The setting up by Ondo State government a fortnight ago of a task force for the forest reserves in the state targeted at protecting the agricultural resource for maximum economic yield and strengthening capacity of the Ministry of Agriculture is part of determined efforts of Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu to reposition the sector.
Ondo State,Governor
That Ondo State, in view of its natural endowment in terms of climate, vast arable land, expansive coastline and rich agricultural potentials, imports food items from other states and indeed outside the country should be a major concern to well meaning citizens and state government.
The state, no doubt, ought to have no business with poverty and lack which have become its lot following the large scale unemployment among its youths.
Efforts of past governments to use agriculture to turn around the fortunes of the state had not yielded the desired result as the will, courage and commitment cannot really be said to be there.
Ondo State got its share from the era of oil boom which turned attention of people away from the farms and the attendant reliance on white collar jobs leaving the lands to lay fallow and the state losing billions yearly.
However, the present administration in the state led by Akeredolu is making conscious efforts to reverse the trend by mobilizing a mass of the people to embrace the new thinking which supports agricbusiness and production of goods and services to create wealth.
This is in consonance with the thinking gaining grounds under the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, which has been taking deliberate steps through his policies to discourage importation of foods and goods which the country can produce. This has encouraged “back to land project”, production of food and saving of resources erstwhile expended on importation of such items.
Akeredolu, taking cue from the successes recorded in the Federal Government’s economic policies particularly as far as agriculture is concerned to create employment, wealth and prosperity for the state and its citizens, is matching action with words to turn agriculture to goldmine.
When assuming office in February last year, Akeredolu had promised that his government would “deploy considerable energy into agriculture”, adding that “through this, we hope to generate employment for the teeming youths. This administration will do everything possible to encourage investment in agriculture”.
And true to his words, no sooner had he assumed office than he began to roll out programmes and policies targeted at taking agriculture to lofty level, encouraging farmers and creating a new generation of agriculturists across the state with a view to create job and wealth.
The governor said: “One of the greatest ills of our time is that employment is hard to come by in our society. We have also observed that Ondo State is a net importer of food from other states of the federation. In effect, the capacity to retain and circulate money within our economy is limited. We are set to tackle this by our integrated agricultural programmes”.
Akeredolu, who said agriculture remained “a veritable stake towards self-reliance and sustenance,” described it as the only practicable solution to the myriad of socio-economic challenges facing Ondo State and indeed the country.
THOUGHT FOR RURAL AREAS
One major step that the Akeredolu administration has taken to reposition agriculture and encourage farmers is in the area of transportation to prevent farm produce from rotting away by ensuring they can be moved from farms and rural areas to the markets.
To tackle one of the persistent challenges of farmers, the administration, though the Rural Access and Mobility Project (RAMP), is grading all roads in rural areas so that farmers can easily transport their farm produce to the cities and towns. This, the governor said, “will reduce problems being encountered by our farmers and in turn increase the per capita income of the State”.
Just as the approach of agriculture in tackling the problems of joblessness, food insecurity, poverty and capital flight is interwoven, the present administration in the state set its eyes to the youths as the strength and future of society.
EMPOWERING YOUTHS THROUGH AGRIC
The flagging off of planting of gmelina tree on 10,000 hectares of land at Omotoso in Okitipupa Local Government area in partnership with Wee-wood Limited is intended to create jobs for no fewer than 10,000 unemployed youths in addition to rehabilitation of a significant part of the state forest resources and revival of its economy through agro-forestry.
With the conviction that agriculture is the only realistic alternative to white collar jobs, the Akeredolu administration has established the Ondo State Agribusiness Empowerment Centre (OSAEC) saddled with the responsibility of engagement of youth in the value chain of constructive and productive interventions in the sector.
The state government has also begun a programme for agropreneurs tagged “Youth on the Ridges’’ under which 18, 000 youths, 1000 in each of the 18 local government areas of the state, will be trained in the best practices of agriculture and empowered.
To drive the programme aimed at encouraging young ones in the state to become agripreneurs, the state government established four Agro Business Cities (ABCs) at Ore (Southern Senatorial District), Epe (Central Senatorial District) and Auga and Isuada (North Senatorial District).
And to ensure smooth training process for the youth, the four ABCs have been equipped with hostel facilities, hall, kitchen, basic health centre, fish ponds for stocking fish, poultry pens for raising broilers and layers for egg production, tractor shed, cribs, maize sheller, planters and mechanical equipment such as tractors and its implements for seamless running and mechanization of the farms.
Also, the state government is equally in active collaboration with other agencies of government and non-governmental organisations for the training of youth on agriculture. Some of them are TUNS Farm on the Igba Otun Broiler Production Scheme, Peace Aid Project, Bank of Agriculture (BOA), Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), among others.
Provost of Federal College of Agriculture, Akure (FECA), Dr Samson Odedina, who spoke during flag-off of the “Youths on the Ridges” empowerment initiative by Governor Akeredolu, foresaw a situation whereby more youths would soon become millionaire agropreneurs who will feed the nation.
Odedina, whose institution is partnering the state on the training of the 18,000 youths, lauded the governor’s initiative as he listed the enormous opportunities available in the sector.
He said that young people with basic education and the right attitude, if properly exposed to proven value chain job opportunities and its attendant linkages, can sieve out unemployment related poverty within three months.
The FECA provost emphasized that as a leading agricultural training institution in Africa, effective partnering with state, federal and other relevant stakeholders to berth agricultural revolution, the college would raise 18,000 agro-millionaires for the state.
Expanding the frontiers of the programme with eyes on the future, the Akeredolu administration is planning to take it to secondary schools. It has shortlisted five secondary schools in each of the 18 local government areas for School-on-the-Ridges Scheme, as a means of reintroduction of practical agriculture to the schools with the ultimate goal of encouraging the young ones to become agripreneurs.
BOOSTING/DIVERSIFYING ECONOMY
Notwithstanding the above initiatives, the governor has not rested on his oars as he promised that the state government would continue to sustain its partnership with development partners towards realising enhanced cocoa production, alternative income and employment generation to the State.
They include Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) and other stakeholders.
The Akeredolu administration, in partnership with Greenfield Incorporated, in conjunction with a Dutch technical partner from Germany, has established a N42 billion poultry industry, “Greenfield Commercial Scale Integrated Poultry” with Powdered Egg Production Line, at Emure-Ile in Owo Local Government.
The project, which is capable of generating 1,200 direct employments, is billed to produce eggs for the teeming populace and in turn earn revenue to the state when the powdered eggs produced eventually hit the foreign market.
Governor Akeredolu, who believes that the chocolate factory project begun by the immediate past administration was designed to ameliorate the suffering of the people, has sunk enormous resources into the project.
Chocolate from the factory, which is near completion now, will not only be exported for foreign earnings, but also consumed locally.
The governor added: “We are set to improve on the leadership position of Ondo State in Nigeria’s cocoa production across the entire Cocoa Value Chain on a sustainable basis. We have commenced the establishment of a 2000-hectare Model Cocoa Farm which is capable of engaging another 500 youths.
Moreover, to bring the dividends of agricultural production to the people, the state government is collaborating with Adventium Global Development Ltd for the establishment of a N15.050 billion Agricultural Development and Food Processing Project at Akunnu, in Akoko North East Local Government Area, in order to turn Ondo State into a major agricultural and food processing hub in the South West Nigeria.
With these and others still in the pipeline, the Akeredolu administration is leaving no one in doubt about it’s resolve to reposition agriculture as vehicle for economic growth and development of the state and its people.
