Yoruba Commonwealth and Politics - Politics (122) - Nairaland
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| Re: Yoruba Commonwealth and Politics by Shymm3x: 3:42pm On Nov 04, 2015 |
I noticed a lot of Europeans and other countries are buying up lands all over Africa for agriculture - to feed their growing population. Hopefully, Yorubas won't sell any part of our lands to these folks. We're better off investing in agriculture and making profits via export. Read this (very troubling): How food and water are driving a 21st-century African land grab We turned off the main road to Awassa, talked our way past security guards and drove a mile across empty land before we found what will soon be Ethiopia's largest greenhouse. Nestling below an escarpment of the Rift Valley, the development is far from finished, but the plastic and steel structure already stretches over 20 hectares – the size of 20 football pitches. The farm manager shows us millions of tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables being grown in 500m rows in computer controlled conditions. Spanish engineers are building the steel structure, Dutch technology minimises water use from two bore-holes and 1,000 women pick and pack 50 tonnes of food a day. Within 24 hours, it has been driven 200 miles to Addis Ababa and flown 1,000 miles to the shops and restaurants of Dubai, Jeddah and elsewhere in the Middle East. Ethiopia is one of the hungriest countries in the world with 2.8 million people needing food aid, but paradoxically the government is offering at least 3m hectares of its most fertile land to rich countries and some of the world's most wealthy individuals to export food for their own populations. The 1,000 hectares of land which contain the Awassa greenhouses are leased for 99 years to a Saudi billionaire businessman, Ethiopian-born Sheikh Mohammed al-Amoudi, one of the 50 richest men in the world. His Saudi Star company plans to spend up to $2bn acquiring and developing 500,000 hectares of land in Ethiopia in the next few years. So far, it has bought four farms and is already growing wheat, rice, vegetables and flowers for the Saudi market. It expects eventually to employ more than 10,000 people. But Ethiopia is only one of 20 or more African countries where land is being bought or leased for intensive agriculture on an immense scale in what may be the greatest change of ownership since the colonial era. An Observer investigation estimates that up to 50m hectares of land – an area more than double the size of the UK – has been acquired in the last few years or is in the process of being negotiated by governments and wealthy investors working with state subsidies. The data used was collected by Grain, the International Institute for Environment and Development, the International Land Coalition, ActionAid and other non-governmental groups. The land rush, which is still accelerating, has been triggered by the worldwide food shortages which followed the sharp oil price rises in 2008, growing water shortages and the European Union's insistence that 10% of all transport fuel must come from plant-based biofuels by 2015. In many areas the deals have led to evictions, civil unrest and complaints of "land grabbing". The experience of Nyikaw Ochalla, an indigenous Anuak from the Gambella region of Ethiopia now living in Britain but who is in regular contact with farmers in his region, is typical. He said: "All of the land in the Gambella region is utilised. Each community has and looks after its own territory and the rivers and farmlands within it. It is a myth propagated by the government and investors to say that there is waste land or land that is not utilised in Gambella. "The foreign companies are arriving in large numbers, depriving people of land they have used for centuries. There is no consultation with the indigenous population. The deals are done secretly. The only thing the local people see is people coming with lots of tractors to invade their lands. "All the land round my family village of Illia has been taken over and is being cleared. People now have to work for an Indian company. Their land has been compulsorily taken and they have been given no compensation. People cannot believe what is happening. Thousands of people will be affected and people will go hungry." It is not known if the acquisitions will improve or worsen food security in Africa, or if they will stimulate separatist conflicts, but a major World Bank report due to be published this month is expected to warn of both the potential benefits and the immense dangers they represent to people and nature. Leading the rush are international agribusinesses, investment banks, hedge funds, commodity traders, sovereign wealth funds as well as UK pension funds, foundations and individuals attracted by some of the world's cheapest land. Together they are scouring Sudan, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Malawi, Ethiopia, Congo, Zambia, Uganda, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Mali, Sierra Leone, Ghana and elsewhere. Ethiopia alone has approved 815 foreign-financed agricultural projects since 2007. Any land there, which investors