By Steve Agbota

Country Manager/Chief Executive Officer of Dizengoff Nigeria, Mr. Antti Ritvonen, has said the country has all it takes to feed itself, Africa and other regions of the world, provided mechanisation is combined with knowledge-based best practices in modern agriculture.

Ritvonen, who disclosed this during a Farmers’ Field Day held in Ilorin, Kwara State, recently said what remained in the agricultural revolution in Nigeria was the need to train farmers to know more about modern agriculture and sizeable level of resource commitment to the sector.

Ritvonen added that farmers need to realise that agricultural business is good if people can do it right, see it as a serious investment that has the potential to bring great returns.

He reiterated the readiness of Dizengoff to partner with state government, agencies, corporate and individual farmers on modern technologies, equipment and inputs for a more prosperous Nigeria.

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At the forum, Dizengoff exposed participants drawn from the corporate agriculture firms, state government and small scale farmers to a wide variety of innovations in agricultural mechanisation and technologies. These include greenhouse technology, drip irrigation, cost-effective tractors, selective weed control chemicals and battery-powered sprayer and irrigators, which combine to make farming commercial, industrial and revolutionary.

Special Adviser to the Kwara State Governor on Agriculture and Rural  Water Support Services, Anu Ibiwoye, said that agriculture was paramount in the agenda of the state and that the state was moving from subsistence food production to agricultural commercialisation and industrialisation, especially in cashew, shea butter nuts and cassava production, among others. 

Permanent Secretary in the state Ministry of Agriculture, Simeon Opowoye, added that manual agriculture is ineffective, expensive, intensive and extensive, making it irrelevant in the modern age of food production and industrial raw materials requirements.

Oscar Walumbe, Integrated Project Country Manager, Greenhouse unit of Dizengoff, said, “greenhouses help to bridge the gap between weather extremes to stabilise vegetable production.” 

He advised farmers never to produce what they like but what the market demands, saying greenhouses help farmers to use less resources to get greater produce and higher return on investment.