Heineken Lokpobiri, Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development at the weekend, inaugurated Tritons farm projects on fish production, poultry and crop production.
The project which is located in Gambari, Oyo state, will help boost agricultural productivity in fish poultry and crop production to ensure food security in the country.
“They are doing well in terms of investments in aquaculture, poultry and crop production. All they are doing is geared towards filling the gaps that we have,” Lokpobiri said during his address to journalists.
“We have over 2 million metric tons gap in poultry and 2.5 million metric tons in deficit in fish. I want to implore them to continue to show the cooperation and support the community with infrastructure,” he said.
The Agric Minister of state for agriculture noted that government is making efforts to boost local fish production by giving allocation to investors that have already made investment in aquaculture.
Nigeria’s current demand for fish is put at 2.7 million metric tons, as the country produces only 800,000 metric tons, leaving a gap of 1.9 million metric tons, according to available data.
The integrated farming project, which commenced operation in fish production last year, is now producing about 25, 000 metric tons which is projected to reach 100,000 metric tons in five years.
“The farm is designed to train youths in agriculture, and presently we have 400 workers and we are producing 25,000 tons of fish and expecting to reach 100,000 tons in five years,” Kumar said.
The massive multi-billion naira investment is the biggest integrated farming project in fish, poultry and crop production in the entire southwest region. “Our farm is the only farm in the entire region that is fully integrated in aquaculture, poultry and crop production,” said Samtani Ashvin Kumar, chairman, Triton Group.
In line with the group youth empowerment initiative, Lokpobiri stated that the youth empowerment initiative of the Jonathan’s administration in agriculture will be sustained.
“We are also at the verge of recording a N300 million loan from AfDB for the Enable Youth Programme, where we are going to train about 35,000 to 37,000 youths across the country and give them what they need to be able to start.”
“The youths will be trained 3 to 9 months depending on the aspect of the agribusiness,” he said.
He stated that if the group is given support, Triton will do much more in the country’s agricultural sector.
Triton’s projects cover a total of 5,000 acres of land in Gambari, which plays host to a viable catfish production facility, with cage culture taking place in the dam.
The company also invested massively in crop production with 15,000 stances of cashew trees planted on 150 hectare. This will help boost the country’s cashew production and export.
Triton is investing massively in tree planting in Oyo State with 300,000 tree crops planted on 300 hectare of land in Gambari, in accordance with international standard aimed at increasing conditions applicable to the natural environment, including Tick, Melania and Tinderial.
Triton Farms is a subsidiary of Triton Group, a global conglomerate spread across 10 countries.
Josephine Okojie
