Group pledges commitment to support FG on agriculture

The Oxford Green Farms Group has pledged commitment to support the Federal Government to facilitate productivity in the agricultural value chain.

The Chief Executive Officer of the group, Dr Goodluck Olatunde, made the commitment, while inaugurating an innovation platform, “Agrolyfe’’ on Thursday, in Abuja.

Olatunde said that the platform was to improve agricultural value chain as such would influence farming and real estate as well as enabling farmers and subscribers the opportunity to create consistent income-earning opportunities.

He said that the effort would also generate stable and reliable rental income through farmland acquisition.

“We want to support the Federal Government towards driving self-sustainability in food production.

“Therefore, we are working toward acquiring 10 million acres of farm land and onboarding 10,000 farmers on our platform within the next five years.

“We are onboarding access to grants and off takers for their farming to boost capacity and output. We believe this will add up to 20 per cent boost to Nigeria`s overall food production capacity.

“Agriculture is as old as man and human must eat, therefore, we must farm.

“It is a simple universal fact; land does not fade or die. There is little or no maintenance cost and it has almost zero risk factors,’’ he said.

Olatunde said that those who were subscribers on the platform can purchase farmlands from as low as N100,000 and earn rentals on it every three months.

The Head, Marketing Department of the organization, Mr Martins Omotoso, said that Agrolyfe was a product that would give easy access to farm land farmers.

Omotoso said that the organisation`s aim was to tackle inflation and ensuring that unemployment reduce in the country.

He also said that the organisation was collaborating with government officials, NGOs, other relevant stakeholders to ensure that the programme achieve its objective.

“Estimative, we are looking at 50 farmers currently across the nation. It is going to be interested in getting farm lands.

“One of the biggest problem farmers faced is access to farm land, we are bringing a system that will create amenities to address such problem on those farms lands,’’ he said.

The Group Managing Director, Dr Mariam Animasaun, said that the project would create job opportunities for the youth, especially the women in the country.

“We want to engage the youths and women more in this value to ensure that we leverage our strength.

“Security will be tackled effectively in the farmland, we will provide seedling and there is access to grant, every support they need will be provided,’’ she said.

Mr Shimo Mela, from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that the ministry was ready to support the project to realise its aim.

“In the area of mobilisation, the ministry will ensure that it put all effort to mobilise farmers as well as offering other positive support to make the project reality,’’ he said.

Mr Lanre Sadik, from the Central Bank of Nigeria, also said that the CBN would ensure that the programme would be implemented effectively.

“The programme is a good one, we will ensure that the programme is introduce effectively at the CBN, and we will support it in our own way,’’ he said. (NAN)