have not been able to buy, is being leased for approximately $1 per year per hectare. Saudi Arabia, along with other Middle Eastern emirate states such as Qatar, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi, is thought to be the biggest buyer. In 2008 the Saudi government, which was one of the Middle East's largest wheat-growers, announced it was to reduce its domestic cereal production by 12% a year to conserve its water. It earmarked $5bn to provide loans at preferential rates to Saudi companies which wanted to invest in countries with strong agricultural potential . [b]Meanwhile, the Saudi investment company Foras, backed by the Islamic Development Bank and wealthy Saudi investors, plans to spend $1bn buying land and growing 7m tonnes of rice for the Saudi market within seven years. The company says it is investigating buying land in Mali, Senegal, Sudan and Uganda. By turning to Africa to grow its staple crops, Saudi Arabia is not just acquiring Africa's land but is securing itself the equivalent of hundreds of millions of gallons of scarce water a year. Water, says the UN, will be the defining resource of the next 100 years. Since 2008 Saudi investors have bought heavily in Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia and Kenya. Last year the first sacks of wheat grown in Ethiopia for the Saudi market were presented by al-Amoudi to King Abdullah. Some of the African deals lined up are eye-wateringly large: China has signed a contract with the Democratic Republic of Congo to grow 2.8m hectares of palm oil for biofuels. Before it fell apart after riots, a proposed 1.2m hectares deal between Madagascar and the South Korean company Daewoo would have included nearly half of the country's arable land. Land to grow biofuel crops is also in demand. "European biofuel companies have acquired or requested about 3.9m hectares in Africa. This has led to displacement of people, lack of consultation and compensation, broken promises about wages and job opportunities," said Tim Rice, author of an ActionAid report which estimates that the EU needs to grow crops on 17.5m hectares, well over half the size of Italy, if it is to meet its 10% biofuel target by 2015. "The biofuel land grab in Africa is already displacing farmers and food production. The number of people going hungry will increase," he said. British firms have secured tracts of land in Angola, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Nigeria and Tanzania to grow flowers and vegetables. Indian companies, backed by government loans, have bought or leased hundreds of thousands of hectares in Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Senegal and Mozambique, where they are growing rice, sugar cane, maize and lentils to feed their domestic market. Nowhere is now out of bounds. Sudan, emerging from civil war and mostly bereft of development for a generation, is one of the new hot spots. South Korean companies last year bought 700,000 hectares of northern Sudan for wheat cultivation; the United Arab Emirates have acquired 750,000 hectares and Saudi Arabia last month concluded a 42,000-hectare deal in Nile province. The government of southern Sudan says many companies are now trying to acquire land. "We have had many requests from many developers. Negotiations are going on," said Peter Chooli, director of water resources and irrigation, in Juba last week. "A Danish group is in discussions with the state and another wants to use land near the Nile."[/b] In one of the most extraordinary deals, buccaneering New York investment firm Jarch Capital, run by a former commodities trader, Philip Heilberg, has leased 800,000 hectares in southern Sudan near Darfur. Heilberg has promised not only to create jobs but also to put 10% or more of his profits back into the local community. But he has been accused by Sudanese of "grabbing" communal land and leading an American attempt to fragment Sudan and exploit its resources. Devlin Kuyek, a Montreal-based researcher with Grain, said investing in Africa was now seen as a new food supply strategy by many governments. "Rich countries are eyeing Africa not just for a healthy return on capital, but also as an insurance policy. Food shortages and riots in 28 countries in 2008, declining water supplies, climate change and huge population growth have together made land attractive. Africa has the most land and, compared with other continents, is cheap," he said. "Farmland in sub-Saharan Africa is giving 25% returns a year and new technology can treble crop yields in short time frames," said Susan Payne, chief executive of Emergent Asset Management, a UK investment fund seeking to spend $50m on African land, which, she said, was attracting governments, corporations, multinationals and other investors. "Agricultural development is not only sustainable, it is our future. If we do not pay great care and attention now to increase food production by over 50% before 2050, we will face serious food shortages globally," she said. But many of the deals are widely condemned by both western non-government groups and nationals as "new colonialism", driving people off the land and taking scarce resources away