The Federal Government plans to produce about 50 million table eggs daily by 2018. To achieve this, it has signed a N25 billion agreement with an agricultural company known as Tuns Farms for a project tagged National Egg Production (NEGPRO). The scheme aims not only to empower farmers but also ensure that majority of unemployed youths are engaged. In this interview with GBENGA ADERANTI, the chairman of Tuns Farms and former president of Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), Asiwaju Khamis Badmus, speaks about the scheme, how it will create employment, the feasibility of the project and the possibility of Nigeria feeding the entire African continent.
Why did the Federal Government choose TUNS Farms for the National Egg Production (NEGPRO) project?
The question is better answered by the government. You know that I was the president of Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) and my tenure revived the poultry industry. I was able to do that through the support of the then President Olusegun Obasanjo and the current Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh. I also played a prominent role in reviving the poultry industry in Nigeria. Before I became the president of PAN, the poultry industry was nearly non-existent in the country. That is one side of the story.
The other side is the Osun scheme which Tuns Farms managed and it happened to be the most successful agricultural intervention programme as at today. Why did I say so? When he came to power, Governor (Rauf) Aregbesola said I should give him an idea on how to improve the conditions of farmers in Osun State. I gave him two options. One was to develop poultry mills in Osun. The other was massive planting of maize. He decided to opt for poultry production. The other one, which was maize production, he gave it to consultants. The one he gave us, we said we would make it a tripartite agreement between Tuns Farm, the Osun State Chapter of the Poultry Association of Nigeria and the government.
The government invested N320 million. As for the feed, the government said we were going to cater for the feed—to supply feeds to the farmers. Tuns Farms would support the government also by providing day-old chicks to the farmers. So we gave the chicks to the farmers and the government also gave the feeds. Because of the technicalities involved, we decided to domicile the amount involved with Tuns so that we could use the money to produce feeds to the farmers. We started with seven or nine farmers, but today, we have almost 500 farmers taking part in the scheme.
The government was able to achieve six cardinal points they intended to achieve in their investment. The government investment now remains less than N100 million for the farmers to pay back, which is also one of best legacies farmers in Osun are able to show. That is if you give them the right management and right tools, they will also be in right position to pay back whatever the government has invested in them. Then the farmers, through this scheme, have now realised over N600 million physical cash as the money we paid to them as profit.
Go to our website; you will see their names there. You will see their telephone numbers there too. You can also go to their farms for on-the-spot verification. In a nutshell, this achievement was reported at the national agric council during the time of Jonathan. It was in their record. This might be the reason.
But the institution that asked us to manage the scheme is in a better position to answer this question. I only gave you the background of what we are, what we have been able to do and what I as a person, in collaboration with President Obasanjo and the current Minister of Agric, how we were able to revive the poultry business in Nigeria.
Talking about production of 50 million table eggs daily by 2018, how feasible is this?
Well, as I told you, four or five and a half years ago, Osun State started with nine farmers. Today, we have over 450 farmers taking part in the programme. It is not going to happen in one day. For instance, we have now received personal invitations from six governors who are willing to take part in this scheme. So we cannot cover the 32 states in one year. We have to start with the six governors that have invited us and it depends on their willingness to support their farmers. The federal government will provide money for entrepreneurs and stakeholders who want to take part in the programme to access money at single digit (interests).
The federal government has played its own part. And they want the credit to be extended to the farmers at the grassroots level. But there must be a sort of commitment from the state governments guaranteeing their farmers so that investors who have invested in the farmers will be guaranteed having their money back.
The Federal Government has also gone further to say that with the school feeding programme, which the federal government is funding, each child should take a minimum of one egg per day or 3 eggs per week. This is what the federal government has in mind; that any state that is taking part in school feeding programme is asked to include three eggs in a week or maybe one chicken or more in a week, which is very good for the poultry industry in Nigeria. So that when you produce the egg, there is a readymade market for it.
