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| Agro-preneur Godshield Kanjal |
Our Correspondent|15 April 2019
Cross River born agro-preneur, Godshield Kanjal, says he is ready to serve in Governor Ben Ayade’s cabinet in his second term, to boost the state internally generated revenue (IGR) through agriculture NEGROIDHAVEN has confirmed.
Kanjal, 28, and Chief Operating Officer of Kalz Farms who also hails from Ogoja, says the state agricultural potential had not been surface-scratched, further maintained that his inclusion in the second term of Governor Ayade will rejig the sector.
The young agro-preneur and graduate of Mass Communication, who spoke to selected newsmen in Ogoja on Friday, added that Mr Ayade needs smart, intelligent, young and hardworking people passionate about their respective fields and with proven track record to contribute their quota for the development of the state.
He said agriculture is the only sector that if properly harnessed, could catapult the state IGR, for sustainability.
He, however, lamented that lots of farmers lose their farm produce due to lack of storage facility and market, hence his startup waded in and set up a plantain processing factory in Ikom local government area of the state, to buy off the plantain from farmers.
The plantain processing factory according to him, processes raw plantain into chips as snacks for the urban market.
He added that his startup is also into production and processing of pepper and is helping farmers cut down post harvest loses of pepper.
According to him, “Cross River state is blessed with enormous and fertile land, and with a high number aging rural farmers. These farmers seems weak to carry out modern day farming hence the youths can fill in the gap.
“Also, we have high rate of unemployed youths roaming the street. Most of these youths, who have interacted with me says they are ready to go into commercial farming but lack the requisite knowledge. In my little capacity, I have trained some youths, in agribusiness, for free.
“These youths that I had successfully trained, have set up their farms; and are doing well. They are now self-reliant. I did not just train them on growing crops, but also on value addition and processing of their farm produce into finished products.
“I have lots of these ideas that needs backings from the government. We can farm, process and export our products. It is not rocket science.
“During the build up to the 2019 elections, I had mobilised over 50,000 farmers, mostly from rural areas, to vote for Ayade. And they voted for him, massively. The only way to appreciate them is to create a programme that will be of benefit to them”, he said.
