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, has disclosed that the state government has attracted about N46.6 billion investments into the state through agribusiness.
Akande said Governor Makinde’s vision to expand the state’s economy through agribusiness had fructified, with the state accessing close to $170 million in agribusiness and international development funds, while about 14 large processing companies have also come into the agribusiness space in the state.
Akande, who stated this at the Omituntun 2.0 Inter-Ministerial Briefing held at the Governor’s Office at Secretariat, Ibadan, noted that the state had been able to achieve its deliverables in the agriculture and agribusiness sector.
These, he said include 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 had 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 further 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 at the Fasola Hub, while the same initiative will be repeated in the other agribusiness hubs.
According to him, 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,” said.
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.
