*As state/FCMB set to give N1.5bn support to agripreneurs
The Director-General of the Oyo State Agribusiness Development Agency (OYSADA) and Executive Adviser to Governor ‘Seyi Makinde on Agribusiness and International Cooperation, Dr Debo Akande, said on Wednesday that the state government has attracted about N46.6 billion investments into the state through agribusiness.
He maintained that Governor Makinde’s vision to expand the state’s economy through agribusiness has fructified, with the state having accessed close to $170million in agribusiness and international development funds, while about 14 large processing companies have also come into the agribusiness space in the state.
Dr Akande stated this at the Omituntun 2.0 Inter-Ministerial Briefing held at the Governor’s Office Briefing Room, Secretariat, Agodi, Ibadan, noting that the state has been able to achieve its deliverables in the agriculture and agribusiness sector, including international development resources mobilisation, development of agriculture enablers such as industrial hubs, roads, rural security as well as policy and legal instruments.
He added that the state has equally been able to achieve its vision of supporting smallholder farmers, growing medium agribusinesses to large businesses, supporting youths and women in agriculture, opening a new frontier in value addition and also increasing livestock productivity and its value chain.
Akande noted that the state has developed a framework for Livestock Value Chain, as it is constructing a Livestock Transformation Centre, which will ensure that the best cows are produced in the Fasola Hub, while the same initiative will be repeated in the other agribusiness hubs.
According to Akande, the Oyo State Government has also trained 5,020 youths in different areas of agribusiness, with about 1,000 of them with agribusiness enterprises set to benefit in an Oyo State Government/FCMB-facilitated support initiative to the tune of N1.5 billion in the next few weeks.
He added that the state has also supported 46,000 smallholder farmers through OYSADA, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Agric-Credit Corporation of Oyo State, while the construction of several important roads and the ongoing construction of feeder roads have also enabled the state’s leap in agribusiness.
Akande also listed the construction of the Fasola Agribusiness Hub, which has been designated as the first Agricultural Transformation Centre in Nigeria with close to N17 billion investments from 14 new agribusiness companies cultivating close to 950 hectares and processing cashew, cassava, tomato as well as close to 1,000 lactating cows within the Fasola Hub as another major achievement of the administration.
He maintained that about 8,200 smallholder farmers have also been integrated with the investors to ensure a reliable supply chain.
He said: “Fourteen new agribusinesses are in Fasola, with some of them into crop production, some are into processing, while one is into equipment leasing. As of today, 950 hectares of farmland have been cultivated. If you go to Fasola now, you can only use drones to see the cultivation of crops as of today, and these are just done by four companies.
“If I need to do 950 hectares, I would need 950 smallholder farmers to do that and I would be the one to provide fertilizer, seed and tractors for them. But these companies are the ones paying the state government to use that facility and they are using all their money to do that. This is what you call agribusiness and that is what you have in Fasola.
“Also, a commercial-scale production of greenhouse tomatoes is ongoing there and the tomatoes coming out of the place are already being supplied to retail shops and markets. I buy my tomatoes at Fasola now. All the tomatoes I have been using for the last one year, I have been buying at Fasola and it is available for people to buy for consumption. The good thing about using a greenhouse as we see in Fasola is that it is the way it is being done anywhere in the world. Agriculture should not be seasonal; it should be something you can do consistently throughout the year, whether it is raining or not.
“This particular model we have in Fasola shows that as far as we are concerned, it may not be enough for the whole of the state as we have to expand through the use of the private sector, but this has proven to be the right model. We can have tomatoes all year round and the idea is that it is coming from here, not elsewhere.
“If we continue to support this approach in agribusiness, let us imagine we now have 1,000 of these greenhouses, you can imagine the volume of the tomatoes we will be producing all year round. It is not just being produced for consumption alone but being processed as plum.
“What Fasola has done is to create what we call a pilot; to show that it is possible. Now, you would see more of that in other places springing up, and that is my next point here. Fashola is built on a thousand hectares of land and we have these 14 industries, and I am happy to announce to you that, as of today, there is an award of contract, which is supported by the AfDB, to build Ijaiye, which is going to be a mega agribusiness hub. All these ones in Fashola are small compared to what you will see in Ijaiye. It will be built with over 40 industries and these are going to be medium to large industries.
“Interestingly, we already have seven industries that have signed up. Construction is expected to start when the contract is finalised and we will see what will happen in the next 18 months. But that is not all. Remember that we did the groundbreaking for Eruwa. Eruwa is going to be similar to Fasola.
“We have two models. One is called the Agricultural Transformation Centre, which is the small one. We have that in Fasola and Eruwa. And we have the other one we call Agribusiness Industrial Hub, which is the one we want to have in Ijaiye as a central hub, which all others will fit into. We expect that Eruwa will also have close to 10 industries and, again, I can announce to you that we are over-subscribed for that as well. It is not as if we are looking for investors. Of course, if they come, we will take them and see how we can put them in other places.
“Our prediction is that, subsequently, similar hubs will be built in Oke-Ogun 1, Oke-Ogun 2, Ogbomoso and we will stimulate the economy of all those places, which would have to do with the comparative advantage crops they have in all those places.”
The OYSADA DG, who noted that all over the world, industrialisation always supports economic growth and that the shift always begins with agricultural industrialisation, stated that Oyo State is well on its way to that zenith, as according to him, the signing of a partnership deal with France-based Rungis-Semmaris, an international food wholesale company, will culminate into the construction of a produce wholesale market in Ijaiye.
He noted that when constructed, the wholesale market will serve as the convergence point for agriculture produce from across the state and would stop the situation whereby farm produce is moved out of the state in tonnes with little or no benefit to the state despite billions spent on building infrastructure.
He added that the development will also stabilise food cost in the state, noting that the Oyo State Government under Governor Makinde has been focusing on balancing its focus between producing for exportation and local consumption.
Dr Akande attended the inter-ministerial briefing alongside the OYSADA Permanent Secretary, Mr Badmus Kolawole and Mr Kola Kazeem, State Coordinator, L-PRES.
