Agriculture: Osun’s Example

With recession ravaging the country after petro-dollar dipped last year, not a few analysts believe that the way out of the crisis is agriculture.

Thus, the Governor, State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, believes that now is the time to turn to massive agricultural practices or else millions of Nigerians would be at risk.

Against this backdrop, between the 17th and 29th of January 2017, Aregbesola led a high-level delegation that included the Speaker, State of Osun House of Assembly, Hon. Najeem Salaam, Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Moshood Adeoti, Director General Office of Economic Development and Partnerships, Dr. Charles Diji Akinola, and the Director Livestock Services, Mrs. Ajibike  Fagbemi, to the  State of Saxon Anhalt, Germany.

This was in furtherance of the established cooperation in the area of agricultural development and in support of the Osun Rural Enterprise and Agriculture Programme (O-REAP).

The expected gains of the trip include engagement of relevant investors and partners with interest in agricultural investment and partnership opportunities in the State of Osun, and expansion of the scope of existing Development Cooperation between the governments of Osun and Saxon Anhalt.

Besides, the trip was also to design the next phase of collaborative partnerships between Osun and Saxon Anhalt.

This trip allowed the delegation to discuss agricultural potential, investments and partnership opportunities in the State of Osun with German farmers.

This is to build on the previous partnership, which was activated in 2012 and involved the training of 40 young farmers from Osun over a period of four years. The beneficiaries of the training were   exposed to knowledge, skills and technologies in practical modern agriculture.

The Osun delegation also met with the umbrella Farmers Association of the State of Saxon Anhalt. At the meeting, a number of farmers in Germany expressed their interest in the proposed farmer-technology transfer programme that is being planned in collaboration with the State Government of Saxon Anhalt.

One of the key highlights of the visit concerned the planned cooperation between the governments of Osun and Saxon Anhalt in setting up ‘Best Practices Demonstration, Training and Production Farm’ in the State of Osun.

The Farm is to target the youth and other farmers and will provide the platform for the acquisition of knowledge, skills and techniques in modern agriculture with a focus on land development and management, new technologies in crops, livestock, fisheries, post-harvest handling, processing and packaging.

In view of the above, the government of Osun has established a Land Bank in the state where those who have fallow land can entrust it to the government.

Government will reach an agreement with these land owners on the terms and duration of usage, and when the parcel of land will revert to the owner.

With this innovative land bank system, land would be available for farming on a commercial scale. In addition, there won’t be shortage of land once government has information on the quantity of land available in its land bank.

This is one of the strategies by the Aregbesola administration to make farming in the state easy for whoever wants to practise agriculture.

Expectedly as well, the establishment of the Best Practice Demonstration, Training and Production Farm in the State of Osun will build on these initial efforts and create an even more cost-effective and sustainable model of cooperation that will achieve broader impact.

State of Osun stands the opportunity to extend benefits to many hundreds of equally motivated and needy young farmers who would not have the opportunity of being attached to host farmers or institutions in Germany.

Accordingly, it is expected that the Best Practice Demonstration, Training and Production Farm will equally serve as a veritable platform to anchor a well-designed farmer exchange programme that will provide the opportunity for German agricultural experts and farmers to provide technological transfer and capacity building to farmers in Osun.

The latest collaborative efforts will involve building on the initial outcomes of the cooperation with the State of Saxon Anhalt under which 40 budding young farmers from Osun had been hosted in Germany for advanced practical training in different aspects of agriculture over the past four years.

This training no doubt resulted in greater opportunities for the young farmers in Osun as they launched promising careers in modern and productive agriculture practices such as piggery, fishery and animal feed production.

They are also involved in different aspects of agriculture including cattle and small ruminants’ production, horticulture and greenhouse farming in different parts of the State.

Other highlights of the trip included planning meetings with the top officials of the Ministry of Agriculture of the State of Saxon Anhalt and members of the State of Saxon-Anhalt Parliament

This meeting was hinged on consolidating as well as expanding the current cooperation between Osun and Saxon Anhalt.

Considering the successes recorded from the cooperation with the State of Saxon Anhalt in the last four years in the area of agriculture, the cooperation is now being expanded to the area of healthcare delivery.

On healthcare delivery, it is important to note  the recent  visit of a team of seasoned German oncologists from the Institute for Operative Medicine of the Otto-yon, Magdeburg, Germany.

They were in the state for three days to train some health workers on detection, control, treatment and management of various classes of cancer in the State.

To make the state self-sufficient in food production, over 17, 000 farmers in the state had benefitted from the QUIIP I and II loan programmes.

Under the Osun State Agricultural Development Corporation (OSSADEC) in 2010, the government had also given out N250 million loans to farmers and N500 million in 2012.

For Rural Accessibility Mobility Programme (RAMP), the state constructed 662km rural roads for easy access to farm settlements. This is to make mobility easy between rural and urban areas, as well as facilitate smooth and fluid movement of farm produce from the farms to the final markets.

According to Aregbesola, agricultural development is the direction to go in order to get out of the economic crisis. As the Yoruba saying goes, when food is available, the pang of poverty is less felt. Massive production of food locally is the answer to the nation’s economic downturn.

Owolabi