
The Kogi State government has announced it would seek for the World Bank’s intervention to boost rice farming in the state.
Mr. Oloruntoba Kayode, the Kogi commissioner of agriculture said to this newsmen, Thursday, in Abuja.
While highlighting the achievement of the World Bank’s Fadama III cassava production and agriculture value chain scheme in Kogi, he explained that the state is a “confluence of opportunities” with fertile agricultural land, rivers, and able-bodied men.
Kayode also said that some parts of the state like Omala, Lokoja, Ibaji, Ejiba/Omi Dam, Bassa, Koton-Karfe, have usable land for rice farming and aquatic culture while the government had already sought for lease of 4,500 hectares of land for rice farming near Omi Dam in Yagba West and Ibaji Local Government Areas which belongs to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
The commissioner said that the state would also embark on fish farming and World Bank assistance can make Kogi become one of the largest rice producers in North Central Nigeria.