MOMOH: ACCESS TO LOANS STILL CHALLENGE FOR FARMERS
if you see our chicken house, we are doing it in stages because of finance. Just yesterday we were able to pay for the second birds coming to the chicken house because of the house has 13,200 birds, which is costing us over N18 million, just for the birds. So, it is basically finance that has made it such that even though we have the land, we have not been able to expand. If we have the money, we can prepare to put another two hectares of the greenhouses. We can’t meet the demand for eggs also. So, it is because we don’t have the finance that we are not able to expand. We just raised another money from Standard Chartered Bank and so we are doing the second chicken house. We are not even thinking about the third chicken house because of finance.
The Blaid Group has always been known for construction and real estate, at what point did you conceive the idea of setting up a farm?
I would always say that right from when I was small, farming was compulsory in our home. Then, my mother would plant tomatoes and make sure I harvest them. For me, then, I thought I was being punished because I didn’t like the whole idea. So, when I got this property, which is on 48 hectares of land, from the local government. Initially I wanted to do an estate, because for me I like property, but one day the idea of making the place a farm home came before one of the engineers at Blaid Group advised me that we should use the land for farming. So, I decided to send Engineer Tosin Oyewole, who is now the General Manager of Blaid Farm on a six-month training. For me, anything I want to do, I want to have knowledge of that business. So, in the process, he met somebody that knows Mr. Reuven Cohen, an Isreali expert in farming. So, I met him and we kicked off. He took me and some of my staff to Isreal where went to understudy some farms, we saw the equipment and how things are done. The thing I do with my staff is that I make sure that are involved and I give them responsibility to feel they are part of the business. That was why when I was going to Isreal, I went with some of them, Tosin and Mr. Manuel, so that they would see things themselves.
What is your projection in the next five years?
In five years, I want to be able to own 300 hectares of farmland. We are working on having orchards, 30 hectares of banana plantation and 30 hectares of farm plantation and in that way, you are able to feed every one. I am getting demand for eggs and other farm produce from Lagos, Port Harcourt, Ibadan, but I can’t meet the demand. So, we would keep developing the farm. There is a lot of potential, not only for the local market, but for import as well. But there is need for appropriate government policies.
How are you able to sustain all-year round farming unlike the tradition farming system where farmers have to wait for dry or rainy season to plant certain crops?
One thing I found out in Israel is that even though it is a desert, they have the best food in the world. But they do a lot of irrigation. So, all-year round – whether dry or rainy season, we are cultivating. Everything is automatic. That is one technology I discovered in Israel that is very useful here, especially in the north where we do not have enough rain as the southern part of the country. Shoprite has come to us and given us a lot of things they want us to plant for them. So, we are going to do another three hectares of irrigation and we have imported the equipment, specifically to meet the request of Shoprite. That is because they have seen that we can make it work. So, because we know that we have off-takers, we are going to do another hectares of irrigation. What makes farmers not to be able to plant all-year round is lack of water. All the crops we are cultivating are all-year production, the eggs, the vegetable, lettuce, as well as our fish, are all-year round production. We don’t stop production due to seasonal effects and we harvest almost every day. So, all the crop we are doing, we have the green house and so the weather condition doesn’t affect it. We harvest our lettuce every 21 days and we have eight cycles in a year for the production of lettuce. This is an integrated farm and if one crop doesn’t do well, others will cover your cost of production. But we try to make sure all of them generate the expected income.
What are the advantages of the Recycling Aquatic fish farming system you have set up in your farm compared to the traditional farming system?
This system can give us 15 tonnes more than the local fish farming system. That is because oxygen is supplied all the time to the fish. Tilapia mainly is very sensitive to oxygen. It is not like the catfish. Catfish doesn’t care about oxygen. Tilapia requires enough oxygen, clean water and feed to grow. Here, everything is measured. We test the water and if the PH is higher, we change it. The system requires power 24 hours and there is an emergency bottle for oxygen in case there is no automatic oxygen to sustain the fishes a bit longer. So, it’s a hi-tech system. The system requires only two people to operate it, unlike the traditional method that requires a lot of people. It delivers 20 tonnes per year.
In terms of corporate social responsibility, what is your relationship with the host community?
Apart from our key staff that have degree in what they are doing, all other staff are from the community. We feel that we must give back to the community. So, we do give back to them. We have constructed a bore hole for the community and I can gladly say the community chief is very happy with us.