REPORT on Akwa Ibom (Agriculture Sector)
The recent announcement by the governor of an impending $1.4 billion agricultural project to be established by foreign investors indicates that the people of Akwa Ibom may just be about to witness another influx of investments from outside Nigeria. The investment, the governor notes, cuts across two countries and will turn around the agricultural fortunes of Nigeria, is something he believes will bring joy to the people of the state.
This is stemming from the huge adverse impact of a drop in oil prices on the Nigerian economy and a general drop of revenue from federal allocation, as well as low internal generated revenue, prompting some states to look inwards to take advantage of those produce they have comparative advantage over.
This also comes as the nation is making frantic efforts to ensure that agriculture and allied services play a key role in its quest for economic and revenue diversification.
To support the current diversification drive and mitigate the impact of oil price, Akwa Ibom has demonstrated a commitment to developing the country’s agricultural sector in such a way that the private sector earns a modest return on investment while the government generates revenue to meet with the increasing demand for food.
It could be recalled, in a state broadcast on the occasion of the 31st anniversary of the creation of Akwa Ibom State, Governor Emmanuel said, “We are diversifying our economy and placing emphasis on agriculture. We are producing food to feed our people through our investments in agriculture. Akwa Hatchery is working and producing, the cassava mills are in operation across the state.”
The agriculture and food sufficiency sector has been given a very high priority by the administration.
His objective has always been to ensure that food is readily available for his people to put on their table and also to diversify from petrodollar to an agro-based state economy.
To this end, as part of the private sector-led investment drive of the state government, a lot of projects have been undertaken, many others are being pursued. For instance, an investor is embarking on a multi-billion-naira Coconut Refinery project in the state with a capacity to employ more than 5,000 people directly, with no specified number indirectly.
As part of the agricultural valuechain and backward integration to service the Coconut Refinery with raw input from local farmers, the state had embarked on the cultivation of 11,000 hectares of Coconut Plantation – a strategic thinking.
To also diversify the economy of the state to wean his people from reliance on crude oil money, the state government has registered 4,920 rice farmers who are producing rice for local consumption and sales to other parts of Nigeria and the neighbouring countries.
The state is also boosting its comparative advantage in growing cassava with the cultivation of at least 1,450 hectares of Cassava Plantation in five local governments. Animal production and husbandry are also part of the overall agricultural policy of the Governor Udom Emmanuelled administration.
To ensure the state is self-sufficient in dairy and meat production, the administration imported over 200 hybrid cows from Mexico; the cows are currently at Uruan.
Not many people know and not many state governments do this but there is the Government Green House, along the Victor Attah International Airport Road, which has been producing vegetables such as lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, pepper and onions that were not hitherto grown in the state. His administration has established 22 hectares of improved cocoa plantation in six LGAS - Ini, Essien Udim, Mkpat Enin, Ikono, Abak, and Ukanafun.
In collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, the state government commenced the sale of oil palm seedlings at a subsidised rate.
Akwa Ibom State is known to have one of the best flavours of cocoa in the country, as the governor resuscitated cocoa production through the establishment of Cocoa Development Committee chaired by the deputy governor, Moses Ekpo.
He also flagged off the Cocoa Maintenance Scheme to improve the yield of cocoa from the present 300kg/ha to 1,500kg/ha between 2016 and 2019.
The governor has provided support for 8,200 cocoa farmers to cultivate 30,000 hectares of cocoa farms, training 480 youths on Cocoa Maintenance Scheme. Experts have been brought in to work with the Ministry of Agriculture and the technical committee to teach cocoa farmers conventional agronomic practices to improve cultivation of the crop in the state to earn foreign exchange.
Apart from cocoa, 6,000 hectares of land has been designated for the cultivation of cassava. There are cassava multiplication farms in Ikot Okudom in Eket LGA, Ikot Ekan in Abak and Ishiet Ekim in Uruan to teach cluster groups best practices in cassava production. The state government has approved counterpart funds for the FADAMA 111 Programme.
Under this programme, cassava was targeted for cultivation annually between 2016 and 2019. The state cultivated 6,000ha of cassava in 2019, thereby moving the present cluster to core status. In addition, the governor approved the establishment of three new cassava processing factories in the three senatorial districts in the state - Ibesikpo Asutan LGA (Nung Udoe, Eket LGA (Ikot Okudom) and Abak LGA (Ikot Ekang). This eventually reduced the cost of processing cassava into other derivatives such as fofo, garri and pallets as well as their prices significantly.
