The Governor, Alex Otti, while noting that the two weeks agricultural training is aimed at enhancing local food production, urged trainees of the programme to be good ambassadors of the State as well as leverage the opportunity and equip themselves with the knowledge and skills to spearhead agricultural transformation in the State.
He reassured participants of the programme of comprehensive support, saying that the Government would cover all expenses from inception to completion of the agricultural training.
Governor Otti, who thanked the Founder and CEO of the CSS Global Integrated Farms, Prof. John-Kennedy Opara, for his support to the present administration, expressed commitment to ensuring the success of the agricultural training programme.
He urged Prof. Opara to consider establishing a farm in Abia State and promised swift land acquisition process, backed up with Certificate of Occupancy (C of O), delivered within 30 days.
In a presentation titled; “Agricultural Development and Food Security – The Path to Human and Capital Resources Development”, Prof. Opara, said Governor Otti to lay a solid foundation in Abia upon which his successors will build.
He said that Abia of today is no longer number one only in alphabetical order but in action because of the presence of a visionary leader in the person of Governor Otti
He said that by the training of the first batch of 300 Abians in various agricultural value chains, Governor Otti is empowering the youths to be creators of wealth and employers of labour, thereby ending joblessness, hunger, criminality and poverty among the youths.
In their remarks, the Commissioner for Agriculture, Professor Monica Ironkwe and Special Adviser to the Governor on Agriculture, Dr. Cliff Agbaeze thanks for the gift of Governor Otti, who has really shown in practical terms that he is on a mission to rebuild Abia, through life transforming programmes and policies.
Prof. Ironkwe noted that the 300 beneficiaries were carefully selected from wards to be trained in various Agriculture value chains, adding that with the gesture and other proactive steps taken by Governor Otti, Abia would in the near future, feed the whole Nigeria.