When Governor Bassey Otu of Cross River State received the Best Governor Award in Food Security at the Africa Food Heroes Awards in Abuja, it was more than a ceremonial honour, it was an acknowledgment of a bold vision taking shape in real time. It signaled that Cross River has stepped onto the continental stage as a state determined to secure its future through food, agriculture, and the empowerment of its people.
Across Africa today, food security has become one of the greatest tests of leadership. Climate volatility, fluctuating markets, and rising population pressures demand not just policies, but courage, innovation, and a readiness to rethink old systems. Governor Otu’s strategy is built precisely on this kind of forward-looking leadership , a mix of practical interventions, structural reforms, and a deeply people-centred approach.
His blueprint draws inspiration from some of the most successful agricultural models on the continent, including the well-documented gains made in Kebbi State, where intensive irrigation, dry-season farming, outgrower schemes, mechanisation hubs, and strong private-sector linkages have produced remarkable yields and lifted thousands of farmers into prosperity; but Otu is not copying; he is adapting. He is taking what works and reshaping it for Cross River’s unique ecology, culture, and economic landscape.
Since taking office, he has focused on building agricultural systems that thrive beyond a single season, systems that guarantee production whether rains fall or fail. Central to this vision is a shift toward irrigated agriculture and dry-season cropping. Cross River’s comparative advantage, rich soil, abundant water bodies, and favourable agro-climatic zones, makes it ideal for the kind of multi-season farming that powers food-secure regions. The state is already laying the groundwork for irrigation clusters that will allow farmers to produce two to three cycles of rice and other staples annually, ensuring reliable supply and dramatically increasing yields.
Governor Otu understands that production alone does not deliver prosperity. Farmers need markets, capital, modern tools, and the confidence that their labour will not be wasted and that is why his administration is forging strong partnerships with processors, millers, and agro-investors through contract farming and offtake agreements. These partnerships guarantee farmers a buyer for their harvests, protect them from price crashes, and encourage banks to lend to them because repayment becomes far more predictable. It is a strategy that has lifted thousands out of poverty in other regions, and Cross River is positioning itself to replicate and exceed those results.
Mechanisation has also become a defining feature of his agricultural agenda. The state’s ongoing tractor expansions and planned mechanisation hubs are designed to ensure that no farmer is left behind in the transition to modern agriculture. These hubs will offer mechanised land preparation, harvesting, threshing, drying, and storage, all at affordable rates, allowing even smallholder farmers to operate at commercial scale.
The governor is equally focused on ensuring that what is produced in the fields does not rot before reaching consumers. Investments in processing plants, mini-mills, storage centres, and value-addition enterprises are already being aligned with production clusters, reducing post-harvest losses and strengthening Cross River’s presence in regional food markets. In the long run, these facilities will form part of a broader agro-industrial ecosystem capable of producing everything from polished rice to packaged gari, processed cassava derivatives, and other high-demand food products.
Perhaps the most visionary component of his strategy is the financing architecture under development, a blended model involving targeted grants, credit guarantees, farmer cooperatives, donor support, and private-sector investment. This structure is designed to create a predictable, scalable, and sustainable flow of capital into agriculture, empowering farmers, reducing risk, and making sure no promising initiative collapses due to lack of funding.
What makes all of this remarkable is not only the range of policies, but the coherence of the vision. Governor Otu is building a system: a seamlessly connected chain from land to water, from seed to harvest, from harvest to market, and from market to wealth creation. It is a model that has been proven in places like Kebbi, Rwanda, and Ethiopia, regions that transformed agriculture into engines of economic renewal. Cross River is now moving confidently into that league.
At the centre of this emerging success is the governor’s unwavering belief in the people of Cross River, the farmers who rise with the sun, the youths who see agriculture as a viable future, the investors who believe in the state's potential, and the communities whose strength and resilience have always been its greatest assets.
The Africa Food Heroes Award is not merely a recognition of past achievements, but a signal of what is coming. Cross River is rising. Its fields are awakening. Its farmers are being empowered. Its policies are gaining national and continental attention and under Governor Otu’s leadership, agriculture is no longer just a sector, it is becoming the backbone of a prosperous, self-sufficient and food-secure future.
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