The governor also approved the reactivation and management of the defunct state premier fisheries at Obio Eket, Nsit Ubium by Merlot Anny Limited.
To put an end to capital flight from the state, an ultra-modern poultry hatchery complex, which produces at least 520 day-old chicks per day, has commenced operation at Mbiaya in Uruan.
The hatchery, which comprises a feed mill and a breeder farm, has commenced production. It is expected that the hatchery will attain its full production capacity of 520,000 day-old chicks per week.
“Akwa Ibom State government is doing a lot in the area of agriculture. The state is harnessing the potentials in the sector to ensure food security for the country,” Deborah Adesua Ameli, chief operating officer, Agroyields – an agricultural and commodity trading company, noted.
“The state is providing the enabling environment to support the entire agricultural value chain,” Ameli said.
Achievements
From the Coconut Refinery to the Akwa Ibom Rice and other economic projects, the administration has clearly spelt out its priority for agriculture and food sufficiency.
The state’s industrialisation programme has been linked to agriculture because many industries use agricultural by-products. Hence, the massive cocoa production is to produce cocoa for export and have it processed to produce beverages. Akwa Ibom State is also into massive baking oil production that is novel in the whole of Western Nigeria.
It is the only state in Nigeria that is actually into that production, and of course this will to a large extent impact greatly on the downstream effect on pharmaceuticals and the downstream effect on other allied industries.
Also, the state is going into massive banana and tomatoes production that can be canned. So, the current drive in the area of industrialisation is not without a major contribution by the agric sub-sector. The whole thing is interwoven in one.
Traders’ journey to Jos and other states in the North just to buy tomatoes has been greatly reduced because of the remarkable effort made in the cultivation of tomatoes and in the harvesting.
Many farmers and traders now frequently visit the Green House to buy the state’s tomatoes. By the time the project is in full blown, the state will succeed in putting a permanent stop to the journey up the North.
The target is to have 10 of those one-hectare green houses. In partnership with Ibom Agricom, the target of the state government is to hit 5 metric tons per day in rice production by massively cultivating 100,000 hectares.
This will flood the market with Akwa Ibom-made rice - rice planted, processed and packaged in Akwa Ibom. Through the governor’s efforts, the price of garri has been brought down; rice is in abundance and many people have stopped patronising other forms, totally making Akwa Ibom to be food sufficient.
From observation and interaction, the administration of Governor Emmanuel believes that the state, which is blessed with abundant natural resources, fertile land and good climate, can produce sufficient foods to feed her population and provide a sustainable raw materials base for her growing industries.
As the governor promised, he is roaring to do much more in his second term in office.
In just six years, the administration’s agricultural sector catalogue of development has been overwhelming. It has developed 11,000 hectares of coconut plantation; 2,100 hectares of cassava plantation in 15 LGAS (FADAMA); 48,000 rice farmers registered for CBN anchor borrowers scheme; 450 youths trained on cocoa maintenance and 500,000 improved cocoa seedlings raised for distribution to farmers at highly subsidised rate across the 28 cocoa producing local government areas.
The state’s established hatchery called Akwa Prime Hatchery produces 10,000 day-old chicks per week and there has been free distribution of improved corn seeds to farmers. The state has commenced the construction of vegetable greenhouses and the cattle ranch and has cultivated over 1,200 hectares of rice; constructed of 33 cassava microprocessing mills and training of 300 youths under the Graduate Unemployment Youth Scheme (GUYS).
Each of the youth was empowered with N1 million to embark on any agricultural enterprise. The state has also constructed the Tractor Hiring Enterprise (AEHE) centre; refurbished the cassava processing factories at Ikot Okudom, Eket LGA; Nung Udoe, Ibesikpo/asutan LGA and Ikot Ekang in Abak LGA and leased to private operators for the production of high quality garri, odourless fufu, and cassava flour.
Similarly, the state had procured over 600,000 bags of fertilizer for farmers in the state; distributed over 500 citrus seedlings, over 600 hybrids plantain suckers and over 1,000 pineapple suckers to farmers; established a large hybrid rubber nursery at Ebighi Anwa, Okobo Local Government Area in partnership with the Rubber Research Institute of Nigeria,
for distribution to rubber farmers at highly subsidised rate and establishment of demonstration plots on various agricultural technologies for the transfer of improved technologies to farmers through Akwa Ibom Agricultural Development Programme (AKADEP).
