We’ve Attracted About N46.6bn Investments Into Oyo State Through Agribusiness – OYSADA DG

*Says Oyo state/FCMB set to give N1.5bn support to agripreneurs

By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan

Oyo State Government on Wednesday, said that it has attracted about N46.6 billion investments into the state through agribusiness.

This was made known in Ibadan by 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 at the Omituntun 2.0 Inter-Ministerial Briefing held at the Governor’s Office Briefing Room, Secretariat, Agodi, Ibadan,

He stressed that the state has been able to achieve its deliverables in the agriculture and agribusiness sector such as international development resources mobilisation, development of agriculture enablers such as industrial hubs, roads, rural security as well as policy and legal instruments.

The OYSADA DG noted that Gov Makinde’s vision to expand the state’s economy through agribusiness has been a reality 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.

According to Dr Akande, “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”.

Dr Akande added, ” 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”.

He maintained that the state has equally been able to achieve its vision of supporting small holder 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.

Dr Akande noted ” 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.”

The OYSADA DG stressed 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.

He stated 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, and 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.

Emphasizing that the construction of the Fasola Agribusiness Hub, 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 said about 8,200 small holder farmers have also been integrated with the investors to ensure a reliable supply chain.

“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.” he said.

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