From Adeyemi Joseph, Ado-Ekiti
The Ekiti State Government has lamented the level of post harvest loses incur by rural farmers , vowing to embark on aggressive construction and rehabilitation of rural roads in all the local government areas of the state.
The coordinator, Ekiti State Rural Access and Agrictultural Marketing Project (RAAMP), Mr. Rufus Adumo, who disclosed this to newsmen in Ado Ekiti, also advocated for proper maintenance culture on Nigerian roads to make them to last longer.
Adumo, said that most of the Fadama roads in the country are all in bad shape which had made access to rural areas and farmland to be difficult, adding that, many farmers suffer huge losses due to lack of access to their farms to the markets.
“The project is designed to create access for farmers and those people living in the rural areas to have access to the market to sell their farm produce and make more money”
According to him, “Ekiti RAAMP”, have three interventions that has been approved which include rehabilitation, backlog maintenance of about 73 kilometers of roads for rural areas for this year.
Adumo pointed out that the body is intervening in some state roads saying the concept is to create access from the farms and prevent post-harvest losses.
He said all interventions on rural access roads would be in all the local government councils already divided in phases, which included “Igirigiri/Ado-Odo-Ado, Ben Folarin/Oke Aso/Ilawe road, Ogotun, Oye/Are, among other roads in the state.
“We will also intervene in some roads totaling about 131 kilometers on “spot improvements” in all the local governments”
The coordinator said the 12 roads that would be executed may be spread among twelve contractors that would deliver on the roads because this is a performance based contract.
Adumo added that 20 states in Nigeria are currently participating in RAAMP, adding that, President Bola tinubu has mandated other states of the country to join the project.
“RAAMP is creating access for all the farmers to transport their goods to the market. Farmers would make more money , enjoy the fruit of the labour and they will get richer through this project”.
