Oyo State Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Olasunkanmi Olaleye, said agribusiness has attracted $170 million in investment into the state.

Mr Olaleye said this on Thursday during the maiden edition of the inter-ministerial news briefing on government activities in the last two years, held at the conference room of the governor’s office, Agodi, Ibadan.

He said the establishment of Fashola Agribusiness Hub, Oyo, reflected the government’s commitment to leveraging agriculture as a key driver of economic growth and development.

The commissioner also stated that more than 8,000 smallholder farmers had been integrated because of the size of the agribusiness companies at the hub.

He added that the $170 million investment would also create jobs for many people.

Highlighting the achievement of his ministry in the last two years, the commissioner said that not less than 10,210 farmers had been supported with seedlings and other input.

According to him, 3,541 maize farmers and 920 soybean farmers benefited from the seedling distribution programme.

He stated that high-yield cassava stems were distributed to 1,269 farmers, “covering 47,587.5 acres with the potential to produce 214,143.75 tonnes of cassava tubers.”

Mr Olaleye further said that knapsack sprayers were distributed to 1,980 farmers and herbicides and pesticides to 2,500 farmers.

The commissioner stated that the government equally supported 8,464 livestock and aquaculture farmers with quality feed and other necessary inputs.

He said, “We distributed quality inputs to diverse livestock farmers: 1,150 fish farmers received three bags each of 15kg quality fish feed. 2,536 cattle, sheep, and goat farmers received nutritional supplements, including 253,600kg of wheat offal, brewery dried grains, salt licks, and disinfectants. 3,740 poultry farmers received eight bags of 50kg maize grains each, and 1,028 pig farmers received palm kernel cake and disinfectants.’’

On farmers’ accessibility to loans, Mr Olaleye said the government provided microloans to 3,501 smallholder farmers with soft loans ranging from N50,000 to N800,000 per beneficiary.

He said the loans would enable farmers to expand their operations and improve their livelihoods.

Mr Olaleye also said that the government’s rural infrastructure development programme in the last two years continued to transform agricultural communities.

He said this had been realised through strategic road construction projects totalling 87.53 kilometres across multiple local governments.

The commissioner said these achievements and many others represented a comprehensive approach to agricultural development that addresses every aspect of the value chain.

He said that the agricultural programmes had directly impacted tens of thousands of farmers in the state, while building the infrastructure and institutional capacity needed for sustainable agricultural growth in Oyo State.

(NAN)