WhitfieldVentures: SupportingAgricBusinessDevelopmentinNigeria
Stories by Mary Nnah
With the recent display of its wide range of products at the Agra Innovate 2019, Whitfield Ventures Limited, an agricultural service all-rounder is set to enhance the Nigerian farming businesses, providing assistance and creating business terrain for local exporters.
The firm, whose wings spread across different aspects of agriculture like Granular Fertilisers, Liquid Fertilisers, Tractors, Poultry biosafety products, Organic Moringa Farms and Silos Grain storage systems, is expert in Agro Inputs and has for the past 10 years of its operations shouldered the promotion of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) in Nigeria.
At the Agra –Innovate exhibition which was recently held in Lagos, Director, Whitfield Ventures Limited,AnkushArora, said, “We stand for growing all kinds of agricultural inputs. For example, we have the Granular fertilisers – SSP, DAP & MOP which have already been in the market”.
With the new launch of its wide range of Liquid fertiliser products, which includes Liquid NPK, Liquid Potassium, Humic acids & Fruit and Flower setters, all recommended for all types of crops, fruit trees, vegetables and ornamental crops, the company is set to take farming to next level in Nigeria. Arora reiterated that the company, which recently introduced a product, particularly developed for Rice, is committed to grow sustainable agri-businesses in Nigeria, by supporting the farmers not only in terms of input but also on agro outputs in terms of buying grains from the farmers.
He added that the company concentrates on a lot of farming projects like the organic certified Moringa farm in Kaduna which is already spanning 65 hectares.
“It’s the one of the largest organic certified farms in Africa. From there, we have the Moringa leaf, seed and we supply to our own processing facility where we further produce Moringa oil. We are also working with other farmers which can be setup to grow Moringa.
The company’s participation at the Agra Innovate was aimed at educating the Nigerian farmers and drive for Agricultural initiative as promoted by the Nigerian Government “Growing Agriculture Creating Wealth”.
Arora revealed further that the company has a processing facility installed for dehydrated fruits like; pineapple, mango and papaya. “It’s also for export purposes and we are looking for farmers to benefit from the scheme by supplying us with their quality fruits. The wastage of perishable fruits in the country is at a soaring high and we believe this factory can contribute to those woes. We are a Truly Nigerian at Heart Company”, he added.
While unveiling Sonalika’s 26HP affordable tractor at the event, Senior Manager, Sonalika Tractors, Zubair Shakiramar, expressed the belief that the whole idea is to share new initiatives to Nigerian farmers. According to him, it will be of interest not only to the farmers but the business men and women at large who specialises in supply and export.
“These implements are the basic necessity of all farmers, because Nigeria has a fertile land but all the lands are not utilised for agriculture, that’s why if the farmer uses the conventional method, he won’t be able to cover the whole land but with our implements, the output production will increase so that the production of the land will increased to 40 per cent if they can use our tractors.”
He added that we expect that the farmers should embrace new agricultural practices and they should learn to utilise new machines to produce more agriculture products in the country and to save foreign exchange for the economy. Also, member of the executive, Jenn Mayo, appealed to Nigerian livestock farmers to embrace the new Staldren Poultry disinfectant product.
“Our products can be well reckoned with and we are the executive distributors for West Africa. These products are affordable and we have a lot of clients making good use of them. For a poultry farmer, when mortality decreases then you will be able to maximise more profit,” he said.
Speaking also, Amith Sebastian of Artal Liquid Fertilisers explained that the fertilisation of plants is equally important as the fertilisation of their soil.
“We are manufacturers of fertilisers. The products are specific fertilisers for specific stages of the crops as well for certain nutrition deficiencies commonly found in the country”, he noted.
Sanjay Patel, a Director with company said, “We specialise in storage facilities. We do all kind of grain storage; we have long lasting solutions for storage facilities. The truth is as far as agriculture is concerned, Nigerians must be very patient, this takes time, and if you are patient enough, you will always arrive at something good.
“Our grain storage is increasing every year, as a result of continual harvest and we are happy about that, which makes our products high on demands in the market. I will say that Nigeria has a good potential in agriculture and they are producing a lot.”