Haske and Williams Limited, a dominant player in the Nigerian agri-business sector has announced its signing of an MoU with FGM Expert Farmer, a global agri-business player based in France.
Commenting on the recent development, Oladipo Williams, Executive Vice President, Haske and Williams Limited said: “The MoU between our organisation and FGM Expert Farmer is a Technical, Operations and Management Support Services Agreement aimed at ensuring that our ongoing and proposed commercial agriculture projects are developed, operated and managed in line with international best practices. Despite several interventions, policies and strategies put in place by the Federal Government of Nigeria to stimulate agricultural production in Nigeria we still find that Nigeria has some of the lowest yield rates per hectare for various agricultural commodities in the world.”
Speaking further, he said: “After a critical review of the current situation in the country’s agricultural space, it became clear that the problem was not the capacity of farmers with respect to agricultural production instead the problem arose from the lack of capacity to practice agriculture on a commercial scale driven by globally accepted procedures and protocols. It was in view of the aforementioned that we at Haske & Williams decided to engage FGM Expert Farmer due to its vast experience in the conceptualisation, planning, development, operation and management of large scale agricultural projects globally. We are keen to contribute towards the development of smallholder agriculture in Nigeria through the development and implementation of sustainable strategies aimed at boosting smallholder farmer productivity such as facilitation of access to quality inputs, mechanisation equipment rental, technical capacity building services, irrigation infrastructure development and management and provision of guaranteed markets.”
Through this MoU, Haske & Wiliams will be introducing a systematic and knowledge based approach to commercial agriculture which analyses critical aspects of the agricultural production value chain and troubleshoots existing conditions to ensure bespoke solutions are developed that optimise the value chain.
As a company, Haske & Williams has aligned its goals and objectives with the agricultural transformation agenda of the new government and believes it is important for the organisation to conceptualise and develop model projects which can serve as evidence to Nigerians and the international community that Nigeria can diversify its economy from oil and gas to other sectors. The company is keen to become pioneers of the new agricultural revolution ongoing in the country and use this as an opportunity to prove to Nigerians that agriculture is big business, and can become a major contributor to the diversification of the Nigerian economy, creation of employment opportunities and a major source of much needed foreign exchange for the country.
Haske & Williams currently has 3 subsidiaries including: H & W Rice Company Limited (Developer of the Demsa Integrated Rice Production Project in Adamawa State); H & W Starch Derivatives Limited (Developer of the Kaiama Cassava Starch Integrated Rice Production Project in Kwara State); and Manomi Support Services Limited (Developer of the Manomi Support Scheme Initiative).
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