By Onome Amuge
The National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) has set in motion the construction of its integrated farm estate aimed at absorbing at least 1500 farmers with an estimated N2 billion revenue after its first year of startup.
The farm estate, located on a 100 hectares of land in the state’s Special Agro-Industrial Zone, Makun-Obafemi Owode Local Government Area in Ogun State, is set for different activities such as crop farming zone, cassava processing zone, fish processing zone, snail processing zone, warehouses, fish pond, snail farm, poultry, goat and sheep pen, office area and pasture area for grazing the animal, NALDA confirmed.
Commenting on the project, Paul Ikonne, executive secretary of NALDA, explained that the implementation of the directive was given by President Muhammadu Buhari following the commissioning of the first farm estate in Katsina State. He added that NALDA was mandated by the president to replicate the Integrated Farm Estate module in the 109 senatorial zones in the country.
Ikone further emphasised that Ogun was chosen as it has the potential of being the biggest in production of fish, goats and snails in addition to its proximity to the commercial city of Lagos and its proximity to the sea ports for export purposes. He noted that the farm estate would expose the host community to development and boost the living standards of not only the community hosting the farm estate in Ogun, but all other communities hosting the NALDA Integrated Farm Estate.
“What the Farm Estate would do to the community is first, create development, reduce migration from the community to the urban areas, increase their incomes through agriculture, increase the GDP such that the living standards within the communities that are hosting NALDA integrated estates would definitely go up,” he assured.
The NALDA executive director disclosed that the integrated farm estate is purely organic and would be fully mechanized with all year round farming activities as an irrigation system would be deployed, noting that the soil is encouraging with high quality yield prospects.
He also noted that land clearing for the project has been done and the land is being mapped out to enable the farmers commence the projected agricultural activities.
