Horticulture can enrich you within short period - Chairman ADP, Oyo state

Horticulture

The chairman, Oyo state Agricultural Development Programme (ADP), Alhaji S. A Imam spoke with food farm news on the 3^rd Africa Horticultural Conference held at Ibadan on the benefits and gain of the conference on his members. Read the excerpt of his short interview below

Let us meet you sir?

My name is Alhaji S. A Iman, I am the chairman of Oyo state Agricultural Development (ADP) farmers. A member of local organizing committee of 3^rd Africa Horticultural International Conference. I am a farmer after retirement as a regional manager in a blue chip company.

What does this conference means to you farmers?

Well, so far as envisaged, the conference has opened us to the world of modern farming in horticulture. We have met with all stakeholders, scientists, researchers and other farmers from other part of the continent. We have met with people who are distributors of improved seed varieties, chemicals, organic and inorganic materials. So generally this conference has exposed to us all the stakeholders within the continent and outside.

What differentiate horticulture from other agricultural crops?

I want to say horticultural crops are the easiest to farm, and some of us inherited it from our parents as it needs little or no financial capital to grow as subsistence farming except you want to go commercial. Horticulture can give a very quick money with two months of planting in a small expanse of land than any other plant crops. For example a carpet size of land not as large as acre cangive you N350,000 within a short period of time as one applies a good agricultural practices through a training always given at National Horticultural Research Institute (NIHORT), IAR&T, CRIN, NACBRAB etc to farmers. My association is working in collaboration with NIHORT towards having our adaptable improved vegetable and tomato seeds that will not make us to depend on any other product from anywhere.

Any challenge at all?

Finance has always been a challenge for agriculture especially when you want to go beyond subsistence farming. The double digit interest rate to agricultural loan is very killing coupled with the short period of repayment. But I will always advise farmers to keep proper records of their farm activities if they are interested in taking commercial banks’ loan for expansion.