An industrial agric company, Spring Plantation and Processing Company (SPPC), has unveils its industrial agric initiative that will make possible people-participation and creation of a truly private sector initiative. According to the release by the company, ‘the agribusiness activity is to take root in south west Nigeria from where it will extend its reach globally by taking comparative advantages each of its locations will offer. The operations of the company will enable delivery of over 100,000 hectares of crop production component that will serve other agric value-chain components in a vertically-integrated and well-interlinked manner. The company’s operation strategy is a brainchild of international business consultants and technical professionals with many years of hands-on experience in agribusiness and related fields of endeavour.
To complement its direct crop production in the agrarian communities of south west states, the company shall also mobilise farmers for its out-grower scheme. Few days back, the company finalised discussions and signed Memorandum of Understanding and Agreement (MOU&A) with Osun State Farmers. This will enable the company work with about 1,500 farmers for grains production in Osun State. Farmers in other south west states shall likewise be mobilised to work with SPPC in their respective states. The out-grower scheme programme will include training and development of the farmers for skills transfers; while its ultimate goal is to create a commercially viable, profitable and sustainable out-growers operation for the mobilised farmers within community-friendly environment in each of the south west states where dedicated and responsible workforce will ensure the success of the farming scheme through a sense of ownership that will also benefits the host communities, the states and the country as a whole.
The modified-Angolan out-growers operations is a comprehensive and realistic approach to farming, and is based on tested operations and models in Africa which SPPC technical experts and other operation team members had been part of. The model will make possible ease of farmer engagement for shared wealth, rural community development and employment generation among all stakeholders. According to the SPPC spokesperson, “while each operation of the agribusiness project will be beneficial and profitable in its own right, the holistic vertically-integrated planning approach will result in the interdependence of the components and provide great leverage for players, stakeholders and industrial scale grain crop users in Nigeria”.
Also to enable investors participation, the company has unveiled its FarmHolders Initiative through its website. This initiative will allow individuals, corporate and group investors to participate in primary crop production with ease. The FarmHolders initiative will serve as the platform that offers agribusiness investors, men and women from all over the world the opportunity to participate as investors in the vertically-integrated agric value chain activity.