9 June 2011

Investors from South Korea have entered into discussions with the Ekiti State Government to invest in the agriculture sector in the state to the tune of about $400 million.

The proposed transformation of agriculture in the state is expected to generate not less than 25,000 jobs in the first year and help boost farm yield in the state.

The investors who were led by Mr. Kyungj Soo-Moon who is the chief executive officer (CEO) of SYNCTOP International Limited met with Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi and other top officials of his administration recently.

The project facilitator, Dr. Adebayo Adewusi, explained that the model had never been used in any part of Africa before now pointing out that it would focus more on graduates who would be engaged to produce for commercial purposes.

He explained that about 30,000 hectares of land would be needed for the project.

Other features of the project according to Adewusi includes; farm settlements, health facilities and agriculture/farmers' academy.

Soo-Moon noted that the project is aimed at poverty eradication, food security and job provision adding that a minimum of 125,000 jobs would be provided under the scheme in four years.

He added that the investors would hand over the project to the Ekiti State Government after three years of managing it, explaining further that the scheme is also expected to provide free construction materials as well as tools for rural farmers.

The Korean business executive disclosed that SYNCTOP would buy all agricultural produce generated from the project.

Responding, Governor Fayemi said his administration has always looked forward to this type of meeting on the exploitation of natural resources of the state noting that the business proposal has a semblance with administration's plan for modern agriculture.

The state chief executive promised to set up a cabinet committee to study the proposal and look into its financial and legal implications.

He disclosed that the Ministries of Agriculture, Commerce and Industry, Job Creation Agency, Fountain Holdings Limited, would partner with SYNCTOP.

The governor believed that the coming of the Koreans would give room for skills transfer disclosing further that discussions are on with a Korean corporation, SAMSUNG, on ICT development in state-owned schools for skills acquisition.

Fayemi added that Southwest state governments are interested in a pan-regional economic development that would make the region the economic heartbeat of the country.

http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/201106091065.html

If this is for real, then very well done Fayemi.

dayum

All hear say.
Until I see the benefits with my korokoro eyes.

i dont know of 400 milli but legit corporate agriculture will DEF make its way to nigeria starting with the SW theres no avoiding it.

Its a global land grab. Search online for it. Many investors are racing after Africa's fertile lands among other places. Food will progressively become more important as world population grows and Africa, Ukraine/central eastern countries (they have a very fertile black soil type called a chernozerm) are becoming targets of landgrabbers.

Even schools like MIT and Harvard are investing in the landgrab through proxies.

Ghadaffi already did a test run in Mali where he bought up farmland. Same is happening in Kenya where refugees are being chased away from 20-year old camps to make way for european investors.


Its not a blessing. Its a steady recolonisation.


Mark my words.

^^^^

The way things are going, Land and water resources are about to become the new Oil. See the article/interview below:

Published: May 18, 2011
Food prices are rising, but the impact is not being felt equally around the world, says environmentalist Lester Brown.

Brown, the founder and president of the Earth Policy Institute, argues that food has quickly become the hidden driver of world politics in a piece published in the May/June issue of Foreign Policy.

"If you're in Pakistan, and you go to the local market to buy wheat to hand-grind into flour to make chapati, and the price of wheat doubles, the price of your chapati basically doubles," he tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "They're not insulated from the doubling or tripling of world grain prices the way that we [in the United States] are. ,  And this is one of the factors feeding the unrest in the Arab world, North Africa and the Middle East."

Brown says the world's rapidly expanding population has created elevated demand for grain, milk, cheese and eggs, but changes in climate and irrigation have made it increasingly difficult to increase production accordingly. Increased demand has also stripped the world of much of its excess crop surpluses. For example, Brown says, in 1965, when the Indian monsoon failed, the United States sent a fifth of its total wheat crop to India to avoid famine.

"We couldn't do that today because we don't have that sort of slack in the system," he says. "The problem is not that we're producing less grain — we're producing more grain — but we're not increasing production fast enough to keep up with the growth in demand."