The state also established three model villages for production, processing and packaging of Vitamin A products; partnered with World Bamboo Organisation for Bamboo development; procured and distributed of 30,000 hybrid plantain suckers to 348 farmers; installed maize preservation/shelling machine at Nung Udoe; created Kiado goat multiplication scheme (pioneer multiplication site developed at Nsit Atai); constructed 35 boreholes as part of infrastructural benefits of FADAMA at Sawah rice production, Nnung Obong and set up of Technical Committee on Agriculture and Food Sufficiency.
Green House Technology
To promote diversification of the state’s economy and ensure food security, in the early days of this administration, Governor Emmanuel introduced the Green House Initiative. An initiative that saw vegetables being grown under the Green House Agriculture Technology, where crops like tomatoes, cucumber, peppers and onions are grown under controlled temperature throughout the year.
The eyes of an observant visitor will not miss, at the gate of the Ibom International Airport, the display of this farming technology on a visit to the state through the airport.
It is said that each of the houses draped in a transparent enclosure has a landmass of one hectare, with promising high yield. The state, through Akwa Ibom Employment and Enterprise Scheme (AKEES), in partnership with San Carlos, a Mexican outfit reputed for mechanised farming and operating in Cross River, Ogun, Enugu, and Rivers states, deepened the persuasion that planting some hitherto imported vegetables in this initiative could increase the people’s wealth creation.
At present, over five hectares have been deployed while the remaining, from the initial 10 hectares allotted for the initiative, are awaiting preparation and cultivation. Of the five that have been deployed, one has been cultivated with tomatoes, which are being harvested. Another is also ready for tomato cultivation while one is deployed for cucumber.
From the yields so far, if all the allocated hectares are duly cropped, these crops’ needs of the state would be reasonably met, as harvesting may be carried out between two and three times a week.
For one hectare, each harvest comes in tons giving assurance of increased revenue for the farmer and others within the value chain. Perhaps some of the advantages associated with this cultivation is its short span to maturity; its value as domestic and industrial necessity; its value as an income earning produce; its receptiveness in the market; its popularity as a produce; its well-known health value, and lastly, being a non-seasonal all-year round produce, making the initiative an attractive farming engagement.
The production manager and his colleagues lauded Governor Emmanuel for conceiving the partnership and practically taking steps towards its realisation, maintaining that the partnership between San Carlos and the state government would record significant mileage in production and engagement.
They however urged him to replicate the same initiative in other senatorial districts to boost the production of the vegetables and broaden the tapestry of engagement for Akwa Ibom people.
Kings Flour Mill
Kings Flour Mill ( KFM) is a flour and agro- allied product manufacturing company- mill with an installed daily production capacity of 500mt and a storage capacity of 15,000mt. The factory was constructed by VKS Construction Company and commissioned by the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on September 21, 2019. KFM is located in the Onna Local government area of Akwa-ibom State. The company’s focus is on the production of consistently high quality all-purpose wheat flour and allied products to meet the growing demand of customers. Its products come in 50kg bags for both Wheat flour and Wheat Offal.
According to Angelo Hyuwa, the general manager, KFM market share is largely driven by installed capacity, capacity utilisation, distribution channel, quality of product and good management. “Although our installed capacity is 500mt/ day, which corresponds to 2 percent of the market share but it is less than this, our highly experienced management team, distribution channels and most importantly, the consistent high quality of our products, has enabled us to access a significant portion about 15 percent of the market share within the south-south and south-east regions of the country,” he said, on our visit to the plant.
Source(s) of raw materials and KFM relationship with local wheat’s farmers -High quality wheat from the Black sea region is our major raw material at the moment, as this can change if any year’s harvest does not meet our minimum quality specification. This is because local wheat production is largely insufficient to meet demand. Also, the quality of local wheat is a challenge. We hope that the various government initiatives to increase local wheat production will soon start yielding fruits. We are not unaware of happenings between the Wheat Farmers Association of Nigeria (WFAN) and Flour Millers Association of Nigeria (FMAN). Other raw materials like the packaging polypropylene sacks, vitamins, consumables and some spare parts used in our production process are sourced locally.
When we visited the mills were not rolling. What was the issue? We were out of raw materials because of reasons beyond our control.
