Prince Oyewole Oyewumi is Oyo State Commissioner for Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development. In this interview with Yinka Adeniran, he speaks on plans and programmes for his ministry as far as boosting the food basket of the state, among other sundry issues. Excerpt:
Recently the state government introduced a policy called ‘Zero tolerance to idle land’ across the state, how would you describe the responses to the policy?
It is an ongoing campaign. I can say that we have been at it now for about four to six months. It is still continuing and even halfway through. In the last four-six months, the response has been marvelous, such that the initial antagonism that we use to have from landowners and communities towards investors who want to go into farming is beginning to reduce. Not only that, as we have actually experienced, we are receiving so many community leaders, village heads, family heads in this ministry on a constant basis, offering their lands to whoever is interested in investing, probably under partnership or lease and so on. So, I will say it has been very successful and we are truly hopeful that in the next couple of years, Oyo state agriculture would have been transformed as a result of some of these policies and activities.
Like how many hectares are being utilised and or allowed through the policy?
As we speak, I can tell you that, that activity, as well as the agricultural zone development policy, has added an additional 150,000 hectares of arable land under cultivation or land preparation in readiness for cultivation, and I expect that the growth rate will be in that region over the next couple of years, maybe 100,000-150,000 hectares per annual in the next couple of years.
The state has about nine farm settlements which, you will agree that is not being fully utilised, what is the government doing to ensure that these once cherished farm settlements are restored to their original purpose?
Again, the verdict that they are not fully optimised at this time is somewhat contestable because every farm settlement as at today is fully occupied. If anything, we experienced a kind of an encroachment on some of those farm settlements by people who are not authorised to be there. So, a review of holders of farm settlements was carried out about a year ago and based on the report that was released on that review, we took some decisions which have helped a lot in bringing some order to the farm settlement. We needed to identify the genuine owners from those who took it and lease it out to a third party because, under the regulations that guide farm settlements, holders are not allowed to sublet or lease them out to a third party. So, we have ensured that holders of farms holding at the various settlements are the genuine ones and they have formed themselves into an association in the community, such that it is easy to identify imposters when they come. However, I know that there is the issue of infrastructure which is essentially the bane of farm settlements, all across the state, particularly access roads, where farmers need to access their farms and to be able to move their crops from the farms to the markets and the state government, is working very hard to ameliorate that problem.
One, the Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi has graciously approved that an average of 20km of rural roads be resurfaced and cleared in every local government (the roads are actually laterite roads not tarred) and this is actually in anticipation of another project by the World bank, a N2.5billion project that has finally been approved such that we expect contractors to mobilise to site in the next month or two because the final decision has been taken to roll out on it and that will come to an average of 50km of rural roads in every local government across the 33 local governments in the state. It is a World Bank, Federal Government and Oyo State Government joint project and it is being structured in such a way that any of the farm settlements that fall within a particular council area is actually given priority over any other roads in the council. So, we expect to see more changes over time, especially during this dry season. The preparation for this has been a bit long and tedious, if you know how World Bank project entails, they do a lot of verifications, consultations, town hall meetings, even with the communities, that they will have to come and identify and verify if truly the roads are there as claimed and the length and all others. We have done all of that and the final decision has been taken to start work very soon.
What is target for the Ministry of Agriculture in the budget?
The essential thing in terms of the budget for agriculture is that, for this year, in the budget called the budget of consolidation, and for us in agric, it is also the budget of consolidation and transformation. Both in the areas of IGR and in some other areas, I will start by saying that, this budget is actually laying the foundation for the total transformation of agriculture in Oyo State from a subsistence, small-scale agriculture practice to a large-scale, commercial, mechanised agricultural practice. It is indeed for us a revolution because we want to establish agriculture as the foundation and bedrock of the economic expansion of development of Oyo State, going back to what it used to be in the days of Western Region, and in order for us to be able to do that, we have to put in place certain clear measures that will ensure that we achieve our purpose. There are quite a number of elements that are involved in this regards, we have been talking about land, expansion of agricultural production. We are producing 150,000 – 200,000 hectares of land, be sure that that land is not going to be tilling with hoes and cutlasses anymore. Massive mechanisation project is going on as we speak. First of all, we have a project under the commercial agric credit scheme of the apex bank that is going to make available agricultural equipment from land clearing equipment to tractors and to other implements. Secondly, we are working in conjunction with a Chinese investment firm, we are going into the production of agricultural equipment, particularly tractors at the new Industrial Park by Lagos-Ibadan expressway. The equipment will be for use, not only in the state but we will also be producing for some other state. The first order of the state is about 250 tractors that are expected to be rolled out by September. That is another major headway for us. Thirdly, we are trying to link production with consumption and the end users. We are in conjunction with a marketing company, IITA and Oyo State, we are organising an Oyo State Agricultural Investment Summit, sometimes down the line in April or May. What we are trying to do with the summit is that we are trying to marry all those who have acquired the lands for agricultural production with the buyers of the farm produce and we have spoken with many of the multinationals that use farm produce for the productions and they are looking at working with us. Just to create a kind of avenue for the off-takers or end-users to absorb the product and they have told us their requirements. So, that is the third leg such that in the course of time over the next one or two years, in average, Oyo state should be recording N50billion in investment in agriculture alone and that is a major expansion in our economy and you can imagine the multiplier effect of that as well as how that will improve the state IGR.
Coming back to the budget, in terms of IGR for the Ministry of Agriculture, in the last couple of years, it hasn’t been too encouraging but I know that this year we are going to achieve at least 500 percent increase in our internally generated fund from the ministry of agriculture alone and some of that will be put into the efforts we are trying to make in order to grow agriculture in the state. And I think if you check your records, in specific terms, I think our IGR for last year was about N108million and by the grace of God, we are targeting about N500million to N600million on the average, in conservative terms.
Aside from land cultivation, what is the government doing on lands for other agricultural endeavours?
Quickly on land, I think it is fairly straightforward, lands or cattle development or cattle production, like I would prefer to call instead of herding, it is seen essentially as commercial activity like any other agricultural activities that requires investment and management with profit as the motive, the risk element is also there like any other business. Therefore, like any other farmer who grows anything in Oyo state needs to do in order to produce its fruits or crops is what I expect the cattle farmer to do.
In the areas of land, there are two ways of approaching it like we have been canvassing lately. You may have noticed that we have also embarked on some form of sensitisation and advocacy programmes on the use of lands in Oyo state because we regard land as one of our assets and the idea is that we should deploy our lands for good agricultural purposes in order to turn it into money-spinning ventures. Just as it applies to the yam producers, it also applies to the herdsmen. It is free to go and negotiate for land like any other person, buy, lease, rent or whatever they agree with the owner of the land and build his ranch. That is one side of the story.
The other side of the story is that Oyo state is currently developing what we call the agricultural zone programme where some portion of our depleted forest reserves are being used for agricultural production while the forests are being developed somewhere else. We have about nine forest reserves in there, some part of them that have been depleted either through a legal or illegal logging overtime and run the risk of erosion is being rehabilitated and been put out for agricultural purposes. We have received so many requests and application under that arrangement for land strictly for agricultural purposes, not real estates, not mining or any other thing than agriculture and we regard cattle development as parts of agriculture, so, they are also free to apply for land. So, there is no preferential treatment of discrimination against them. Every Nigerian is free to apply for land that is as regards the issue of access to land for our cattle producers.
