DETERMINED to increase food productivity, the Chairman of Greenhouse Farms, Benin, Captain Idahosa Okunbo, has rolled out plan to scale its scalable and modula production model in the Niger Delta and other states of the federation with the aim of satisfying both domestic and export demands of horticultural products.
Okunbo who spoke recently in Benin during the first harvest of the farms said that there was the urgent need for Nigeria to adopt new technologies that would allow it to increase food productivity so as to boost non-oil export in the international market.
Besides, he said that the initiative would also lead to better quality products, self-sufficiency and access to international markets with better prices.
He said: “Wells Hosa GreenHouse Farms is poised to change the narrative of agriculture in Nigeria while immensely diversifying our economy.
“During our conception stages, we identified challenges in the agro-food sector to include poor transportation of the goods from the Northern to the Southern part of the country as well as loss of produce due to ineffective packaging and storage facilities.
“Today, Wells Hosa GreenHouse Farms is abundantly equipped to handle the demands of moving products from Edo State to the rest of the country.
“We are significantly proud of the feat and the key opportunities it presents to us”.
He further said that the farm was poised to revolutionise the tomato industry in Nigeria and impact on the entire agricultural sector of the country.
He disclosed that Nigeria presently ranked the 14th largest producer of tomatoes in the world, second in Africa after Egypt and accounted for 65 per cent of tomatoes produced in West Africa.
While disclosing that the nation produced 1.8m metric tonnes of tomatoes annually, he lamented that nearly 0.7m metric tonnes of this quantity was lost after harvest.
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The Chair of Wells Hosa GreenHouse Farms, said Nigeria imported $360m tomatoes snnually.
Notwithstandingthe good harvest of tomatoes which was displayed, Okunbo added that there was still a lot of work to be done around the country so as to ensure self-sufficiency and to generate foreign exchange.
The Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Export Promotion Council, Mr Olusegun Awolowo, said the establishment of the greenhouse farm was timely, considering the fact that the council was doing a lot to promote export.
Awolowo, who said the council had developed 22 priority products out of which 80 percent were agricultural products, added that “it is remarkable that at a time like this, two persons have significantly shown interest. Alhaji Aliko Dangote and now Capt. Hosa Okunbo”
The Minister of State, Agriculture, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, noted that before the present administration came on board, agriculture was seen as government programme, but added that currently, Nigerians had realised the importance of agriculture not only as an investment, but as a business.
Impressed by the novel farming method, Edo state governor, Godwin Obaseki, said that the project was in line with the state government’s mandate of creating job for the the army of unemployed youths.
Represented by deputy governor Philip Shaibu, Obaseki remarked that when his government promised during the electioneering to create 200,000 jobs, it did not mean just government jobs alone but also through private initiatives.
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