The Oyo State Government through the Oyo State Agribusiness Development Agency is supporting private agribusiness enterprises to eliminate some of the biggest infrastructure hurdles weighing on their productivity in line with His Excellency, Governor Seyi Makinde’s vision to make Oyo State Nigeria’s most consequential agribusiness corridor.

Governor Makinde understands that the vast majority of activities to drive agricultural transformation in Oyo State will take place in the private sector and has therefore instituted measures to help existing agribusinesses enhance the commercialisation of their output through investment in the creation of new and modernisation of existing infrastructure to address some of the most pressing issues linked to electricity, low levels of technology, high production and raw material costs, faulty distribution and marketing.

This is also a beacon for prospective investors looking to invest in Oyo State’s vast agricultural resources. Oyo is open for business and the state government will support you.

This is the rationale behind the Satellite Agribusiness Industrial Hub Projects a subset of OYSADA’s Oyo State Agribusiness Regional Development Programme which seeks to improve private sector access to productive resources which increase agro-industrial value-added and employment along the entire agribusiness value chain in agriculture, industry and services.

To this end the DG OYSADA Dr. Debo Akande recently led a team from the agency to access ongoing state government interventions in private sector managed agribusiness industries in Oyo State.

Anyx Continental Farms, Iyaibeji Village

This Dairy farm located along Oyo-Iseyin road, 12 km from Oyo sits on 20 hectares of farmland and was established in 2013 with just two local cow breeds that have since multiplied to 145 local and eight (8) F1 crossbreeds of Holstein Friesian cows produced through Artificial Insemination (AI) on local breeds.

This excellent model in livestock ranching for commercial purposes was visited by the DG and his team. The farm is being supported by the Oyo State Government through OYSADA which is facilitating several infrastructural interventions including road construction.

Currently, Anyx Continental Farms cultivates 3 hectares of improved Brachiaria, 2 hectares of improved panicum, 5 hectares of cassava, and 1.5 hectares of maize and soybeans respectively to produce silage, hay and concentrate for the cows. Milk production is about 5 (five) litres per day for each cow.

The farm is looking at expanding milk production capacity by 500 litres per day and have acquired more hectares for the commercial production of silage, hay and concentrate for the animals. The roads being constructed by OYSADA will improve access to this facility and help speed up this process, significantly ramping up milk production and value addition.

Iddo-Ibadan Farming and Marketing Cooperative, Ido, Ibadan region

The DG in the company of the Onido of Ido Land inspected the OYSADA-supported regeneration of this moribund Garri processing factory located at Ilaju town along Eruwa road.

The project which is been shepherded by a Cooperative will see this facility which has been non-functional since the 1970s restored to full production capacity.

The reconstruction work has reached an advanced stage and when completed, the facility is expected to process 30 tonnes of cassava per day with a daily output of 10 tonnes of finished, packaged products in 5kg, 10kg, 20kg, and 50kg bags for domestic and possible export markets.

The facility will have a staff strength of about 140 people working day and night shifts when operational.

Rontol Foods Factory, Ilora, Oyo Region

This newly built Cassava processing plant located at the Ilora Farm settlement can process 20 tonnes of cassava tubers on a daily basis and will serve as a major processing centre for the smallholder farmers around the location.

It is being supported by the Oyo state government through OYSADA which is carrying out an electrification project and rural road construction. It is expected to directly employ about 50 skilled and semi-skilled workers when operations commence.

NIJI Group, Ilero

Established close to 30 years ago, NIJI farms occupies 4,000 acres of land and grows cassava (the raw material for the processing of Starch, Flour, Garri, and Fufu). It also houses the NIJI Institute of Sustainable Agriculture (NISA).

A fully-fledged industrial operation, the facility includes an automated starch line that processes 50 tonnes of cassava per day and produces 10 tonnes of starch daily. The processed starch is packaged in 50kg bags with off-takers from the Pharmaceuticals, Food and Beverages sector. The facility also houses a semi-automated line for flour, an integrated cassava processing unit and a fully automated flour line that processes 50 tonnes of cassava per day and produces 12.5 tonnes of cassava flour.

The industrial and technical capacity of the NIJI Group provides an excellent basis for human capital development and OYSADA will be partnering with NIJI Machinery, a subsidiary of the firm, to establish a training school and equipment fabrication centre in Oyo State.

This is in line with OYSADA’s Oyo State Youth in Agribusiness Programme which aims to leverage partnerships with development partners, private sector actors and financial agencies to link youth with access to agricultural resources, credit facilities, improved technologies, practical skills, markets as well as other logistics and services for agribusiness success.

OYSADA will also work with NIJI Farms to set up a clustered youth agribusiness project on 2,000 hectares of land starting next quarter.

Pacesetter Farms, Sepeteri, Okeogun region

As part of its ongoing efforts to alleviate the most pressing infrastructural challenges for private agribusiness enterprises in Oyo State, the OYSADA team also visited Pacesetter Farms in Sepeteri to conduct an infrastructural need assessment of the facility.

The facility was established in 2011 and was operational for only two years, it became moribund in 2013.

It still has several functional heavy-duty equipment and training facilities and OYSADA will explore means of resuscitating the enterprise through a public, private and development partnership with strong youth-led agribusiness.