Harvestplus outlines dangers of establishing high scale farm

…hosts Enugu food fair Nov 28-30

The risk of establishing high scale farming business in Nigeria has been alluded to as one of the reasons that retard investments farming in the country.

HarvestPlus Nigeria country manager, Dr. Paul Ilona disclosed this in Lagos during the company’s media briefing in Lagos on Monday, on its forthcoming third edition of Nigerian Food Fair (NFF) scheduled to hold at Michael Okpara square in Enugu from 28th -30th November, 2017.

He said that HarvestPlus Nigeria, just like many other companies, is averse to risks and that, to a large extent has shaped its commitment to involvement in agricultural value chain, as against real establishing farms to really grow the
Ilona, who fielded questions on why HarvestPlus Nigeria concentrates only on selling high yield cassava, instead of venturing into commercial farming in the country, said that till date, agriculture in Nigeria has not been given the real attention it deserves, hence dearth of professionals pervades the entire system.

He asks: “What makes you qualify as an agriculturist in Nigeria?”; and argued that in other professions like law, medicine and engineering, you must have professional qualification before you would be allowed to practice, but in agriculture, it is not the same, because higher percentage of agriculture practitioners are not professionals and this gives concern to investors who are desirous of investing in the sector.

He said, “if you want to set up a 50 hectares’ of farm, you cannot get qualified farm manager to manage it, we have that challenge”
He said that such challenge has continued to constrain many investors from venturing into real agricultural farming “risk aversion is environmentally driven:” he said.

Throwing more light into the organization’s food fair in Enugu, said that Harvest plus is committed to increase production of bio fortified food crops estimated at 20 per cent over local varieties and that all the products and its value chain products would be displayed at the forth coming Enugu food fair.
According to him, the Enugu fair, is coming after Abuja, and Tinapa (Cross River) editions which set the higher standard for the Enugu edition, being third in the series.

Fidelis Dukas of the HarvestPlus NFF organizing body said that the Enugu fair, which is free, is expected to host over 15,000 participants, will also include, panel discussants, seminars , workshops, musical shows, quiz for students of secondary schools and other top side attractions by Nollywood and musical artistes.
 

Adesola Afolabi