Agriculture: Building symmetric farm estates for sectoral growth
As the need to diversify Nigeria’s economy has become indisputable for the Country, call on the Government to devise means and coordinate efforts with strategic patterns to propel growth in the agriculture sector as a ready alternative for oil has become reverberating. The calls have been justified from all angles out of the comparative strength the Country is believed to have if agricultural potentials, within her reach, are harnessed for productivity. From all sides, the topography, population strength, favourable climate and enormous landmass are few among the capacities the Country accommodate, which from all formations of scientific consideration place her at an advantage to run a virile economy, drawing boost from agriculture.
However, it is saddening that the level of productivity from the sector is too infinitesimal to form a strong base for the economy presently. It is no doubt that challenges facing the sector are still deep seated. While there have been challenges of infrastructure deficits, drudgery of the traditional system of cultivation, natural disasters, poor human capacity and technical know-how for mechanised form of agriculture, such other man-induced challenges as insecurity and social-cultural crises have become an albatross recently portending ravaging effects on the sector. The challenges have deepened the call on the Federal Government to intensify efforts on gravitating solutions to address the plethora of challenges confronting the sector.
Recently, one scheme in response to addressing some strains in the sector has been the focus on the establishment of farm estates across the Country. On Thursday, January 27, 2022, the Federal Government announced that two farm estates located in Abia and Imo States had been completed and were ready for inauguration. It said the Integrated Farm Estate in Ariam Elu-Elu, Ikwuano Local Government Area, Abia State; and the Acharaugo Emekuku Integrated Farm Estate, Owerri North Local Government Area, Imo State, had been completed on a total of 135 hectares of land. Making the disclosure, the National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) in a statement, said the Ariam Elu-Elu farm estate was constructed on 100 hectares of land donated by the community, while the Agency carried out the land clearing exercise on the facility. “The farm which currently boasts of 50 fish ponds with a capacity of 150,000 fingerlings and 3,000 fishes, has been completed. The farm also has three solar-powered industrial boreholes to cater for its water needs, a 2km road with drainages, solar-powered street lights, office block and residence. For the cropping areas of the farm, some high-yielding, pest resistant varieties comprising 40,000 dwarf cavendish, valerie and big lady finger species of banana trees have been planted on 25 hectares of the land,” the statement read partly.
The Executive Secretary, NALDA, Paul Ikonne, after inspecting the farm estate, said the objective of the project was to empower youths, inject life back into rural Nigeria and reduce urban migration. According to him, the project would benefit about 400 women and youths of the community, as the beneficiaries had been trained to run the farm for their economic benefits. “This project is in line with Mr. President’s mandate to NALDA to create jobs through agriculture and encourage Nigerians to produce what we eat and eat what we produce,” he stated.
NALDA also stated that the reactivated 35 hectares Acharaubo Emekuku Integrated Farm Estate in Imo State, which was abandoned for over 30 years, had been completed and set for inauguration. It said some of the existing facilities on the farm were resuscitated, while some new equipment were introduced by the Federal Government to boost the facility’s output.
“The farm currently has six poultry houses with 18 pens that contain about 10,000 birds, three goat houses with 196 goats, three pig houses containing 108 pigs, three solar-powered boreholes, access roads and drainage, as well as solar-powered street lights. Just like other NALDA farm estates, the target of the Acharaubo Farm Estate is to create job opportunities for the youths and women of the community,” the Agency mentioned.
In the processes to the new development, NALDA had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Imo State to take the abandoned integrated farm estate, reactivate it and engage the people of the community. The MoU signing led to the reactivation of the facility by the Federal Government which had been abandoned for more than three decades. In June 2021, there had been MoU between NALDA and the Abia State Government, to rehabilitate the Ogwe Golden Chicken Farm Estate to engage over 3,000 young people in the State. This disclosure was made known by the Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer, NALDA, Paul Ikonne, during the signing of the MoU at Government House, Umuahia, the Abia State capital. According to him, NALDA’s delegation was in the State to officially set on motion the formalisation process of rehabilitating the poultry farm estate, which the agency partners Abia State government to ensure unemployment reduction in the State as far as the MoU is concerned. It was gathered that the Ogwe Golden Chicken in Ukwa East Local Government Area of Abia State is a vital project that has been included in farm estate recovery as part of mandate given to the agency by the present Administration.
