Masisi: Nigeria Will Make Fortune Investing in Agro-based Economy

Immediate past President of Botswana, Mokgweetsi Eric Masisi, during a recent visit to Agbeyewa Farms Limited, called on African leaders to explore the opportunities available in the agricultural sector to create jobs and boost the continent’s economy. Raheem Akingbolu brings the excerpts.

As a former head of government in Botswana, what role do you think Agriculture will play in the emerging economies of Africa?

Agriculture is central, and I have always maintained it. I come from a country that was essentially an agro-based economy. It moved into the beneficiation of diamond mining. Beyond Botswana, what we need to do in today’s Africa is to leap-frog into the next stage where we synergise the application of technology and intellectual capital to optimize benefit and return on investment in the Agric sector.

Agric has all those potentials, particularly that we have the land mass, we have the rainfall, we have the fertile land, we have the people; both to produce and to market. We have the intellect to do this. And so I see this as a very low hanging fruit for us all.

If we look at the greater scheme of things, where many populations around the world are diminishing in their reproductive capacity, i.e. ageing, there’s still a huge number in this part of the world. We in Africa represent the youngest continent and the fastest growing. The potential is here.

So, if anybody is to invest in anything for the future, it would have to be in Africa. If anybody is to produce anything to scale, to make money, it has to be in Africa.

On this note, I really applaud John Olajide, the visionary young man behind Agbeyewa Farms. He is an enigma, as they call him. True, in form and conceptualisation, because this is the right thing to do. We need food in Africa. We need to take it to scale. We need to realize the African continental free trade area agreement. We need to evacuate our product. We need to process it and add value to it. We need to optimize the efficiency of both the production and nutritional value. And with that, with our virgin land, with our organic products, nobody can beat us.

 Zeroing the conversation to Agbeyewa, how will you describe what you have seen so far?

Let me do some background before answering this. I come from a savannah tropical climate. It’s dry in Botswana. I’ve come to Nigeria, the heartbeat of Africa. I heard about Agbeyewa Farms from my friend and younger brother, John Olajide, and I must confess, everything he described was much more modest than what I saw.

Now, what did I see? I saw scale, I saw mechanization, I saw human capital, I saw technical, financial, and strategic visioning, and I saw people and community involvement.

I saw virgin land cleared, cultivated for purpose on a scale unimaginable. And in the shortest possible time, the rate at which progress has been made because of the input and use of technology, because of the input and use of intellectual capital through research, and partnerships with those who have done it, and actually thinking through the whole value chain. This is impact at its best.

And for African youth, especially those who are graduating now and trying to get greener pastures in Europe and other parts of the world, what role can they play in this agricultural revolution?

Let me start by saying that those of us in leadership; political, economic, financial and any other form of leadership in Africa, we need to invest in creating an ambient environment to keep our young talent at home. And we need to make them realize that when they go to Europe, they’re going into slavery, immediate enslavement.

They’re going into a wasted land because Europe, for all I see, doesn’t have as bright a future as we do in Africa. But you know, when you’re hungry, you don’t see that. So we need to create the right political climate and an economic environment so that these young people feel safe and they realize what they can get from home. Mobilize all our investors to invest in this and give our investors a break to be able to be motivated to do so.

Back to Agbeyewa, if you’re asked to describe it in a few words after leaving this farm, what would be your response?

Phenomenal. Breathtaking. And all I see here is just the tip of the iceberg. Huge things are going to come out of this. Massive. I see this being the bedrock of the best agronomy in West Africa, if not Africa, coming out of here. The best of agronomists coming out of here. The best of the seed variants coming out of here. The best potential for training to come from here, in whatever field, in the value chain of production, from security to land preparation, seed multiplication, planting, harvesting, you name it. With data, i.e. collecting data and maintaining the right records, you will become the centrepiece of all that for everybody. And once that is achieved, all you need to do is just turn the key on, with very little effort, and the engine runs on its own called Agbeyewa.

Having given a tip about Bostwana, comparatively, what would be your view?

I think comparison is a very kind word. It’s really a contrast. Nigeria is blessed and hugely endowed. You are endowed with water. You are endowed with a lot of land. I mean, look at the trees with no assistance. Look how big they are. You don’t get them like this in my country. Our trees suffer; they struggle. We farm in that place, and we farm cattle better than anybody else in the world. If I give you my piece of meat, you will bite your chin off. It’s good because we farm it well.

But what you need to do is years of painstaking learning, experimentation and getting it right, and being resilient.

What Nigeria has is everything around the people. I don’t know what you can’t grow here. I was just telling John on the way here that I can see about 300 hectares to the side here, and you produce feed. And you organize it so that you compartmentalize it and rear sheep. To get lamb, you need seven to eight months. You put them in a maze. At the end of eight months, you slaughter, and you feed it from the other end.

With all the water and the fertility you have here, you can do anything. You can grow cattle here. You can do dairy here. You can do pork here. You can do chicken here. There’s nothing you cannot do.

It takes effort, research, and commitment. And all you do at the end is you’re harvesting money. It just comes back with less effort every year.

For the government, both at the state and federal levels, as far as agriculture is concerned, what advice would you give Nigerian leaders?

 The role of government, primarily in my view, is to provide an enabling environment. Enabling the environment is policy driven. This involves creating a policy-driven legal and regulatory framework that incentivizes growth.

As a government, you incentivize through tax breaks. You incentivize through schemes that are subsidies. Because there’s nowhere in the world where agriculture is not subsidized. So, it’s not a crime to subsidize agriculture because by doing so, the government is providing sustainable jobs and sustainable living. Of course, this will also enhance sustainable nutrition. When all these are applied, investors and government agencies can also diversify the area of agricultural output.

On this note, I will also encourage Nigeria and investors to look in the way of investing in the wildlife economy. Nigeria is losing billions of naira for not opening up their wildlife economy, which is one of the major sources of income for my country. There’s a whole wildlife economy that I have asked John and all the Nigerians I have come across. Where is your wildlife economy? We make hundreds of millions out of our wildlife economy.In Botswana? Yes. We make money from elephants, zebras, antelopes, and crocodiles.

We make money from our ecosystem. I was looking at an outcrop, a hill. And I told John, you could put a little residency or entertainment place. It’s tourism and a source of income. But you know, if you stand on an outcrop, or a high point, anywhere here, with new plantings, it’s beautiful to the eye. 

On a final note, I think the role of the government really is to create that enabling environment, which will include the development of technical capacity, through their external affairs, to broker friendships with those countries where those things are done very well. After this, those in the driver’s seat would bring on board people who can come and motivate and train.