Osun: Boosting Agriculture Through Institutional Partnerships

With the recent signing of the
agreement between the globally renowned International
Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the State of
Osun government led by the energetic yet visionary helmsman,
Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, Osun is apparently treading an
uncommon path of agricultural revolution capable of
permanently changing her economic fortunes. The agreement is
a culmination of a four-year partnership between the two
parties over series of agriculture projects hitherto
embarked upon by the state through the flagship programme
Osun Rural Enterprise and Agriculture Programme (O-REAP).
Through the project, IITA, reputed to have in
its kitty a centre that has in store over 30,000 seed
varieties and at the forefront of agricultural research and
innovation, the IITA would carry out research and maintain
demonstration plots for best farming practices in Osun,
while carrying out crop multiplication and working with the
government to facilitate a most robust and shortened
research-extension-farmer linkage. Perhaps, the key and
strategic highlight of the project envisaged to generate
substantial impact and ripple effect is the involvement of
the OREAP Youth and other Osun youths alongside the youth
programme within the IITA christened the Youth Agripreneur
programme. This would ensure that Osun youths are exposed to
world-class training in modern agriculture to make
agriculture more commercial and profitable, thereby making
it more attractive to Osun and Nigerian youths in
general.
According to Ogbeni Aregbesola,
under the partnership “the state is releasing 205.5
hectares of land around Ago Owu in the State, to IITA for
the purpose of conducting research and setting up
demonstration farms for best farming practices.” The
project, which the governor is convinced, has enormous
potential complements the agriculture programmes of the
State and also gives it a new fillip.
It is
envisaged that the implementation of the project will bring
in agricultural investment, ensure the improved efficiency
of the agriculture value chain, create jobs and hopefully
make millionaires out of our farmers, especially the youths
who are interested in farming.
As a largely
agrarian state, farmers in Osun stand to benefit in no small
measure from the move. The governor underscored the
strategic thought behind the project thus: “The parcel of
land being released to IITA is very strategic. It is within
a 4,000 hectares farm estate we are developing and is
located next to a farm settlement of 11,496 hectares in the
Ago Owu area and in close proximity to another farm
settlement in Mokore with 3,340 hectares of land. This IITA
centre is surrounded by some 85 farming villages that we
expect would be the first beneficiaries of the farming
innovation that would come from the centre. There is no
doubt that this would spread to the entire farming community
in Osun and then to our neighboring states”.
Dr Nteranya Sanginga, the Director General of
the IITA who led an equally high-powered team of officials
of the institute to pen his signature to the agreement,
expressed his excitement over the project and appreciated
the hands of partnership extended to IITA by the
Aregbesola-led government on the project. He assured the
people of his deep commitment. Being a Congolese whose
country, like Nigeria, is enormously blessed with natural
resources, but in his words, “has been corrupted by the by
the proceeds from oil”, Sanginga noted that the “only
future for us in Africa is in land and agriculture, with the
over 70 percent of our youth without jobs”. Failure to
take this seriously, he emphasised, “would mean that the
continent would pay the harsh price”.
Emphasizing that it must indeed be a
partnership that truly benefits from the mutual commitment
of both parties, Saginga said that even though IITA with
enormous skills and experience in the sector is committed to
fulfilling her part in the agreement, all hands must be put
on desk to drive the vision. Particularly, he challenged the
governor in this regard. “I have few extension workers but
the state has 1,000 and they have to be put to use. We would
respect our duties, but if you don’t respect yours, the
ball will be your court. My hope is in young people. We
would like to engage them and support them”.
Indeed the import of this challenge was not
lost on Ogbeni Aregbesola. Proving that he meant business;
the governor reiterated his commitment to the vision of
making the state a point of reference in agricultural
revolution in the country. To this end, he informed the
audience that the State is embarking on a ‘back to farm
project’ that would see all its employees in the
agriculture sector go on the farm and achieve the desired
results that would catapult the State to the desired zenith.
“None of our agricultural officers would be permitted to
stay in the office any longer – they will manage farms and
farmers. If you fail, you either get demoted or get sacked.
It is now a new era, the era of management by production”,
he said.
With the falling price of crude oil
now sold for $38.18, Ogbeni quipped that the era of cheap
money coming from the federal account is gone. “We don’t
need a soothsayer to tell us that our focus must shift to
agriculture if we must survive the looming financial storm.
The only way to survive is to depend on ourselves and our
hands”, Aregbesola counseled.

Check the Daily Independent newspaper for the full story.