The call by the Federal Government
for private sector investment in the Agricultural sector seems to be yielding
positive result as many corporate organizations are beginning to show more
interest in agribusiness. However, blazing the trail amongst them is Amo group of
companies through their natnuPreneur broiler out grower scheme.
While guiding journalists round some
facilities belonging to three companies under the Group; Amo Byng, Amo Farm Sieberer Hatchery Limited and
natnudO Foods in Oyo State, Mr. Alaba Yunusa, Data Analyst and Farmer
Satisfaction Representative (FSR) stated that unlike in the past when
agriculture was perceived as a venture that only provides jobs for the
illiterate, natnuPreneur since its inception has shown that formally educated
people can be gainfully employed in the agricultural sector. Even young
educated Nigerians can venture into poultry farming with the assurance of
sustainable profit and capacity development from programmes like ‘natnuPreneur
Farmer’.
The initiative, which was revealed,
could provide direct and indirect employment for millions of Nigerians, is the
foremost and most successful broiler out grower scheme in the country. According
to Mr. Yunusa, “The scheme still has in purvey, the potential of providing
employment for over 2million Nigerians, within the poultry value chain, that is
(Feed mills, Hatchery, Logistics and transportation, chicken processing,
chicken distribution and retailing - natnuPreneur seller), if well supported”
This natnuPreneur model of job creation and
sustained farmer profitability is a perfect example of what agriculture can do
for Nigeria, especially in her fight against unemployment and full economic
recovery.
Yunusa, during the two day tour, also
mentioned that the vision of natnuPreneur is to create passionate,
knowledgeable and wealthy poultry farmers nationwide through sustained
profitability while working to achieve the federal
government’s food
security goal. He also added that the scheme has the capacity to adequately
supply the nation with high quality and affordable chicken products.
He further revealed that there is a
huge market for chicken production and supply in the country with smuggled
chicken covering a consumption deficit of about 70%. According to him, only 30%
of the chicken consumed in the country is locally produced. While also
explaining that there is massive opportunity for farmer profitability in
poultry farming under natnuPreneur, Mr. Yunusa said, “Approximately
1,200,000,000 (One billion and two hundred million) birds are consumed yearly
in Nigeria. Our assumption is that if 10% of the 170,000,000 (One hundred and
seventy million) Nigerian population consumes 6 packs of chicken a month, a
total of 1,224,000,000 (One billion, two hundred and twenty four million) pieces
of chicken would have been consumed in 12 months. From a retail perspective, a
piece of chicken average sales price is ₦1,000. So, 1,000 multiplied by
1,224,000,000 will give us a value of about ₦1,224,000,000,000. Now, the
question is how much of this money is getting to our farmers? This is one question
natnuPreneur seeks to give positive answers; we want to ensure that a good
chunk of that figure gets into the pocket of poultry farmers through a reliable
off-taking arrangement, effective poultry management trainings and capacity
building”.
“Between 2014 and 2017, the programme has
onboarded 1,156 farmers, under different categories and clusters; off taken
4,348,640 birds; and paid out N4,352,327,119.80 to famers”. This record, he
revealed, has drawn the attention of various financial institutions, like the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Bank of Industry (BOI), Bank of Agriculture
(BOA), Sterling Bank, Heritage Bank and others, to partner with natnuPreneur
and support its famers. Also, because of their well thought out scientific
process for broiler farming, natnuPreneur farmers have the ability to do 6
cycles yearly with mortality rate as low as 4%.
“To ensure farmer profitability, we have
developed and tested our processes and have a Standard Operating Procedure
(SOP) to guide our farmers on effective poultry farming. We’ve also developed a
detailed economic model for our farmers – A Net profit calculator, which guards
against pilfer, wastage and fraud. And have developed a Buy Back Price equation
to ensure profitability; created a database that is searchable across various
parameters; and have designed an effective Customer Satisfaction Centre for
support services”.
“Presently, we are working on
developing a Broiler Training School for farm managers and owners and based on
farm practices, we are in the process of developing a mobile application to
ease operations and farmer interaction. We’re putting all these things in place
to ensure that our farmers are in business and making enviable profit.
