Governor Biodun Oyebanji of Ekiti State said his government would adopt and utilize opportunities in organic system of farming for rural development, and sustainable agricultural practice in the state in order to improve agriculture and food security.
The Governor stated this in Ado Ekiti recently 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.
Governor Oyebanji explained that 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 lauded 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.
In his words, “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 in his remark, Reverend Father Emmanuel Akingbade of JDPI 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.
Rev Akingbade who said JDPI is out to launch the organic farming campaign for production of healthy food items in right quality and quantity at affordable prices in Ekiti State, added that practice of organic agriculture would reduce impact of synthetic chemicals in our environment.