Because of the increased demand for food, the ability to grow crops, Brown says, is increasingly becoming a new form of "geopolitical leverage."

He points to the grain markets in 2007 and 2008, when grain prices rose considerably. Countries that typically exported their grain to other countries clamped down on their exports, to try to keep their own domestic prices low. For example, Russia and Argentina both restricted wheat exports, while Vietnam, the world's No. 2 rice exporter, banned rice exports for several months.

"That created a panic in the importing countries because they didn't feel like they could any longer count on the world market to supply their needs," Brown says.

In response, the importing countries negotiated and in some cases leased land in other, more irrigable countries to grow grain and produce biofuels for themselves. Countries like Saudi Arabia, China and South Korea have all leased land in Africa, where the governments lease irrigable land for as little as $1 an acre.

Interested folks can read more here: http://m.npr.org/news/Politics/136394365

As long as we can protect our people's interest we will be ok. If we don't, we are in trouble. I believe Fayemi has his head screwed on right though.

ekt_bear:

9 June 2011

The Korean business executive disclosed that SYNCTOP would buy all agricultural produce generated from the project.


http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/201106091065.html

What is that paragraph implying?

Anyone looked at the company's profile at all? http://www.fueljunction.com/1886933/synctop-co-ltd.htm
I also found this  . . . http://www.foodstradeholding.com/default.cgi/action/viewcompanies/companyid/281868/

SYNCTOP
Company Overview

1.Name: SYNCTOP Co.,Ltd
2.Company Registered No: 110111-3553800
3.Operating Permission No: 119-81-93383
3.Paid in Capital: USD 52,083 (50,000,000,Korean Won)
4.Add: 312-2 New T castle,429-1,Gasan-dong, Keumcheon-ku, Seoul, Republic of Korea
5.Contact: Tel +82 02 2626 8838, Fax +82 02 2626 8839
6.Employees: 15 including 3 directors & 1 from China,1 from Russia, 1 from Japan and 1 from Malaysi
8.Business Field: mineral resources, export & import, Exploit, consulting etc
9.Established: NOV.,2006

10.Biz Careers

● Contracted with Otaku Bayaria Construction Cooperative Union in
Tokyo, Japan Dated on Dec.19,2007 for providing river sand From
May,2008 to April,2013, 18Mil. cubic meter, total amount of
US$350,000,000. (33,750,000,000￥, FX rate 1US$=102￥)

● Contracted with Hunchun City Tajinkiup Economic Trade Corp. in China
for import Chinese river sand, 2008~April,2013,18Mil. cubic meter.

We are regularly Selling: used rail, hms, iron orebrazilindonesiaegypt, authracite, river sand, spent catalyst, molybdenum, agriculturalriceindian cornetc.
We are regularly Buying: spent catalyst, used rail, hms.


B2B For Trade Tip: We always strongly recommend our members to strictly follow the traditional methods and rules of international trading before going into any deal with any party met over the internet. Such as getting prior company confirmation by phone, fax or by mail besides necessary cross checks done through the related local bodies like banks, chambers of commerce, related trade associations, etc. especially before realizing any money transaction.
Contact Person: Kyungsoo Moon
Job Title: Vice Chairman
Location: Korea, South - Soul-t'ukpyolsi
Companies from Korea, South
Trade Leads from Korea, South
Products from Korea, South
Classification(s): Services - Brokerage
Services - Business Services
Services - Construction
Primary Business Type(s): Distributor / Wholesaler
  More Distributors / Wholesalers,

$400 million is more than our own Government has been willing to invest for years now. Welcome development really!! What would be even better is if each state would invest at least $500 million into local agric graduates interested in running their own farming venture.

Koreans and other Asian countries have been buying up Africa's agricultural land. I would be wary of these "investors."

2good2b true

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t71nQKiZNK8&feature=related

no needed, we have enough food for the country

GOOD, Oil will soon be forgotten as our main source of income

Investment is the only way to create jobs. Unless we want to mooch off of Niger Delta oil for all of eternity (or more accurately speaking, until it finishes.) And me, I don't want to mooch if I can avoid it.

There are definitely risks which we'll need to take into account. But there is no choice but to attract investment in order to create jobs. It is the only way out.

I don't know why some folks will come halfway across the world and tell us that they need 30,000 hectares of Ekiti's arable farmland and some folks like Ekt_bear and Kobojunkie will be telling us that it is a welcome development.

Do you folks think they want to use this land to produce food to feed Nigeria?? Or they are planning on using it to feed their own Nations.

1. Please note that even though they are promising to employ some of our graduates, most of those in the more technical positions will be brought over from their own countries.

2. Whoever owns the land, and the technology gets the benefits. We can't give up vast quantities of our land just so that some individuals can get jobs. How is this going to benefit us?? The land is our only resource as of now. Korean investment, Korean profits, plus 20,000 jobs (realistically,  much less for Nigerians). But the 30,000 hectares is gone at least for whatever the duration of the lease or agreement is.

This is not like some foreigners coming here to build a $400 million power plant. In case of a power plant, if you are not happy with the way the company is operating, you get someone else to build their own power plant. In this case here, once the land is given to them, it is gone. They will plant, harvest, get it to the ports and send it back home to their own countries. We would have gotten 20,000 jobs, and then taxes we charge before export. They would have eaten their cake and had it.

But God forbid we start needing to produce more food to feed our own nation and we've already given out our best land. Well,  hydroponic farming technology still dey sha.

Very few countries in the world play with their land, especially not arable farmland.

ekt_bear:

Investment is the only way to create jobs. Unless we want to mooch off of Niger Delta oil for all of eternity (or more accurately speaking, until it finishes.) And me, I don't want to mooch if I can avoid it.

There are definitely risks which we'll need to take into account. But there is no choice but to attract investment in order to create jobs. It is the only way out.

We're not saying they should not invest o. But we're not giving them large quantities of our arable farmland. They can go and take from Sudan if they want. Generations to come will need this land. As we say in yoruba, eniyan o kin fi ika mewewa jeun (A person must not use all 10 fingers to eat).

They want land? We say NO.

As some of you fools may not know, Asians are buying up a lot of land from Africa and pushing small farmers off their land. We are producing food for other countries, even though our countries starve. That doesn't make sense to me. This is not welcomed investment and the sooner you all realize this, the better.

Water shortages lead to land grab in Africa


Oil-rich Arab countries are the most “water stressed” in the world, according to a new analysis, and they are turning to buying water-rich land in other countries to secure their food supply.

Maplecroft, a research firm, identifies Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia as world’s most water-stressed countries, defined as those with the least available water per capita. It calculated the ratio of domestic, industrial and agricultural water consumption, against renewable supplies of water from precipitation, rivers and groundwater.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/water-shortages-lead-to-land-grab-in-africa-2011-05-20

WAKE UP AFRICA!

1. Road to be fixed by December

2. International investment

3. Trying to increase security


hmmm

Fayemi,

gimme more things to write on your resumee.

I see that you're taking a cue from Mimiko.

there is fire on the mountain, and it is amazing that people are not seeing the loaded gun facing them, and the time bomb that will certainly explode in time. western nations are buying up and leasing land all across Africa, the consequence is that they tie you in into a one way contract, you can sell only to them, or on the other hand they grow the crops in your country ,export it to the world market, and you will then import it again, most of the time they will not sell in the local markets, so apart from providing phantom jobs(more like a modern day serfdom) for some people, its more like a curse in disguise for everybody in the long run, let everybody beware, this is the new form of colonization, foreign investment in the natural resources of developing nations most of the time portends disaster for the people.

jensinmi:

We're not saying they should not invest o. But we're not giving them large quantities of our arable farmland. They can go and take from Sudan if they want. Generations to come will need this land. As we say in yoruba, eniyan o kin fi ika mewewa jeun (A person must not use all 10 fingers to eat).

They want land? We say NO.

Lease it out with options to terminate or something after 10 or 20 years

They don't need to buy the land to use it for agric.

jensinmi:

I don't know why some folks will come halfway across the world and tell us that they need 30,000 hectares of Ekiti's arable farmland and some folks like Ekt_bear and Kobojunkie will be telling us that it is a welcome development.
Do you folks think they want to use this land to produce food to feed Nigeria?? Or they are planning on using it to feed their own Nations.

Cut the bull and spare us the conspiracy theories.  

jensinmi:

1. Please note that even though they are promising to employ some of our graduates, most of those in the more technical positions will be brought over from their own countries.

So? 30,000 hectares of land probably not being used for anything(not even farming by many of those Nigerians living in that country), will now get some use, and the state get some money as a result. That is a development, no matter which way you like to look at it.

jensinmi:

2. Whoever owns the land, and the technology gets the benefits. We can't give up vast quantities of our land just so that some individuals can get jobs. How is this going to benefit us?? The land is our only resource as of now. Korean investment, Korean profits, plus 20,000 jobs (realistically,  much less for Nigerians). But the 30,000 hectares is gone at least for whatever the duration of the lease or agreement is.

Again, the land has probably been laying out there with no use for decades. What are you complaining about? From all you continue to say, what I see is someone whose #1 issue with this is that outsiders are coming in to do what you have refused to do with your own property for decades.

jensinmi:

This is not like some foreigners coming here to build a $400 million power plant. In case of a power plant, if you are not happy with the way the company is operating, you get someone else to build their own power plant. In this case here, once the land is given to them, it is gone. They will plant, harvest, get it to the ports and send it back home to their own countries. We would have gotten 20,000 jobs, and then taxes we charge before export. They would have eaten their cake and had it.

Whether na power plant or not, it is all cases of foreigners coming in to do the job you have refused to do for yourselves. If they plant, harvest and send it back to their land, the state at least gets money from that, as opposed to the same land right now not generating any funds for the state.

jensinmi:

But God forbid we start needing to produce more food to feed our own nation and we've already given out our best land. Well,  hydroponic farming technology still dey sha.Very few countries in the world play with their land, especially not arable farmland.

We have been needing to produce more food to feed our nation for over 30 decades now. We are at the point where we import more than 80% of what we consume but that has yet to spur us to start tilling our own land for the food we need. Our Population is projected to hit 200 million in the next couple of decades, and we have not considered seriously investing in agriculture as a nation. Why is it suddenly an issue now that this korean businessman wants to lease/purchase 30,000 for his business?

i dnt welcome this nonsense, they should rent it out not sell it,

ekt_bear:

Lease it out with options to terminate or something after 10 or 20 years

They don't need to buy the land to use it for agric.

Bros. No vex o.

So. . . they will bring $400 million worth of technology and expertise and then allow you to terminate in 10 to 20 years.

They don fall maga1  be that.

I don't think they will allow Ekiti State to turn them into Magas.

If anyone is going to be the maga, I can bet they intend to make us the maga.

Why are Africans so gullible? This is a mere recolonization of Africa in the name of investment. Is this how Korea, Japan and China became industrialized countries?

If this is true, Fayemi needs to stop right away!

Or so they can become another MTN, n become an ass to the people of nigeria?? fucck these development, we dnnnt want this, well ii personally dnt
people dnt have to seee about now, it bout the future, this dev is not welcome for the future, like wtf, 30000?? too much man, give them 6000 jare abeg

@ Kobojunkie and all


Kindly note that this land on which we stand is our greatest heritage and the only material legacy we can pass on to the generations that come.
It is from this land that they will get their crude oil, their solid minerals, and their water and food.


We must not mortgage our future and that of our children just so that we can have more comfortable lives.

I know that the land may have been sitting idle for decades, and some will say there is nothing wrong for us to give to them.