“Our happiness lies in seeing farmers
increase in capacity since we have the ability to accommodate their produce” he
concluded.
While attending to questions from pressmen, Mr.
Albert Begerano, COO of the group hinted that the natnuPreneur programme has
thrived because of its backbones like, Amo farm which produces about 1,900,000
day olds weekly, with broiler chicks being 800,000 of that number. Amo Byng, which
has storage capacity for 500 metric tonnes of feeds and maize, produces between
600-1,000 tonnes of feeds daily. And natnudO foods, where off taken birds are
slaughtered and packaged, daily producing 30,000 frozen chickens in the west,
10,000 in the north and 15,000 in the east, totaling 55,000 birds daily with
other facilities for storage
and preservation like blast freezers and cold rooms that could take over 600
tonnes of frozen chicken in the west alone.
Also speaking with newsmen during the
tour, Mrs. Adepeju Cole, a staff of Sandtech Farms, a natnuPreneur farm in Oyo
State said “Since we joined the scheme about a year ago, our capacity has
increased to 30,000 birds. Presently, we have 20,000 birds on our farm. In
fact, this is our 5th cycle with natnuPreneur and it has been quite profitable.
Through the help of the FSR in our area, our mortality rate has reduced from
10% to 4% and we’ve also been able to achieve the agreed weight of 1.75 for our
broilers” She revealed.
In addition, Mrs. Remi Tomori of
Honeydew Farms in Arulogun Ibadan said, “Our farm has a capacity of 4,000 birds
which are presently in their 5th week. We joined natnuPreneur in October 2014
and till date, only 15 birds mortality has been recorded on our farm. Through
training and regular visitation, we realize an average weight of 1.8 as against
the 1.7 minimum agreed weight. We’ve also been able to do between 5 – 7 cycles
per year”.
“Before we joined natnuPreneur, we
were rearing layers but there were too many challenges; pilfering, high
mortality, debt, stress and even marketing problems. But, natnuPreneur is
taking all these risks and stress off us. The scheme is incomparable in terms
of returns on investment as I realize more than 50% profit annually” she added.
Mr. Toromade Francis, Group Head,
Policy & Strategy, while also addressing newsmen said that the essence of
the natnuPreneur scheme is to help farmers use fewer resources to get more
results and enhance sustained profitability. He added that, poultry farmers are
now more efficient and moribund farms have jerked back to life through the initiative.
Lately, the Federal Government is
placing special focus on the agricultural sector to create employment for Nigerians,
as a means to alleviate poverty. Recall that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo while
addressing guests at the Edo Fertilizer Plant commissioning recently in Edo
State mentioned that the private sector contribution is vital to the
development of the agriculture and the realization of government’s goal of food
security.
Osinbajo also assured that government
at all levels will continue to do everything necessary to create an enabling
environment for the survival of the private sector.
“The Buhari administration takes
private enterprise very seriously. We believe that government resources cannot
bring about the rapid roll out we need, especially in the areas of
infrastructure and industrial development. It is the private sector that can do
so. We are therefore committed to making it easy for businessmen to invest and
do business in Nigeria”.
“Every State and Local Government
must be involved in the effort to ensure that private businesses thrive and
create employment opportunities for our growing youth population. By harnessing
private capital and the great entrepreneurial spirit of Nigerians, I believe we
can seriously leverage on government resources and accelerate economic
development” he had included.
Reiterating the importance of private
sector involvement in the agricultural sector of the nation, Mr. Aliko Dangote,
owner of Dangote Group of Companies asserted that “there is an urgent need for
private sector stakeholders in agriculture to work together towards growing
Nigeria’s agriculture, diversifying from oil and gas dependency, encouraging
agricultural industrialization, and creating an enabling environment for
agribusiness to thrive. NABG strives to engage government at all levels in setting
policy direction and regulatory reforms to enable sustainable inclusive
socio-economic growth by creating systematic linkages between small, medium and
large agribusiness enterprises”.
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