According to Ikonne, the over 300-acre Ogwe Golden Chicken Farm Estate will have processing and hatchery points, residential area, production area in terms of producing feeds, and packaging area. He was quoted in June: “The MoU for Ogwe Golden Chicken Farm Estate is simple, the Abia State Government has made the land available for the facility. The President has mandated us to develop it in order to engage youths from that community. NALDA programmes are community-based and this one will engage youths in the entire poultry value chain. What this means is that Abia will be known for egg production and finished chicken products. It will also reduce unemployment, because by the time you take away 3,000 people from the job seeking environment you are automatically creating security, as an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.”
Another recent locus classicus giving resemblance to this measure is the similar disclosure by the Federal Government in May 2021, that it had commenced the reactivation of its 700 hectares of land in Ogun for the establishment of an integrated farm estate in the State. It was also disclosed that a cassava processing plant would be established in the estate to boost the value chain and create jobs, as 200 persons were being trained in soil testing in the State.
According to Ikonne, who made the disclosure during a courtesy visit to the Governor of Ogun State, Prince Dapo Abiodun, in May, the Federal Government through NALDA would possibly acquire more land from Ogun State to establish farm estates in the three senatorial zones in the State.
He was quoted, “Mr President has directed us to create employment and achieve food security through NALDA’s mandates, and we are running projects which Ogun State has been selected as one of the pilot states. The integrated farm estate is going to be sited in the three senatorial zones in the state, and it is a concept that takes in everything from production, processing, packaging and marketing. It will also have residential areas for farmers. Knowing that Ogun has the largest capacity in cassava production, our cassava packaging plant would be located in this state and NALDA would be the off-taker from the farmers. They would process it, package it accordingly and move it into the markets. So, putting this plant here in Ogun State would create more opportunities and also encourage the farmers to produce more.”
In September, NALDA had inaugurated a farm estate in Yobe, stating that the estate would generate N1.1million daily from egg sales with farmers getting N400million annually. The President of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan, had supervised the inauguration. The farm estate is situated at Gasamu, Jakusko Local Government Area of Yobe State with 30 young people employed to manage the birds. A press statement titled, ‘NALDA commissions 30,000 birds capacity integrated farm estate in Yobe,’ signed by NALDA’s Secretary, Paul Ikonne, had read, “The farm estate, which houses 10 poultry pens that contain 30,000 birds and an incubation centre, is sitting on 20 hectares of land, and is expected to produce about 250,000 noilers annually for sales. The farm estate is also expected to generate N8.160m monthly from sales of day-old chicks alone. The centre is like a reproduction centre that will be producing our locally improved birds that will be distributed across the country in order to encourage our local breeds and maintain our old stocks. This farm has a capacity of generating 850 crates of eggs daily and generating N1.1m daily from the sales of the eggs only. And these eggs will also be incubated as we have an incubation centre in order to produce day-old chicks that will be sent to other poultry houses across the country. Annually, we are expecting to have not less than N400m generated from this farm.”
On the sustainability of the farm estate, Ikonne had disclosed that Prime Farm would manage the farm estate, while Jaiz Bank and other banks would be its financial partners. “The firm that will manage this farm (Prime Farm) are already on ground, and we work with Jaiz bank and other banks as our bankers in order to make sure that this project is sustained,” he had said.
Following the new face of development of farm estates across the Country, in September, NALDA had disclosed that a community in Kwara had donated 100 hectares of land for the development of a farm estate. The Executive Secretary of NALDA, Paul Ikonne, had in a statement announcing the development of the new integrated farm estate in Agbeyangi community, Ilorin East Local Government Area of Kwara State disclosed that the government planned to engage over 2,000 farmers in farming and animal husbandry, providing employment and eradicating food.insecurity. He was quoted in the statement as saying: “We are here to inspect and accept officially the 100 hectares of land donated by this community for NALDA’s integrated farm estate which the President mandated us to develop in all the senatorial zones to achieve food security and create jobs.”
The need to fortify the framework guiding the development of farm estates to build systems of industries for the agriculture sector is pertinent. It is essential for this to be driven within coordinated patterns to create symmetric platforms to propel coordination of activities along various lines of production in the sector. Such system should be synchronised to develop architecture of coordination with provisions of all relevant infrastructures. As insecurity has recently become an albatross in the sector, the necessity to embody impenetrable system of security formations within the architecture of control should be paramount. This is essential to have a reliable and stable system unperturbed by disturbances and fluctuations which are hostile to steady growth in the sector.