from people. We met Tegenu Morku, a land agent, in a roadside cafe on his way to the region of Oromia in Ethiopia to find 500 hectares of land for a group of Egyptian investors. They planned to fatten cattle, grow cereals and spices and export as much as possible to Egypt. There had to be water available and he expected the price to be about 15 birr (75p) per hectare per year – less than a quarter of the cost of land in Egypt and a tenth of the price of land in Asia. "The land and labour is cheap and the climate is good here. Everyone – Saudis, Turks, Chinese, Egyptians – is looking. The farmers do not like it because they get displaced, but they can find land elsewhere and, besides, they get compensation, equivalent to about 10 years' crop yield," he said. Oromia is one of the centres of the African land rush. Haile Hirpa, president of the Oromia studies' association, said last week in a letter of protest to UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon that India had acquired 1m hectares, Djibouti 10,000 hectares, Saudi Arabia 100,000 hectares, and that Egyptian, South Korean, Chinese, Nigerian and other Arab investors were all active in the state. "This is the new, 21st-century colonisation. The Saudis are enjoying the rice harvest, while the Oromos are dying from man-made famine as we speak," he said. The Ethiopian government denied the deals were causing hunger and said that the land deals were attracting hundreds of millions of dollars of foreign investments and tens of thousands of jobs. A spokesman said: "Ethiopia has 74m hectares of fertile land, of which only 15% is currently in use – mainly by subsistence farmers. Of the remaining land, only a small percentage – 3 to 4% – is offered to foreign investors. Investors are never given land that belongs to Ethiopian farmers. The government also encourages Ethiopians in the diaspora to invest in their homeland. They bring badly needed technology, they offer jobs and training to Ethiopians, they operate in areas where there is suitable land and access to water." The reality on the ground is different, according to Michael Taylor, a policy specialist at the International Land Coalition. "If land in Africa hasn't been planted, it's probably for a reason. Maybe it's used to graze livestock or deliberately left fallow to prevent nutrient depletion and erosion. Anybody who has seen these areas identified as unused understands that there is no land in Ethiopia that has no owners and users." Development experts are divided on the benefits of large-scale, intensive farming. Indian ecologist Vandana Shiva said in London last week that large-scale industrial agriculture not only threw people off the land but also required chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, fertilisers, intensive water use, and large-scale transport, storage and distribution which together turned landscapes into enormous mono-cultural plantations. "We are seeing dispossession on a massive scale. It means less food is available and local people will have less. There will be more conflict and political instability and cultures will be uprooted. The small farmers of Africa are the basis of food security. The food availability of the planet will decline," she says. But Rodney Cooke, director at the UN's International Fund for Agricultural Development, sees potential benefits. "I would avoid the blanket term 'land-grabbing'. Done the right way, these deals can bring benefits for all parties and be a tool for development." Lorenzo Cotula, senior researcher with the International Institute for Environment and Development, who co-authored a report on African land exchanges with the UN fund last year, found that well-structured deals could guarantee employment, better infrastructures and better crop yields. But badly handled they could cause great harm, especially if local people were excluded from decisions about allocating land and if their land rights were not protected. Water is also controversial. Local government officers in Ethiopia told the Observer that foreign companies that set up flower farms and other large intensive farms were not being charged for water. "We would like to, but the deal is made by central government," said one. In Awassa, the al-Amouni farm uses as much water a year as 100,000 Ethiopians. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/mar/07/food-water-africa-land-grab 1 Like 1 Share |
| Re: Yoruba Commonwealth and Politics by Shymm3x: 3:46pm On Nov 04, 2015 |
Aareonakakanfo: Apart from Cocoa - we can move to grains, rubber, palm oil etc.. Agribusiness is the future. The government just needs to start giving out subsidies/grants and create an agribusiness drive for a lot of folks to get involved. 1 Like |
| Re: Yoruba Commonwealth and Politics by Nobody: 3:48pm On Nov 04, 2015 |
Lool why won't they buy our lands when we ourselves are not taking advantage of what we have.I can bet you for every bad move outsiders makes in Africa,there are Africans backing them.That's why fools like Donald trump will always have something to say Reminds me of patrice lumumba 1 Like |
| Re: Yoruba Commonwealth and Politics by Ibebe: 3:49pm On Nov 04, 2015 |
