An African continental agricultural organisation, AgriDrive Nigeria Limited, is collaborating with the Oyo State Government to cultivate 15,000 hectares of cassava to enhance food security in the country.
The Managing Director of the firm, Dr. Daniel Kyalo Willy, disclosed this while speaking with journalists in Ibadan.
Willy, who is also the Senior Manager, Policy Agribusiness and Commercialisation at African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), said the firm is making efforts to increase the number of hectares cultivated by the farmers, and its clients.
The Managing Director explained that the formation of AgriDrive dates back to 2018 when there were issues with the farmers’ access to mechanisation services, especially smallholder farmers. He stated that the company discovered then that smallholder farmers were left out of the business of mechanisation because their small holdings did not make economic sense to mechanisation service providers.
According to him: ‘’Given that gap, we came in to solve a problem of access to mechanisation services. We brought in a model for farmer aggregation, bringing farmers together, helping them to access land jointly, and that, therefore, means they can have larger farm holdings, which can make economic sense to mechanise’’
He said farmers have to start thinking of agriculture as a business, disclosing that the organisation recently trained some farmers on agribusiness management and financial literacy.
On his part, the Country Manager of AgriDrive Nigeria Limited, Dr. Olaitan Joseph Alloh, said AgriDrive Nigeria Limited is a social enterprise, established by the African Agricultural Technology Foundation, which is based in Kenya.
‘’We also consider AgriDrive as a not-for-profit organization. Our focus is to harness mechanisation and agribusiness opportunities to support AATF’s vision of raising prosperous farmers and ensuring food security in Sub-Saharan Africa through the enhancement of the agricultural value chain.
Speaking on the focus of the Kenya-based organisation, the Country Manager, said: ‘’Our focus is on all crops, but we have started with cassava because of the value of cassava and the position of cassava to our agriculture and the farmers. Cassava is a major staple, particularly in the Southwest and the middle belt of Nigeria.’’
