The Benin-Owena River Basin Development Authority (BORBDA) has set up integrated farms in five locations in Edo State in line with the agriculture support initiative of the President Muhammadu Buhari government.
The farm settlements, or Songhai model, are located at Obayantor, Benin City, Auchi, Okpe in Akoko Edo Local Government Area, and Uneme Nekhua, also in Akoko Edo Local Government Area.
The Managing Director of the River Basin Authority, Saliu Osifuemhe Ahmed, stated this at Auchi, Etsako West Local Government area of Edo State while declaring open a training programme for youths.
The theme of the event was: “Graduate Empowerment Programme Through Integrated Farm Training.”
Osifuemhe also said the Basin Authority was setting up similar farms in Ikole- Ekiti in Ekiti State and Iguedodo in Orhionwon Local Government Area of Edo.
The Basin Authority, he further said, “has developed arable land across its catchment area through the clearing of farmlands and making them available to farmers’’.
“We have cleared over 200Ha of farmland in addition to the over 500Ha that we had prior to the advent of the management of the Authority,” he said.