@shym3x Meanwhile, the Saudi investment company Foras, backed by the Islamic Development Bank and wealthy Saudi investors, plans to spend $1bn buying land and growing 7m tonnes of rice for the Saudi market within seven years. The company says it is investigating buying land in Mali, Senegal, Sudan and Uganda. By turning to Africa to grow its staple crops, Saudi Arabia is not just acquiring Africa's land but is securing itself the equivalent of hundreds of millions of gallons of scarce water a year. Water, says the UN, will be the defining resource of the next 100 years. I'm a little iffy about this. There's an assumption that foreigners are buying up African lands to use as agricultural base to grow food for [not African people] their foreign lands. Where does this lead to? Noe-colonialism and subtle slavery. While we're discussing agriculture, we need to be cautious of foreign land grabbers. |
| Re: Yoruba Commonwealth and Politics by Nobody: 3:51pm On Nov 04, 2015 |
Shymm3x: All these ideas have already been tabled,the problem is implementing them.I wonder if it's that difficult |
| Re: Yoruba Commonwealth and Politics by shizzy7(f): 3:52pm On Nov 04, 2015 |
Aareonakakanfo: |
| Re: Yoruba Commonwealth and Politics by Ibebe: 3:53pm On Nov 04, 2015 |
4 years ago..... [size=14pt]Korean Investors To Lift Agric In Ekiti With U.s.$400 Million [/size] 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 annoying thing is, our news reports report such occurrences as "investment". Either African politicians aren't smart enough to understand neo-colonialism or they're too greedy to think beyond the cheddah. |
| Re: Yoruba Commonwealth and Politics by Shymm3x: 3:53pm On Nov 04, 2015 |
Ibebe: When we say Africans are lazy monkeys and intellectual scums - folks are going to say we're self-hating. Why would you even sell ya lands to foreigners when you can easily develop and invest in those lands - and sell whatever you produce to these folks, with better profits? I'm ashamed to be an African! We're the worst people on this planet. Rather than focus on how to maximise the things God blessed up with - all we ever do is try to be what we're not, while selling our birthrights to outsiders for a plate of porridge. Africans are the biggest problem of Africa. We're perpetual slaves and we prefer being slaves. 2 Likes |
| Re: Yoruba Commonwealth and Politics by shizzy7(f): 3:53pm On Nov 04, 2015 |
Aareonakakanfo:Our governors only have vision(except mimiko and Aregbesola) but they don't know how to put it into action, Maybe they don't have enough money, or they are not getting their priorities right, I don't know what their problem is, but Large scale farming is now easier compared to Awolowo's era.. In my own opinion, the short-term solution is if individuals takeover the agriculture sector. We can't keep waiting for these set of governors... 1 Like |
| Re: Yoruba Commonwealth and Politics by Nobody: 3:56pm On Nov 04, 2015 |
Shymm3x the agricultural rebirth going on the south-west is mainly being facilitated by young Yoruba entrepreneurs.I know some myself and they all got their funding from Agri-business incubators not the Government 1 Like |
| Re: Yoruba Commonwealth and Politics by Shymm3x: 3:56pm On Nov 04, 2015 |
Aareonakakanfo: It's not difficult to implement - these folks are just too occupied with the meagre money they get from oil. Smaller African countries that have no oil, are investing in Africa cos without agricultural export - they know they won't survive. Why can't we do the same? Ivory Coast lives on cocoa export. 1 Like |
| Re: Yoruba Commonwealth and Politics by Ibebe: 3:56pm On Nov 04, 2015 |
Shymm3x: Ahhh shym3x....... it's not that serious. [well actually it is]. I just wonder what happens when oil or other natural resources [i.e diamonds] are discovered on those African lands sold to foreigners. Will the oil belong to [say] Nigeria or would China take the oil because they bought the land? 1 Like |
| Re: Yoruba Commonwealth and Politics by PenSniper: 3:58pm On Nov 04, 2015 |
Aareonakakanfo: 1 Like |
| Re: Yoruba Commonwealth and Politics by Ibebe: 3:59pm On Nov 04, 2015 |
Aareonakakanfo: Oh there's a spark of sunshine in the mist of stormy clouds. Yorubas, please reduce the number of lands you sell to migrants and foreigners. 1 Like |
| Re: Yoruba Commonwealth and Politics by Shymm3x: 4:00pm On Nov 04, 2015 |
Aareonakakanfo: Now imagine what will happen if the government gets involved. In Europe and America, agriculture thrives cos of the subsidies and grants the farmers get from the government. What's stopping the government from getting involved and supporting a great initiative like that? 1 Like |
| Re: Yoruba Commonwealth and Politics by Shymm3x: 4:06pm On Nov 04, 2015 |
