By Jeleel Olawale
About N150 million palm tree and pineapple farm has been gutted by fire at the Royal Farms on Friday at Akeredolu Village in Atakunmosa West Local Government Area, Osu, Osun State.
The inferno was said to have been caused by suspected hunters from neighbourhood farm.
Mr Rufus Jegede made this known while speaking to journalists at a press conference on Sunday.
He noted that the inferno was suspected to have been caused by some individuals who put fire on the farm with a clandestine motive known to them.
Rufus, who is the Director and founder of Royal Farms, said he came to Akeredolu in 2015 to establish the farm, noting that he retired as a Chartered and Forensic Accountant as well as Tax expert.
He explained that the fire razed about 40,000 palm tree, 5 acres of land of pineapple
“On Friday, we suddenly discovered that the farm had been gutted by fire. We discovered that the vast majority of the farm had been burnt down. About 40,000 palm trees were lost with 5 acres of land of pineapple. The neighbours did nothing to stop the fire incident but stopped the fire from entering their farms.
“This suggests that some people conspired to put fire on the farm. The action is intentional and deliberate to put fire on our farm. This is the third term fire outbreak would happen in the farm. The fire occurred at the extreme end of the farm and extended to the whole farm.
“More than 50 acres of the farm was burned down, estimated about N150 million. This will affect this year’s harvest because it affected the palm tree and all the pineapples were totally destroyed,” Rufus said.
He said one suspect identified as Sunday has been arrested by the police, Osu division in Atakunmosa West Local Government.
He added that the man arrested had been terrorising the environment for long, stealing farm produce in the farm.
“He has been trespassing here, and he lives in Ololude village. Everybody knows him as a monster in this area.”
Speaking on the contribution of agriculture to food sufficiency in Nigeria, Rufus said agriculture played a significant role in the nation’s food sufficiency, adding that the level of people’s involvement in agriculture is not encouraging which caused the present food crisis the nation is experiencing.
He said that the farm generated employment of about 30 workers.
“We have contributed in terms of reducing unemployment in the country to reduce food insufficiency in the country.
“The farm is involved in animal husbandry, pig rearing, palm oil production, pineapple, cattle rearing among other farm produce,” he declared.
Speaking further, he said the youths are not interested in farming but wanted to get rich overnight without doing any job. This is not good for the nation’s economy. “They are not interested in farming jobs. The youths are not ready to do any job but want to cut corners.”
Rufus added that the government needs to review its policy on agriculture.
“The government policy on agriculture only existed in the media. There are no more agriculture settlements and trade centres in the country. So, agriculture in this country is on radio and television. People are not investing in agriculture,” he said.
“No government agency came here to ask for what is happening here. Government does not invest in agriculture and every farmer needs government support. Therefore, the government needs to support farmers in order to free them from the food crisis facing the country.”