Irish potato is grown more in Plateau State than any other part of Nigeria
By Raymond Gukas, Jos
Plateau State Government has carried out an adaptability test in eight local government areas in the state for the production of Irish potato as part of its determined to boost the crop.
This decision was contained in the governor’s address to the people of the state recently, among other laudable initiatives in the pipeline.
This has elicited excitement among the people as farmers in the eight Councils now joins the league of potato producers with the test confirming their soils’ suitability for growing the crop.
Among the first group to expressed their happiness over the development was Plateau Our Heritage (POH) which called on government to “invest considerably well in the agricultural and education sector as they have the propensity of not only stimulating but growing and transforming the economy of the State.”
The POH in a press release signed by its chairman, Hon. Alex Kwapnoe and convener, Hon. Pam Ayuba Dangwong, added that it is “an added advantage to the State as production will increase significantly since all the 17 LGAs can now produce the product which is consumed locally and nationally.”
It further stressed that it was delighted with the news of the completion of the Potato Tissue Culture Laboratory which is situated in Mangu LGA, one of the largest producer of the crop as that “was a timely project aimed at achieving the diversification of the economy making agriculture the main stay and reducing overdependence on oil.”
However, the group cautioned the government against plans to move the teaching hospital for the state-owned university PLASU, to Shendam LGA since the installation itself is hundreds of kilometres from the proposed location of the teaching hospital.
The release emphasised that though government is at will on where to site projects and Institutions where it deemed fit, “the decision of the University Teaching Hospital has generated controversy considering the distance from the state university.”
Instead, “It will be a welcomed idea if government establishes a second State University of Science and Technology or Education in Shendam LGA. Plateau State is endowed with great science and technological potentials, harnessing same will do the state good,” it stressed.
The government, it added, should consider both Bokkos and Barkin Ladi hospitals which are are centrally located and can be upgraded to accommodate the Plateau State University Hospital located in Bokkos.
