‘Our farm will chase away poverty from communities’
What type of farm are you running?We are still reconstructing the factories on a 520 hectare cashew farm, which is Africa’s oldest and largest single cashew farm. But we intend to go into production and processing of cashew associated products starting from the nuts, which we have already started bottling under the brand name Novena […]
What type of farm are you running?
We are still reconstructing the factories on a 520 hectare cashew farm, which is Africa’s oldest and largest single cashew farm. But we intend to go into production and processing of cashew associated products starting from the nuts, which we have already started bottling under the brand name Novena Premier Nuts. And we now go into juice and alcoholic drinks with Cashew feni-which has a wide acceptance across the whole African market before we go into the more serious business of making hydraulics, base, engine oil for aeroplanes, wood varnish, super glues and coatings for electric wires. These are some of the products we hope to get from the cashew.
When was the farm first established?
The farm was established in 1954 by Dr Michael Okpara, former Premier of Eastern Region. The land acquisition was done in 1952 from the host communities. So we are celebrating 60 years of Novena Premier Cashew.
What do you hope that this farm will do in the long run?
In the long run, the farm will chase poverty away from Nigeria and particularly, Enugu West in the interim. This is the largest cashew farm in the west coast. It is a 5,000 metric tonnes capacity farm. We would have loved to do 15 tonnes; we have the capacity but we are just being prudent by starting with 5, 000 tonnes- that is 1.250 metric tonnes of output minimum; 1.25 million kilograms of cashew nuts and occupying slightly less than 4 per cent of the market share of cashew nuts in Nigeria which is about 35, 000 metric tonnes of consumption per annum.
Specifically what are the uses for those value chains of the product?
For the wood varnish it helps the furniture industry who spends about $95 million importing wood varnish every year because there is no serious wood varnish company in Nigeria. So this should help us conserve foreign exchange and make our product a lot cheaper. And it will go a long way in reducing the amount of money we spend importing industrial coatings-even for ocean-going liners. Cashew is used for electric wires. We have talked to Boeing on engine oil. At the moment sitting on our factory is a reserve of 30 metric tonnes of Boeing engine oil which have been kept for the past 18 years-though it wasn’t well preserved.
How many people do you have working in the factory now?
At the moment, we have about 120 people who come around to pick cashew, sieve, grade and dry them. We have another that fry and package them. Even when the machines come in it should have the capacity to absorb 2,000 people because it is a people-oriented project. We don’t intend to do full automation of the plant. Of course, if we do full automation, it will reduce overhead costs but the project is designed to chase away poverty.
The lowest paid people on this farm-the pickers- some go home with nothing less than 6,000 daily. And we are not beating our chest. By the time we finish reclaiming the entire farm, we intend to get 1, 500 people on the farm. When you come, you take your tag, and we have security men patrolling; we have radio communication and alarm bell to call out workers at the end of the day. And the produce is recorded, graded and they are paid.
What are the other compo-nents of the farm?
The ancillary components of the farm are that we have the Ajali Spring running through the farm, which is Nigeria’s purest water spring. We are sitting in the middle of four hours of Nigeria’s fruit juice belt. We are four hours from Kogi for cashew; four hours from Benue for same crop; four hours from Edo-pineapple and mangoes; four hours from Cross River-cashew, mangoes and oranges. And we have Nigeria’s purest water source in the farm. So our biggest target is to produce as much as 25 million litres of juice every year.
As a young man how you did pull all the stops to acquire this farm from Enugu State government?
The Governor of Enugu State, Sullivan Chime is a great man. He has re-focused, and repositioned the state to just be a civil service state, but a private sector-driven economy. On this particular project he has removed the entire encumbrance that would have hindered this project and given it a new lease of life to breathe and empower people. We are running the farm on a PPP arrangement with the government.
How are you sustaining the linkages with youths in all these adjourning states you mentioned to be the source of supply for your fruit juice?
We are actually working with Agriculture Intervention Fund, commercial agriculture and USAID to sensitize farmers and the youths in these states so that they don’t throw away the wealth that their predecessors have left for them. We have produce buyers in their neighbourhoods canvassing that people should bring the produce and package for us and they earn a commission too. So we are on it in reaching out to the youths in these states.
Again, we know that anywhere there is cashew can do groundnut, pepper and other root crops. We are actually seeking intervention fund from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture or international organizations to set up a processing factory for pectin from oranges and mango pills. It is used by pharmaceutical companies for drugs. Nigeria at the moment imports $14 million worth of pectin annually.
Do you have technical capacity for these processing plants?
Yes for every processing we do we have capacity and we are partnering with the best. For instance, Muscan, an Indian firm is the fourth largest processor of cashew value chain in the world. It is in about 29 cashew producing countries in the world. We have local expertise for the pectin chemicals as we have patent for it.
What do you specifically want the federal government to do to encourage budding entrepreneurs like you who are venturing into huge and challenging terrain?
We want the federal government to come in and assist us as a partner. They should provide the guarantee for intervention funds or give us loans at a reasonable rate so that we can pay back.
What advice do you have for jobless youths in Nigeria?
They should look inward especially in the direction of farming. All over the world, the richest people are farmers. We should concentrate and put more emphasis in agriculture in this country. That is the future of this country. There is money in agriculture.