Calabar — Agriculture is one sector the Cross River State Government places very high premium, aside from tourism, which has brought it to the fore of international media attention in recent years.

But unlike the tourism sector where much success has been recorded; more so as the state has been re-branded through the propagation of the industry, the same cannot be said of the agriculture sector.

For instance, while there was massive success in developing the Obudu Ranch Resort, and the construction of the Tinapa Resort, as well as the Marina Resort among others to facilitate the growth of the tourism sector in the state, the same cannot be said of agriculture where most of the programmes initiated by the administration of the former Governor, Mr. Donald Duke failed woefully.

The castor oil project and the pineapple project, stand out as grand failures in the administration's experiment with agriculture. The numerous plantations in the state did not perform well either.

However, the present administration in the state led by Governor Liyel Imoke seems not to have lost faith in agriculture. Imoke believes that a functioning agricultural sector could earn more revenue for the state more than tourism, and also create wealth for the individual farmer, farming families and communities.

This explains why owning a farm is one of the conditions for belonging to the State Executive Council.

To ensure that agriculture becomes a dependable income earner in the state, the administration established the Cross River Agricultural Rural Empowerment Scheme (CARES), upon which the entire agricultural programme of the state rests.

According to the state commissioner for agriculture, Sam Mbang Oju, CARES is an innovation within an innovation. "First and foremost, our objective is to look at agriculture as a business, and for us to see at the end of it that agricultural chain industries emerge," he said.

Oju added that the programme was supposed to embrace the entire value chain of production, storage, preservation, processing and marketing, while at full bloom, increase the food and cash crop production capacity of the state and make it the leader in providing both direct and indirect employment and other opportunities in the country.

But recently the implementation of the project came under serious condemnation by members of the Cross River State House of Assembly.

As far as the lawmakers are concerned the ministry of agriculture has failed irredeemably in implementing the project according to the original concept.

So, they demanded that a distinct agency be created to implement the projects that make it up, so its positive impact could be seen in the state and its citizenry.

The position of the lawmakers on the issue emanated from the representative of Boki II State Constituency, Jacob Otu Enya who presented a motion, calling for the establishment of another agency to handle the implementation of the programme.

Enya said the CARES project was not being implemented in line with its letters despite the huge financial resources allocated to it, arguing that though it was created by the state government to boost food production in the state as well as empower rural farmers the idea was not being pursued properly by the state Ministry of Agriculture.

Other members, not only spoke in line with him, but at the end of the day, the House unanimously resolved that the Imoke sets up an agency so the state could realise the objective for which the programme was created.