The President, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), on Monday commissioned the first Integrated Farm Estate by the National Agricultural Land Development Authority in Katsina State and directed that similar estates should be established in each of the 109 senatorial districts across Nigeria to boost food production.

He also assured that there was no going back in agricultural revolution in the country.

Buhari made the declaration at Suduje village, Daura Local Government Area of the state shortly after inspecting facilities at the farm estate.

The farm estate occupies 100 acres of land donated by Katsina State. The acres are divided into 80 acres for crop production and 20 acres for animal production, processing and packaging.

The estate comprises 40 poultry pens with a capacity for over 400,000 birds; fish ponds with a capacity for 200,000 fishes; and cow and goat pens with a capacity for 500 animals.

It also has rabbit pens with a capacity for 3,000 rabbits; bee apiary with a capacity for 540 litres of honey per harvest; as well as sections for crop farming, packaging and processing.

The farm estate has a school, a clinic and a residential area with 120 units of one-bedroom apartments for farmers and their families to live and work in the farm.

Buhari said the Federal Government would continue to encourage youths to develop interest in farming, assuring that the Central Bank would not relent in coming up with more interventions to encourage participation of both private and public sectors in agriculture.

He added, “I’m highly delighted to witness another milestone in our journey to ensure that agriculture becomes the mainstream of Nigeria’s economy. As the world becomes more globalised, countries will continue to grow from their competitive advantages to remain relevant.

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“My belief and it is also shared by many Nigerians is that our country excessively has food and livestock that we can feed ourselves with and build our farm structure for exportation.

“I am confident that Nigeria under my watch will achieve food security as we will produce what we eat and even export our surpluses and earn foreign exchange.”

The NALDA Executive Secretary, Prince Paul Ikonne, in his address, said the first integrated farm estate took six months to be put in place.

The CBN governor, Godwin Emefele, in his address, observed that the NALDA integrated farm estate was capable of developing rural areas in Nigeria and providing jobs for rural dwellers and youths.