Plateau State, Governor Caleb Mutfwang has commissioned the Potato Value Chain Project, a Tissue Culture Centre, and a wide range of farming equipment in Mangu.
Speaking at the commissioning, Mutfwang said the project’s revival symbolised a dramatic turnaround from what he met when he assumed office. “By the time we came on board, what was happening was a disaster, but today is a story of recovery. A story of putting round pegs in round holes,” he said.
He noted that the project, initiated in 2017, had nearly been abandoned before his administration intervened.
The governor emphasised the potato value chain goes far beyond harvesting and selling raw tubers. He explained that Plateau would now focus on processing, producing chips, flakes, and other derivatives while strengthening transportation and market systems.
He added that major hotels in Nigeria would no longer rely on imported potatoes, declaring: “This is the beginning of the end of that story.”
Mutfwang also announced that Plateau would begin feeding school children with locally processed potatoes as part of a revamped school feeding programme.
He described the initiative as a foundation for prosperity, stressing that true legacy projects are measured by improved welfare and purchasing power for citizens, not physical structures.
The governor also urged farmers to embrace modern farming practices, including the use of tractors, planters, and improved seed varieties.
“The secret of agriculture is seed,”
Also Speaking at the event, Plateau State Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Samson Bugama, described the commissioning as the dawn of a “plateau potato revolution.” He said the Tissue Culture Lab would serve as the nucleus for developing clean, disease‑free seed varieties and preserving indigenous strains.
Bugama said the entire value chain programme was structured to make potato a flagship crop for Plateau State, positioning it competitively on the global stage.
Project Coordinator Jerry Gushop, paid tribute to Governor Mutfwang for entrusting him with the project, noting the team achieved in one year what had not been accomplished in the previous eight. “It was never just a job; it was a calling,” he said.
Gushop outlined key achievements of the project, including establishment of a modern tissue culture laboratory for clean seed production, construction of 118.4 km of rural roads and culverts, development of nine community markets and nine diffuse light stores, installation of 17 spring captures, 22 water harvesting structures, and 500 irrigation systems, the establishment of three processing plants in Mangu, Bokkos, and Barkin Ladi and training of hundreds of farmers on preservation, seed selection, processing, packaging, and best practices
As the project enters its next phase, Governor Mutfwang expressed optimism that Plateau’s potato story would be transformed within three to five years. “If we don’t produce what we need, we will continue to be a nation of beggars,” he said, reaffirming his administration’s commitment to shifting Nigeria from consumption to production.
Yemi Kosoko
Follow us on:
