Godfrey Nzamujo, Dominican reverend father, founder and director of Songhai Centre, a research/training/industrial farm and resource centre headquartered in Port Novo, Benin Republic, speaks on how agro-tourism, which is being avidly carried out by Hadur Travel and Tours, is of importance to the centre’s vision of ensuring that all Africans get the latest agricultural knowledge and skills to empower them in wealth creation in an this interview with OLUYINKA ALAWODE of Business day News paper.
Problem

Songhai Centre is an interventionist institution. It stems from the fact that worldwide if you mention Africa in the world today, what comes to mind is poverty, corruption and all such. Poverty is caused by the social structure in Africa. It is an extractive structure which Africa borrowed from the colonial masters who made themselves rich by extracting from the society. Independence was supposed to create a culture that would create the liberty for every African, including every Nigerians, to be at the driver’s seat. But colonisation transferred the extractive structure to us, so instead of broad-based inclusive growth, people are not motivated to invent, to invest, to create.

In Africa, we have a strong political system which instead of reversing the extractive culture and structure of the colonial political system only makes it worse. It is a logic of poverty that has continued, making it difficult for people to harness the opportunities around them to create goods and services that correspond to our needs and desires. This is my definition of poverty.

Solution

But Songhai says we cannot continue that way. When people come to the centre, what we are doing here would trigger off that mentality that wealth creation is possible for everyone in Africa. That is the reason the agro-tourism work of Hadur Travel and Tours is important, because it is part of our strategy that more and more people representing the critical mass of Africa can come and then go out and practise the things that they have learnt at Songhai to create wealth and jobs. If this happens, unemployment and crisis in most parts of Africa would stop.

For instance, in Nigeria, the easiest way to make money is through contracts. If you know someone, you get it, if not, forget it. So, if your brother or someone in your party wins, you are assured you would get the contract, but if he loses, then you are in trouble. So, the person would fight to death to see his brother or party member in that position. That is why politics is very explosive because it is the winner takes all, the loser dies and nobody wants to die. That is why Songhai has its ramifications not just in food production and employment but socio-political aspect of the African society.


Agriculture is an integrated reality, there must be a minimum level of integration on a farm. For instance, if the business is doing only poultry, what then would be done with the animal wastes? There should be at least three sections, the livestock wastes should be used to fertilise the crops, part of the crop yields should be used to feed the chickens. It is not complicated, our grandmothers were doing it. They raise chickens, use the wastes to grow vegetables, and this makes the soil richer.

Agriculture should take the environment into consideration to get best results. We think we are modern and decide to focus, that is why we have people planting only corn of about 2,000 hectares but a good farming business that will be highly profitable cannot separate soil, crop and animals. Nature is integrated, it is a systemic thing.

Full story here :http://www.smarttravelsuperfan.com/learn-agro-tourism-inpacts-agric-wealth-creation/


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paOpP54lV3I