The Enugu State Government says it is set to launch its 260 Smart Farm Estates meant to revolutionise agriculture and get residents to farm.

The Commissioner of Agriculture, Patrick Ubru, said this yesterday while leading a team of inspectors on behalf of Governor Peter Mbah to the site of the Smart Farm Estate pilot project at Akpawfu in Nkanu East Local Government Area.

Recall that the state government had earmarked N2 billion in the 2025 budget for Smart Farm Estates initiative across its 260 political wards in the 17 council areas of the state.

The initiative is under Mbah’s grassroots agriculture revolution tagged: “One Ward, One Smart Farm Estate’’.

Ubru said that there was a need for step-down town hall meetings for farmers in council areas to take advantage of the initiative According to him, time should not be wasted in organising the town hall meeting with the targeted farmers”.

He called on individuals, cooperative societies, communities, corporate organisations and other agencies in the state into agriculture and agro-industrialisation business like IFAD-VCDP and FADAMA to key into the initiative for collaboration in the interest of the people.

The commissioner expressed satisfaction on the zeal demonstrated by the consultant and his team so far in the project. Corroborating, the Senior Personal Assistant (SPA) on Agriculture to the Governor, Mr Mike Ogbuekwe, explained that the initiative was meant to diversify the state’s economy through agriculture and agro-industrialisation aimed at shoring up the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

He also informed the commissioner of the approach by Nigeria Breweries to the state government to work out a partnership for the supply of Sorghum which was its principal raw material at the appropriate time.