Centre to launch Integrated Produce City

The Centre for Value and Leadership (CVL) an organisation with the goal to equip youths with values and leadership skills, which would make them more effective and serve as catalyst for improvement of quality of life is set to launch its agriculture initiative tagged the Integrated Produce City (IPC).

Founder of the Centre, Pat Utomi made this known while speaking at an international conference on agriculture with the theme: ”Back to agriculture” in Lagos recently. He said the turning of the sod of the project might be the biggest value machine to enter the agric space in Nigeria for decades.

According to him, the goals of the Integrated Produce City in Edo State is to reduce waste in the agriculture value chain to its barest minimum, optimise efficiencies of a cluster model and enhance distribution of logistic for both local consumption and exports.

“The initiative would improve access to know how and market information for farmers and manufacturers, create both financial end products markets through commodities exchange on ground and electronic trading platforms, as well as, boost small holders’ productivity through extension service provision and out-grower programme to be deployed”.

Utomi said the centre plans that the value chains of Cassava, Palm Produce, Yam and Corn will inspire farmers and stimulate production in the five states of Ondo, Ekiti, Kogi, Edo, Delta and Anambra, which constitute the catchment areas for the IPC, while another in Oyo would service Lagos, Oyo, Ogun and a third in Niger state to service Abuja, the federal capital territory.