The Ekiti Fisheries and Aquaticulture Farmers Association (EFAFA) on Wednesday commended the state governor, Mr Biodun Oyebanji for the provision of maize palliative to members.
This was just as the EFAFA converted the 500 bags of maize to 490 bags of feeds to be distributed to real fish farmers across all the local government areas of the state free of charge.
The Chairman of the fish farmers, Dr Adebayo Ebenezer Temitope who led some members of the association to showcase the bags of feeds to the representative of Ekiti state government and the Director General of Bureau of Public Communication, Mary Oso Omotoso, pledge to stabilize price of fish in the state.
“We appreciate Mr Governor for the kind gesture of palliative, for relieving the farmers, for giving us hope and for recognizing us
“We pray for more opportunity. We assure him of our support to ensure that price fish is stable in Ekiti state. We also pledge to support government drive towards food security in the state.
“We are an association made up of retailers and producers. We do have meetings, so price will change, we are siting down today to see how this will impact the economy, ” Adebayo said.
On the production of 498 bags of feeds from 500 bags of maize, Adebayo described the feeds as the second best maize feed in the country. It will be distributed to real farmers in all the local government areas of the state free of charge.
“This is to boost fish production and bring down prices of fish which is currently sold for N2500 per Kg . It is our expectation that at the end of the day, the price of fish will crash.”
In her remarks, the DG Bureau of Public Communication, described the fish farmers initiative as very laudable and innovative.
“This is quite innovative and it is very encouraging and laudable initiative. If they have done this it means they can do more, and this is what the government is really looking for. This has shown that if we give them more they will do more.
“So this is a message to the government. This one is a new dimension into what we do, and calling Mr Governor to do more for farmers especially fish farmers. This innovation has opened a new solution. We are going to approach the Millers on the need to produce feeds.
“Coming here, we have discovered that we need to go extra mile to also help, to probably get more feeds, what to do to get quality fish; this is another way of solving the problems, ” she said.