Please note that the reason it has been idle is because we have not been pushed to the wall. We still have options and plenty of oil money to depend on. It is this laziness for oil money that is causing us to overlook agriculture. A time will come when these things won't be available anymore.

If a tuber of yam starts selling for N1,500, nobody would tell Nigerians before they start investing in Agriculture. My point is that we still have what we consider to be other options and that is why we are neglecting this resource. (Ayo lo n pa wa).

Once we allow some foreigners to take our land, kindly note that this means that neither I,jensinmi, nor Kobojunkie's children or grandchildren will ever have the opportunity to participate in agriculture as anything more than glorified serfs (as stated by alpontif).

First it will be the Koreans, later na Saudi Arabia, then U.A.E, then China, and then before we know it, 20 years from now we won't have enough available land to feed our population that may have reached 250 million or more.

What do we do then?? Evict the Chinese?? Do we expect them to go back home without a fight?? Or would it just be easier for them to send their military over to keep us in check.

jensinmi:

@ Kobojunkie and all


Kindly note that this land on which we stand is our greatest heritage and the only material legacy we can pass on to the generations that come.
It is from this land that they will get their crude oil, their solid minerals, and their water and food.


We must not mortgage our future and that of our children just so that we can have more comfortable lives.

I know that the land may have been sitting idle for decades, and some will say there is nothing wrong for us to give to them.

Please note that the reason it has been idle is because we have not been pushed to the wall. We still have options and plenty of oil money to depend on. It is this laziness for oil money that is causing us to overlook agriculture. A time will come when these things won't be available anymore.

If a tuber of yam starts selling for N1,500, nobody would tell Nigerians before they start investing in Agriculture. My point is that we still have what we consider to be other options that is why we are neglecting this resource. (Ayo lo n pa wa).

Once we allow some foreigners to take our land, kindly note that this means that neither I,jensinmi or Kobojunkie's children or grandchildren will ever have the opportunity to participate in agriculture as anything more than glorified serfs (as stated by alpontif).

First it will be the Koreans, later na Saudi Arabia, then U.A.E, then China, and then before we know it, 20 years from now we won't have enough available land to feed our population that may have reached 250 million or more.

What do we do then?? Evict the Chinese?? Do we expect them to go back home without a fight?? Or would it just be easier for them to send their military over to keep us in check.

If there is a definition of mortgaging the future for immediate gains, this is it.

Chinese "investors" who have bought large areas of what was previously government land in various parts of Nigeria have used armed mobile policemen to forcibly evict Nigerian subsistence farmers at gunpoint.   Quite a few "trespassers" on such Chinese-owned land have vanished into police dungeons, as punishment for their audacity in defying the new land speculators.

As a direct consequence of the endemic overpopulation problem in China, huge numbers of Chinese nationals are simply emigrating to annex land in Africa, spreading from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the last of Africa's rain forests are being plundered for timber, to Nigeria, where vast swathes of prime arable land are being grabbed and sealed off to exclude Africans.

The Koreans have also now joined the fray, buying up African land for a pittance, and creating a "Greater Korea", in the same way the Chinese have already established a Greater China on the African continent.  Not to be left out, South African white Boer farmers, dissatisfied from the get-go about the prospect of living as equals with South African "blecks" , are swarming over to Nigeria to gobble up and seal off land, to re-create their own exclusive enclaves of "Apartheid in Diaspora" , scattered throughout what was once referred to as Black Africa.

This epic land grab in sub-Saharan Africa is greatly facilitated by greedy black African "leaders" whose grasping hands are always held out for bribe money, regardless of where it comes from, and of what will ultimately result from those back-room deals.

This is a welcome development and i really think
Gov Fayemi has a good plan for the state,listening to the guy
speak some time back i know he has something to
deliver.
Kudos once again.

I am at a loss for words. Maybe rather than seeking investment to spur an area of competitive advantage we should just fold our hands and pray that mana from heaven oil will continue flowing.

Pray tell, what then is the alternative if foreign investment must be rejected?