After heavy rains, they have finally started ploughing my land for the planting of maize & cassava.
It felt so good watching my land being cleared & ploughed; once planting starts, farming will truly have started.
It’s been a tortuous 7 years since I made my application for agricultural land with Ogun State Min of Agriculture, then under Amosun’s Govt.
The delay was partly due to a change of administration and conflict with communities in Ajebo Govt Agric Aquisition, who frustrated Govt efforts to engage commercial farmers.
I want to give special appreciation to the past 2 commissioners of agriculture, the former Perm Sec, and other key staff in the Ogun State Min of Agriculture & the Abiodun Govt for facilitating things.
Throughout the process, I didn’t give a kobo in bribes to anyone. It is better to seek allocation from the government than to purchase land, as government allocation grants you a long lease in so far as you keep to the terms.& conditions. I’m assured the process is much faster now.
With a private land purchase, you may pay severally for the land, face omo onile, and will still pay huge amounts to perfect your title with C of O.
Anyone seriously interested in investing in agriculture in Ogun State should contact the Ogun State Ministry of Agriculture for information on the application & allocation process.
Fulani herdsmen are not stopping people from farming everywhere, as is falsely being peddled on social media. Most farming communities work together with herders. That’s not to say there aren’t areas with conflicts, but they are few & far apart from the majority of places.
Go to the hinterland all over Nigeria, and you will see most Nigerians peacefully farming, harvesting, processing, transporting, & selling. If not, there will be real famine in Nigeria. Availability of food is not our problem, but the price of food, which is determined by multiple factors.
After leaving the farm, we went to Igboora to check prices for herbicides, pesticides, & fertilisers. Igboora has a good network of tarred roads & street lights, unlike many towns in Ogun State. We ate fufu, efo elegusi, beef, & giat meat at a booker. It was very delicious; I recommend it. When next there I will take a picture.
On my way back from the farm we went to a village called Alamutu about 20mins away from Randa in Abeokuta.
Tuesdays & Thursdays are market days in Alamutu. You can buy crayfish, big prawns, & fish from Oyan Dam, all sorts of fresh agricultural produce, for a fraction of the cost in Abeokuta.
There is also a cattle market where you can buy cattle from small calfs to big bulls & hefers. Prices range from N650k to N1.8m for big bulls. Calfs & cows are cheaper.
The market is full of all Nigerians from all parts of Nigeria selling all manner of stuff, many speaking Yoruba, not English, as the lingua franca for trade in the Yoruba part of Nigeria.
They were selling ingredients for Yoruba, Fulani, & other Tribe delicacies. It was good to see so many Nigerians working together in a market in harmony. In the market, no one cares about your tribe or where you come from. They just want to see the colour of your money. The challenge is to see how good you are at bargaining. Never accept their first price; it’s always overloaded.
When next in Abeokuta try to go to the market on a Tuesday or Thursday; its quite interesting. You can also go to the nearby Oyan Dam to see the big Oyan Dam Lake reservoir.
I’ve started farming, and our youth are also learning modern agricultural techniques
& farming. When are you going to start your own farm to feed your family & the nation? What’s your view?
Femi Oke
Betta9ja
