Category: Business

With a total land area of 34,600 square kilometres and annual rainfall of 1,500mm, Kwara State is richly endowed in agricultural terms.

The state has leadership in production and export of a number of agricultural commodities. The principal cash crops are cotton, cocoa, coffee, kolanuts, tobacco leaves, beniseed and palm produce.

There is potential for further large increases in productivity from known technologies. Agriculture is diversified and its exports are successful internationally. Exports of industrially processed foods are on the rise. The government of Kwara State has identified agriculture as an essential tool for fighting the problems of poverty and unemployment and ensuring food security. Agriculture also has the capacity to effectively bring about sustainable rural transformation and improvement in the general well-being of the people.

The government sees developments in the agriculture sector as necessary for industrialisation and exports in order to keep domestic prices low and raise revenue for investment in other areas of the economy. The state is investing in education, irrigation and rural roads. The result is that agriculture continued to grow, but also that the sector now only provides half of rural jobs but that farmers take advantage of the investment to diversify. Gradually, agricultural development is facilitating its transformation into an urbanised economy based around manufacturing.

There have been two phases: rapid agricultural growth based on utilisation of underused land and labour; and, as farming began to shed land and labour, slower but continued growth through higher productivity. Much has been achieved through private initiative. The state has played an essential role in setting the investment climate and supporting agricultural credit to small farmers. The launch of the State’s agricultural master plan promises to significantly turn around the state’s economy. The government is working towards producing highly competitive exports, based on increasingly diversified and specialised farming.

In collaboration with the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan, the state has tried to build up cassava yield and also develop processing capacity. This has been aided by the Cassava Resource and Technology Transfer Centre (CRTTC) in Ilorin, where the state has set up a large cassava processing factory for the production of high-quality cassava flour and cassava chips.

The administration has also made available substantial funds to tackle the problem of inadequate funding and poor infrastructure. Some 22 new tractors and 22 sets of Baldan implements were purchased to help with the cultivation of 711.14 hectares of land for the production of cassava, maize, rice and soya beans, as well as land cultivation subsidised. The government also established a cashew processing industry in Ogbondoroko in Asa Local Government Area in partnership with a private company.

So the state boasts the OLAM cashew processing factory.

The plant has over 1,500 workers on its payroll, all of whom are provided with free accommodation and a subsidised transport system. At full capacity, the factory is capable of processing 13,000 metric tons of cashew nuts every year and the state is now seeking more investors in this sector. Managed by an Indian company, it is exporting processed cashew nuts to Europe.

The state is well-known with Shonga Farms, involving 13 Zimbabwean farmers who have now relocated and settled in the Shonga area. Each farmer was given 1,000 hectares of land with a long commercial farming lease. In view of the huge capital outlay required to fund an agricultural project of this magnitude, Shonga Farms Holding Limited was incorporated as a special purpose vehicle to facilitate the funding and working capital needed to mobilize the public- private partnership. The project was centred on three different farming activities: dairy, poultry and mixed.

By providing subsidised inputs and guaranteed credit facilities to small-scale farmers, crop production has also grown dramatically.

The government has unfolded an ambitious plan to make the state the agricultural capital of West Africa and attract more Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) into the sector.

Investors have Kwara as an immediate market for their produce . The state shares a border with Benin Republic. There are already some cross border business activities taking place, especially in cattle and meat.he state government is committed to provide favourable conditions for investors. serious investor are provided suitable land within a few weeks.

The administration is to assist investors with infrastructure, such as roads, electricity and water. The sector has many investment opportunities. With vast areas of arable land and enough manpower the conditions are really favourable. One can invest in direct production, processing, transport, the provision of agricultural inputs and even marketing.

There are orchards that produce many fruits such as oranges pineapple, cashew and mango for processing investors. Processing is one area that holds much promise for investors.There are numerous opportunities in cattle, poultry and fish farming.

The Director-General, National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), Prof. Solomon Bamidele, has urged African nations to embrace modern biotechnology application to achieve food security.

He made the call at a workshop by the African Bio-safety Network of Expertise (ABNE), under the auspices of the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency and the Federal Ministry of Environment in Abuja.

He stressed the need to modify genes as well as transfer them to enhance agricultural productivity, adding that the technology would address the challenge of food security in Africa.

He said: “Other continents have been adopting genetic modifications and transfer of genes to address their immediate problems.

“We are required to also develop genes that will serve African demands and that will portray our technological advancement in food production.’’

Bamidele appealed to the Presidency to pass the Bio-safety bill into law, adding that the enactment would engender regulation in biotechnology.

He noted that the delay in the passage of the bill would affect biotechnology development in the country.

According to him, the delay in the enactment of the law will lead to “efforts in futility’’and will neglect the potential of the biotechnological practice in Nigeria.

The Director of ABNE, Planning and Coordinating Agency in NEPAD, Dr Diran Makinde, urged the President to give accent to the Bio-safety Bill, to enable Nigerians to benefit from the new technology.

He lamented that the delay in the enactment of the law was an obstacle to agricultural productivity in Nigeria, adding that the new technology was capable of enhancing food production and adding value to the economy of the nation.

He said that NEPAD was ready to support biotechnological development in Nigeria.

He said the Bill Gates Foundation had proposed a special grant to achieve biotechnology development in the country.

“Ours is partnership and we are ready to partner with organisations and develop their existing structures.

“Other African countries have enacted their bio-safety laws since 2006 and Nigeria is yet to enact the laws to ensure adequate regulation of the biotechnology application.

Also speaking, the Desk Officer of the Bio-safety Office in the Federal Ministry of Environment, Mr Rufus Ebegba, expressed the readiness of the Ministry of Environment to regulate bio-safety practices in the country.

He assured of the inter-agency’s cooperation to achieve biotechnology development in the country.