The Federal Government is also conscious that should there be glut in what we produce or schools are on holiday what would happen? We are going to have egg powder machines in the six geographical zones, which can take 100,000 eggs per hour. This is also what is in the pipeline. The egg powder machine will be able to make egg powder which Cadbury’s or Nestle require, instead of importing those things. They will no longer be imported. The feasibility of what is to be achieved, we have already done that. And we are sure, insha Allah, we should be able to meet up by 2018.
In the MoU there was an agreement that through the scheme, millions of jobs would be created. Tell me how the scheme is going to benefit those who are willing to participate?
Let me start with the input suppliers who are producing day-old chick pullets that will be given to the farmers. That is one. Number two, there will be feed manufacturers; those that will be producing animal feeds. We want to have them in the six geo-political zones. They will now be responsible for supplying feeds to these farms. You can imagine the value chain there. We also have another input supplier which is going to be on climatic control axis for farmers. Because of the climate in the north, we have designed the housing such suppliers will follow.
At the state level, we have what we call state entrepreneur. The State entrepreneur will be the anchor person in the state. He will receive the day-old chicks from the input supplier. He will receive the feed, the drug and vaccine and now transfer them to the farmer directly on the field. You can imagine if we could do this in the 774 local government areas, let’s say 20,000 birds. That would be about 10 farmers and 10 farmers would employ four others. If we multiply that, the employment that has been generated is more than a million. In the past, some of the good projects embarked upon by government started well. But due to one reason or the other, they were messed up.
What efforts are you making to see that a project like this does not fail?
The government intervention is slim in this area. That was why they appointed us as the scheme managers. We are to manage the scheme on behalf of the government. What the government did was to be part of all the decision making pertaining to this programme. They are also there to guard against exorbitant pricing because the pricing of all the commodities that will be involved, the day old chicks and everything, will be in a joint meeting to be agreed upon by the parties concerned, and the government is the chairman of that.
The purpose of setting up the scheme is to make sure that the products are affordable to the general public. That is the role they are going to play. They are not involved in the day to day running, so this is not a question of one ministry intervening in what we are doing.
Many farmers have abandoned the job, but your farm has been in existence for long. What is the source of your staying power?
There is no secret about it. We have a common say in agric—absentee farmers will never make it. You have to be practically involved in how to run your farm. If you are not there, there will be problem. For instance, there may be a time you need to take on-the-spot decision. If you your birds require something, you have to give it to them. You know that birds have to eat every second. They are to take water. Imagine feeding about one million birds. That is why you are needed on the spot. But if you would be in Lagos and set up a farm in Osogbo, forget it. I tried it before. When I started farming, I was in Lagos. I was always coming on weekends and I had a massive plantation of maize. So in the planting, we would have problems. The worse problem was when we were harvesting. As we were harvesting, the thieves were harvesting their own, and when you go to the police station, they would go back to your family house and say, you want to send my child to prison. The family would start calling me.
When I moved away from Lagos and I now stay here, if it is 10 acres I can cultivate, that will not bring any problem. I will stay by that. That has been the efforts one has been putting in. But to be away from your farm is not advisable. But today, it is better. The means of communication is there. You can be an absentee farmer with the modern communication gadgets. Whatever happens, you can see it. You can chat online with the people on the field. The essence for you is to be in touch in case there is anything you need to take immediate decision about.
How true is the assertion that Nigeria is able to feed the entire West Africa?
The one I know of, the poultry, I said it had died when I took over, but within a year, we were able to save Federal Government four to five hundred million dollars used in importing additive feeds and day-old chicks. What did we do? We encouraged hatchery operators to come back and today, to be specific, Nigeria has the hatchery capacity to supply African countries day-old chicks.
During the Obasanjo regime, we had to travel to West African countries, saying that we could give them day-old chicks and so on and so forth. The problem was that America had approached those countries and they were selling the chicken to them on credit and at times they would give these to them as grants. So they were also asking for similar opportunity. Even today, Cameroun buys our chicken. We have the capacity to do that.
