The Enugu State Government will on Tuesday distribute farm inputs to 63,000 smallholder farmers across the state to boost agricultural production this farming season. The government also approved the employment of 4,698 additional teachers for its Smart Green Schools, while directing the activation of all its isolation centres following the outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and parts of Uganda, saying it did not want to be caught unawares.
Farm Inputs Distribution Details
These decisions were made known to Government House correspondents after a meeting of the State Executive Council in Enugu at the weekend. Briefing newsmen, the Commissioner for Information and Communication, Malachy Agbo; Commissioner for Agriculture and Agro-Industrialisation, Patrick Ubru; Commissioner for Education, Prof Ndubueze Mbah; and Commissioner for Health, Prof George Ugwu, said the Mbah Administration would continue to deliver optimal governance even during the campaign period, insisting that it has a mandate and vision to deliver.
The Commissioner for Agriculture and Agro-Industrialisation said, “Last year, about 40,000 farmers benefited. This year, it is even bigger and better, as the state has now approved for 63,000 farmers to receive free agricultural inputs as intervention, ranging from fertilisers to agrochemicals, free rice seeds, free maize seeds, and free pepper and tomato seeds.” He added, “It is targeted at reducing the cost of agricultural production and ensuring that our smallholder farmers increase their income and improve their livelihoods.”
Mr Ubru explained that the Exco directed that beneficiaries must be duly registered smallholder farmers who are identifiable, whose farms are captured, and can be monitored. “So, on Tuesday, 21st July, the governor will flag off the distribution of farm inputs. Thereafter, the 260 wards will receive theirs under strict monitoring to ensure that only those identifiable as farmers benefit from the scheme to better their lives,” he stated.
Teacher Recruitment for Smart Green Schools
On his part, Prof Mbah said the additional 4,698 teachers were to ensure that the standard for the 267 Smart Green Schools, as modelled at the Owo Campus, is fully and uniformly achieved across the state. “Enugu State Government has further expanded and intensified its efforts to completely equip and operationalise the Centre for Experiential Learning and Innovation (CELI), which is situated within the Enugu State College of Education (Technical).”
He described this as a guaranteed strategy to institutionalise and ensure the sustainability of the Enugu education project, especially as it relates to the Smart Green Schools. “This is a way to ensure that no teacher is left behind. It is also to ensure that every teacher in our Smart Green Schools passes through a thorough training programme at the centre and that they can effectively implement the type of education where our children acquire skills, not only memorise.”
Prof Mbah added that CELI is also a way to support young Enugu people who have talents, innovative skills, or have come up with patentable ideas and solutions so that they get support to commercialise them.
Proactive Health Measures Against Ebola
The Commissioner for Health told newsmen that the state was taking proactive steps following the outbreak of Ebola in East Africa. “Because countries are now regarded as a global village and considering the fact that Enugu is now a gateway state receiving direct international flights, the state government has now directed that all the isolation centres established during the time of COVID-19 should be immediately reactivated and made ready for service so that we will not have a situation we did not prepare for. This is a proactive measure for a better state of response,” he said.
He added that Exco also discussed and approved that all the expansion works going on in the state hospitals should be expedited and completed before the end of the year. “For example, the new high-rise buildings at the Enugu State University Teaching Hospital – Park Lane, the teaching hospital at the State University of Medical and Applied Sciences (SUMAS) at Igbo-Eno, among others, are now to receive extra attention, while the Enugu International Hospital will be commissioned in a matter of a few weeks,” he concluded.
Also at the press briefing were the Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Ugochi Madueke, and her Works and Infrastructure counterpart, Ben Osy Okoh.
