IN AGRICULTURE, YOU NEED TO USE WHAT YOU HAVE TO GET WHAT Y

"IN AGRICULTURE, YOU NEED TO USE WHAT YOU HAVE TO GET WHAT YOU WANT"

Ismail AbdulAzeez is the Chief Executive Officer of The Thy Global Investment Limited. It is an agriculture empowerment training centre located in Ewupe, Ota, Ogun State. He is also an exporter, trainer, farmer and motivator. In this chat with journalist, he talked about investing in small scale agribusiness in Nigeria, stressing the need for potential agropreneurs to personally fund their businesses before seeking loans.

Can you tell us what The Thy Global Investment Limited is all about?

The Thy Global Investment Limited is a place where we empower people who are interested in small and large scale agribusiness and subsequent exportation of commodities.. We teach them the practical aspect of agriculture and the business side of it.

How do you train people interested in small scale agribusiness?

We tell people if they want to really strike it big in agriculture, they need to start looking at the business part of it. We all can't be farmers; there are other crucial roles in the value chain with lots of opportunities like logistics, processing, packaging, marketing, and so on. For instance, some people don't like things that crawl like snail, worms, etc. So such people might not be able to produce something that warrants direct involvement with them. Basically, you should know your preference. Do you intend going into agribusiness full-time or part-time? Have you conducted your SWOT analysis to help you decide on your course of action? All these have to be considered. By and large, agribusiness is superb.

Most people interested in agribusiness and export business tend to have issues with funding, how do they tackle this challenge?

I am of the school of thought that you start with what you have. After discovering you have passion for agribusiness and exportation, the next step is to seek information and gain knowledge that will guide you on the proper course of action. Then you need to start small. What you do is to start with your own funds, and then you can expand with loans.

Funding has always been an issue in the sector. If you are waiting for a loan or fund from somewhere to start your business, you will have to wait for long time. So you need to use what you have to get what you want.

Small scale agribusiness owners complain of lack of mechanized farming in Nigeria, what are your thoughts on this?

In most local government area, they have less than 20 tractors. These are not enough when you consider large scale farming, which requires the availability of machines to help increase productivity. Farming on one hectare of land will not be enough to feed lots of people. If you want to talk about farming for commercial purposes, you start from 10 hectares and above and you can't use cutlass for that. We don't even have the basic equipments needed for land preparation and clearing. But some private people are bringing in these things which are helping a little.

This is an area agropreneurs can key into; they can invest in machinery and lease them out, that is why I said the value chain is massive. It is a pity that the government is not really looking at this. In some local governments, they don't even have one tractor to plough or harrow, so you can imagine the challenges farmers are facing.

Still on mechanized farming, since the government is not really looking at it, what can be done to address the issue?

It is the private sector that can really help us in this country but how will they when the environment is not conducive. When you have a government whose policies are all over the place, it becomes difficult for people from the private sector to adequately invest in agriculture.

With the paradigm shift ongoing in the agriculture sector, many have clamored for increased youth participation. But are the youths receptive to agriculture?

Well a lot of people are actually showing interest. In fact every weekend here at The Thy Global Investment, we always have people who come to take our programs. When they come for training, we scale them based on their reasons for coming from their request, because their practical programs may includes accommodation, training centre activities, and practical work in the farm.

What I do is to teach them the in-depth knowledge of agribusiness, exportation, etc, that it is not all about farming. For instance, I tell them others can do the tilling and operations, while they focus on how to make a return of money and how to add value. Essentially, youths interested in agribusiness must understand how the sector works so they can have a sense of direction.

How well has government policies helped agribusiness and how can it be improved?

Do we even have policies in place that supports agricultural development in Nigeria? The major thing that sends away potential investors is somersaulting policies. Last year, we got different information concerning the ban of rice through the road border. For those who want to invest, this development would inevitably discourage them.

Presently the body language of the federal government is a bit positive towards agriculture, that is why most people are going into agribusiness, but government needs to create concrete policies for the sector to thrive. If investors see that the environment is conducive for business, they would readily come in to invest.

So far what challenges have you encountered as an exporter of major commodities and Farmer?

The major challenge is the exchange rate. If the exchange rate is unstable, it becomes very difficult to plan your export or import business.

So if am considering an acre of plantation, what returns am I likely to get based on my customer base and what will be the benchmark?

Okay let's say we are buying 1 kg at N100, for one acre depending on your terrain, and you are planting 800 suckers. Now a sucker after producing a bunch will provide let's say 10kg, multiplied by N100, this gives you N1000. Multiply that by 800 suckers or trees of plantain and you will have N800,000. Now when you factor in the inputs and the cost of the land used; you can't recover that much in a year. But if the land is given to you by the government at a subsidized amount of money, compared to someone buying an acre; if you have a water system that makes irrigation possible at a reduced rate, then you are likely to make good returns. As a result, the cost of production is reduced. The environment for those working on government lands, all things being equal is conducive than for some of us working on "omo onile" land.
Another funny thing is after toiling and struggling, we also have to compete with produce coming from other African countries. When you go to some of our malls, you will see plantains coming from Tanzania, and other countries and ours are not on display. The role of government is like a father, it needs to create a conducive environment for its children to grow. I am not asking for good roads, or electricity because it is like a dream that will never come true (smiles). All I ask is after all the stress I go through to have my farm produce available for the market, I don't want to start competing with someone that is getting grants or loans from another country in my own.