocese, Bishop Felix Ajakaye. He also said the decision was part of his administration’s efforts to improve agriculture and food security in the state, embracing organic methods of farming would go a long way in boosting food production, improve the standard of living, and ensure that the people live long and healthy while the environment will become cleaner.
The Governor, who also praised various contributions of the Catholic diocese to the socio-economic development of the state, said a team of the government will sit with the NGO to brainstorm and agree on a road map towards providing necessary equipment and how best to utilize organic farming to advance the state agricultural sector. “I must thank Bishop Ajakaye for once again leading from the front and the Catholic diocese for always coming up with initiatives to assist us as a government and as people because if we are able to organize ourselves, we will live well, longer and there will be less stress on medical facilities and the environment will become much cleaner.
“But we need a lot of work to do to bring our people to that point and to do this we have to be extremely deliberate because most of the health hazard we have today is self-inflicted because we don’t eat right, we don’t live well and we overlook a lot of things maybe because of culture, environment or ignorance”. Earlier, Reverend Father Emmanuel Akingbade, who spoke on behalf the NGO said the purpose of the meeting was to inform the Governor about the campaign for organic agriculture as a key life saver and to seek Ekiti State government support in using the method to encourage rural development, self-transformations and sustainable agricultural practice.
