The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and the Cross River State government have agreed to a partnership that would result in agricultural and ICT training for staff based in major ministries, departments and agencies in the state.
The agreement was finalised after a meeting by representatives of both parties, which included Asibong Inyang, commissioner of International Development Cooperation (MIDC); Nkoyo Toyo, lead advisor to the governor on Green Money, and Suffyan Koroma, representative of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) at the United Nations country office in Abuja.
While giving a briefing on the programme, Asibong revealed that the MIDC would facilitate the training aimed at building the staff capacity in major clusters of the state, especially on agrotechnology and info-business, which aligns with the state government’s priority towards actualising the Sustainable Development Goals. She explained that the core policy of the Governor Ayade led administration is to boost modern agricultural production, industrialisation, distribution and harness its value chains.
The commissioner also revealed that Cross River State has accustomed its policy in line with the Federal Government’s initiative on food security and agricultural revolution to actualise the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She stressed that strengthening the capacity of major MDAs and investments in innovative technology will ensure food sufficiency which is beneficial not only to the state but to the country as a whole. Cross River, Kano and Lagos are the three Nigerian states to benefit from the UN capacity building on modern ICT. Dare Olurunmole, the FAO technical team leader, who also serves as a project desk officer at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, stated that the ministry’s recent visit to the state was to discern the ICT requirements relating to the agricultural ministries departments and agencies (MDAs). MIDC is the coordinating ministry of the project and the beneficial MDAs include the Ministry of Agriculture, FADAMA, Agricultural Development Projects (ADPs) and a host of others.