Ibebe: Lol. It's serious - just look at how messed up we're and how they treat us like inconsequential babies. Heck, we can't even use our own lands to feed ourselves and we've to sell them to foreigners for loose change, while most Africans are hungry and starving to death. Crazy! Then we've the enemies within - the slaves - whose only agenda is to keep selling us out to the highest bidders and to maintain the status quo that's kept us in perpetual servitude. We're the only ones who sell everything to foreigners. Look at China - they have a large deposit of rare earth minerals but they watch the quantity they sell and whenever they do, there are strings attached to it. Conversely, in Congo DR, where there's also a humongous deposit of rare earth minerals - it's free for all. Nigeria is another classic example. We produce oil, yet we can't refine our oil and the country imports refined oil any chemistry student can easily refine. Do they even know REAL the quantity of oil Nigeria produces daily? 4 Likes |
| Re: Yoruba Commonwealth and Politics by Ibebe: 4:07pm On Nov 04, 2015 |
One of the MANY MANY reasons why I HATE Fayose: 1. During Fayemi's term, he focused greatly on developing agricultural businesses in Ekiti by emphasizing on agriculture as an Ekiti gateway. Oloshi oniranu Fayose is currently focusing on building an INTERNATIONAL airport when we don't even have the funds. Seriously?!!!! There's already an airport in Akure, even if it's regional. Take a plane to Lagos and hop on one for Ondo. Drive to Ekiti. As a region, let's first focus on uplifting Akure airport. 1 Like |
| Re: Yoruba Commonwealth and Politics by Nobody: 4:09pm On Nov 04, 2015 |
Shymm3x: Until that "oyel" dries up, I fear for this country.Our governors are just lazy.I was asking people here on who they think among this current crop of Yoruba leaders has the capabilities to replicate Awo's achievements and some people mentioned Tinubu.  I wonder why some Yoruba folks complain about romanis trying to force a relationship with the south-south because of oil.Who cares? Who says we can't do without oil I'm thinking isn't it possible for South-west governors to decline the money coming from the federal level so they can concentrate on what we have? 1 Like |
| Re: Yoruba Commonwealth and Politics by Ibebe: 4:09pm On Nov 04, 2015 |
Shymm3x: We have the land for agricultural and domestic businesses, yet we're still exporting food and meat. |
| Re: Yoruba Commonwealth and Politics by shizzy7(f): 4:10pm On Nov 04, 2015 |
Shymm3x:The worst part of it is when I hear our state/federal government shouting Come and Invest in this, invest in that..... It annoys me like mad.... 70% of the rice we eat is farmed,processed and packaged by Indians transported through Cotonou....Its actually neo-colonialism.... Nothing Is going to stop me from having a poultry farm because I've already falling in love with chickens.. Our youths of today are targeting the corporate world. Farming is tagged "local", most of our parents don't even want to hear about it.... The solution to our problems lies In our generation, We need a total reorientation of our mentality.... 1 Like |
| Re: Yoruba Commonwealth and Politics by Musiwa419: 4:12pm On Nov 04, 2015 |
Aareonakakanfo:A long time panacea would be for us to have regional autonomy. Nigeria is stifling our economic growth and development. We need to have our own regional trade laws that would enable us define export/import agreements with our foreign trade partners. If we have a south west export processing council, we would be able to address the issues Segun Awolowo, the secretary of NEPC, who by the way is a grand son of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, stated in the article as some of the factors that caused the decline in Nigeria's non-oil export earnings. I agree that our governors need to do a lot; they need to do the extraordinary; they need to think out of the box, but their is a limit to what 'Nigeria' can permit them to do. For example, Osun state has a large Gold deposit but Aregbeshola has little or no influence over the exploration of Gold in his state because the issuance of mining licence is a prerogative of the federal government under the exclusive list. The current system of government we operate in Nigeria is doing a lot of economic damage to the the Yoruba nation. A policy the minister of agriculture makes in Abuja, affects the productivity of a local farmer in Oke-Ogun. This shouldnt be so. We need devolution of economic and political powers from the central government. We need regional autonomy 3 Likes |
| Re: Yoruba Commonwealth and Politics by Nobody: 4:14pm On Nov 04, 2015 |
Ibebe: Let the oloriburukus keep selling their lands.Shameless people who have no respect whatsoever for their forefathers.Lazy fools instead of working hard are relying on their father's properties.I told one jobless Yoruba hooligan to come work in my brother's farm, the fool said nooo "Ah egbon eyin naa sa mo pe ko se n to n dako la ye isin" and i felt like doing this.. 1 Like
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| Re: Yoruba Commonwealth and Politics by Ibebe: 4:16pm On Nov 04, 2015 |
Shymm3x: The world has demeaned, devalued and deprived Africa so much that we don't think we "can". We've been mentally brainwashed by "$1 a day" and "religion" that 1) we don't value what we have 2) we don't know the value of what we have 3) we don't know how to value what we have. The immigrants in the SW are trying the same tactic, telling you they "invest" greatly in your land and that you don't [even though you brought your land to the standard it is by individual and political strength]. If you let them, you will think your land has no value [to you], stand by and let them pillage your land. Image some Yorubas talking about leaving to Benin Republic [even though they may be Benin Yoruba] because of Fulani attacks. Mentally and developmentally, the SW may stand to fail if we don't lift up our image again. 1 Like |
