Oil palm farmers in Ogun State have been urged to participate in the ongoing registration exercise in order to benefit from the intervention measures packaged by the Federal Government for the sub-sector.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. Ayodele Kolade, explained that the exercise, a derivative of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda of the Federal Government, would enable both the federal and state governments identify the number of oil palm farmers in the State.
He said, “The exercise when concluded will facilitate the formation of the state branch of Oil Palm Growers Association of Nigeria. The association will serve as the avenue through which the interventions and incentives of the Federal Government would be channelled.”
He added that registration forms were available in all local government council secretariats and at the Ministry of Agriculture offices across the state. He also implored all oil palm farmers as well as other people interested in establishing oil palm plantations to take advantage of the opportunity.
Meanwhile, the state government has advised sawmill owners in the state to renew their licences to prevent a shutdown of their saw-mills.
In a statement on Wednesday, the state Commissioner for Forestry, Alhaji Falilu Sabitu, said that some sawmillers had not renewed their 2011 licences, while some saw-mills were springing up without due process.
He said, “I advise owners of Sawmills to have their 2011 licences renewed latest by the end of next month to prevent their sawmills from being sealed off.
“Any saw-mill owner, who refuses to renew his licence, will be penalised. Also, those owners of illegal sawmills will be prosecuted as a monitoring team would be out to check licences and other illegal activities going on in sawmills,” he warned.
According to him, Divisional Forest Project officers have been challenged to devise new plans and strategies to generate revenue to enhance the productivity of the ministry. He implored them to inform the ministry of the challenges militating against achieving results, warning that lack of fund would not be an excuse for poor performance
“All Divisional Forest Project officers and the central Log Control unit should go out and check their sawmill licences, Tell everybody that they have up till the end of March to pay for last year, we have given them the grace, anybody who fails to pay, seal off his sawmill,” he said.
Friday, February 10, 2012 by Sodiq Oyeleke
Written by NEWSTRAWL ONLINE UPDATE
Sodiq Oyeleke is a Media, Human Resources, Project Management and Public Relations Practitioner
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