The draft at the Calabar Port is too shallow to bring a fully loaded bulk carrier as such we have to chatter a vessel alongside two other mills in two different countries along the West African coast, and we are at the last port of call. You can see, our raw material arrival is dependent on how fast they offload their cargo couple with the fact that there is only one terminal operational in the Calabar port out of the two. With only two berths and tankers having a priority for one of the two available berths, as such delays on the other berth used for loading cargo for exports and other companies discharging consignment. Our competitors have an advantage when the charter is full because they lighten up the vessels in their Apapa mills before they proceed to Calabar. Due to congestion at Calabar Port, we sometimes have to wait for a day or two for our raw materials to arrive.
How do you hope to resolve this? We have already strategise on this, according to the management of KFM, “it is approximately less than 90km from our facility and Onne Port, our next and subsequent cargoes will be received at the Onne Port without recourse for a combine chatter, which will also fasten the rate of discharge as trucks can easily make three round trips in a day with a good road compared to the Calabar to Uyo road. It will also be cheaper in terms of haulage cost. We will be expanding our cargo operations to other ports that are closer to our factory.”
Impact of your product on customers - There are already bigger, older and experienced players in the industries compared to our infant small capacity mill. However, to succeed we knew that we have to give a consistent high quality product with and “explosive” oven spring, higher yield with an exceptional crumb structure and crust colour that will definitely attract customers, that informed our decision to go for a high quality raw material which has attracted customers overwhelmingly to our side and I think it is a “crime” to have built a small capacity Mill in Akwa-ibom State. I am very optimistic we will grow but rapidly unlike others. Our product is highly acceptable.
On staff strength and how many shifts do you run - In line with the job creation drive of both the Federal and State government, our operation has created direct employment for 120 Nigerians. This is projected to triple within the next 5 years, as we hope to increase our production capacity. We currently run three shifts daily.
On special assistance KFM enjoys from the state - The state government of Akwa-ibom State has provided a very conducive atmosphere and I am very sure is ready to do more to keep attracting investment to operate and thrive in the state without any preferential treatment, and I am sure you can confirm this from the activities of other existing investors and potential investors. This might be the reason for the influx of investors into the state.
Meanwhile, earlier last month, the CEO of KFM, Onur Kumral, identified Governor Udom Emmanuel’s industrialisation policy and the peace attracted to the state as major catalysts that had attracted numerous investments in the last couple of years.
Speaking while conducting the commencement of test run of the flour mill, Kumral said he and other investors were able to come to Akwa Ibom because the governor had formulated a framework to partner private investors to bring their investments into the state.
“Governor Udom Emmanuel is the one that was executing the procedures and policies, that is why investors like me are here. You cannot take it like 100 percent private investment, you have to take it like a coalition between the government and the private companies,” Kumral said.
Kumral, who conducted the Commissioner for Trade and Investment, Ukpong Akpabio and some journalists around the facility, went further to explain that by providing electricity, road infrastructure and security, the Governor had laid a solid foundation for emerging companies to thrive in the state.
“When I mean coalition I mean the mainstay which is the electricity coming to the investment and in Africa it’s not possible to have electricity the day you want.
“His Excellency is giving electricity to us and roads. Well we said we need a road he gave us a road, before it took one hour 40mins to get here from Uyo, the capital city, but now it’s 45mins only for me to come and have to see my people,” he said.
He said the location of the factory was so strategic as it afforded them easy access to the port and the market.
“We are so close to the port and we are so close to the market.”
He said that the flour mill was very essential in a state like Akwa Ibom with a population of over 6.5 million.
“Can you imagine a state with a population of 6.5million doesn’t have a flour mill and was depending on a basic food item, in a few weeks this state will be independent on food. “It’s a coalition of not just the policies, executions and the investors who are willing to invest in the potential of Akwa Ibom State.”
He said their first attraction to the State was the peace, and maintained that all around the world; the impression of Akwa Ibom is that of a peaceful place for anyone to reside and do business.
“As I always say, the first attraction is the peace , then other things come, nothing is more important than a Human being’s life, so if you are safe then you will start thinking about business.
“I have stayed more than six months in Akwa Ibom State and believe me, my wife never called to ask me if I am safe or not, she just told me that she misses me, nobody has any security concerns abroad when you are living in Akwa Ibom State,” he said.
https://businessday.ng/features/ article/ building-world- classeconomy- via- infrastructureindustrial-upgrade/
Tomorrow expect ‘An Interview with the Governor’