| Re: Yoruba Commonwealth and Politics by Nobody: 4:20pm On Nov 04, 2015 |
Musiwa419: Truer words never been said! and there's nothing more to add. I think its safe to say the Unitary system is the biggest challenge facing the south-west.it has made us lazy because we have to depend on what's coming from the federal level. As per the emboldened, I still wonder why the state Government shouldn't have power over its own resources.This country sef 2 Likes |
| Re: Yoruba Commonwealth and Politics by Ibebe: 4:22pm On Nov 04, 2015 |
Aareonakakanfo: lmaoooo By instinct, I felt like saying "back to sender" when I saw that pix.Yoruba and education sha. They think because they're educated, they must find blue/white collar jobs. The problem with education in Yorubaland 1) Can't look beyond blue/white color jobs 2) Laziness....when there's no job...can't think of innovations, reliance on family inheritance. 3) Can't think beyond "employee" status. Start your own business and be a boss, if you can't find a job. In today's Nigeria, a degree certificate is as good as a phone user manual. Stop focusing too much on education, multi-task. Look around your environment, find a problem, design a solution. 1 Like |
| Re: Yoruba Commonwealth and Politics by Nobody: 4:28pm On Nov 04, 2015 |
Ibebe: But the fool wasn't even educated.I said "hooligan"  .All he does is play babyseju,konami,eleshin,dice and Alaja.I wanted to help him and some other hooligans out of their misery 2 Likes |
| Re: Yoruba Commonwealth and Politics by Ibebe: 4:28pm On Nov 04, 2015 |
Aareonakakanfo: ahahahhah Ore mi, gbagbe e. |
| Re: Yoruba Commonwealth and Politics by Ibebe: 4:30pm On Nov 04, 2015 |
Musiwa419: Wow.... |
| Re: Yoruba Commonwealth and Politics by Ibebe: 4:35pm On Nov 04, 2015 |
Aareonakankafo...can't make it to yoruba hour today [lecture]. |
| Re: Yoruba Commonwealth and Politics by Nobody: 4:37pm On Nov 04, 2015 |
Ibebe: Ko saburu.we might not even do it today because we haven't really settled on how to make it work 1 Like |
| Re: Yoruba Commonwealth and Politics by Ibebe: 4:38pm On Nov 04, 2015 |
[size=14pt]Why we are investing in agriculture — Mimiko[/size] The Ondo State Governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, said the establishment of Ore Agric Village is aimed at harnessing the vast natural resources in the state to create wealth, fight poverty and boost food production. The Ore Agric village was one of the three integrated Agric villages established in the state in 2010, for crop farming, animal husbandry, mushroom farming and oil palm revolution. [size=16pt]The Ore Caring Heart Agricultural Village is a 2000-hectare facility. It has 300 fish ponds and mushroom demonstration farms; 600,000 oil palms from Indonesia and 200,000 from NIFOR in Benin at the pre-nursery shed. The participants quickly planted 47 hectares of maize, over 1million palm seedlings and over 1000 hectares of cassava. Altogether, the poultry section has about 30 large pens made up of three cubicles each, with over 700 layers and breeders.[/size] The farm has a large dam for water supply. And there would be no dull moment: Dr Mimiko ensured that super chalets built to taste were constructed for the accommodation of participants with provision of a bore hole, DSTV, two sets of plasma TVs, two generators, table tennis and other games facilities for recreation. Indeed, determined to ensure the success of the agricultural revolution targeted at taking over a million youths off the streets and turning them into employers of labour, Mimiko told the participants: “We have made this Agric village comfortable for you so that you can concentrate on your job. All the crop farming activities here will be tractor –driven; your weed control will be chemically done. Each of you will be empowered with facilities for crop farming, fish farming, poultry farming, mushroom farming and I’m sure five months down the line, you will be the envy of your colleagues because your income will be much more than what you will earn if you get government job.” Dr Mimiko disclosed that arrangements were at an advanced stage to develop alternative means of power supply to the Caring Heart Agricultural Village at Ore. In 2013 alone, 5,500 farms were distributed to interested participants under the Employment through Ownership in Agric Ventures scheme while 350 ad- hoc farm workers were provided with employment. Also, 2,750 and 4000 hectares were acquired in Epe and Auga- Akoko in Akoko North East Local Government Area of the state respectively, while the administration also flagged off the Mobile Farm Service Centre at Ipele, Owo local government area with 20 graduates employed to manage the centres. The Auga Agric Village extends 1 Like |
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