OLAM Nigeria, an agribusiness conglomerate with footprints across the wheat milling, rice production, dairy, tomato, poultry and animal feed segments, among others, has restated its commitment to the Federal Government’s efforts to revitalise the local agriculture value chain.

Details of the agribusiness backward integration programmes (BIP) over the past decade, which was shared with the media recently, revealed strong inputs across the local agricultural landscape with valuable impact on the GDP and the national job creation drive.

According to the report, Olam has consistently scaled its investment in various out-grower programmes, research partnerships, seed trials, and the integration of smallholder farmers into various empowerment initiatives across different levels.

For instance, to boost the supply of rice, the business entered into a partnership with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Federal Government of Nigeria in the Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP), a backward integration framework which trains smallholder rice farmers, supplies input to the farmers and provides guaranteed buyback.
Since 2014 when IFAD and VCDP rolled out the rice value chain development project, about N22 billion has been injected into the rice smallholder initiatives of Olam in Nigeria’sMiddle Belt. Data by IFAD showed that a larger number of the smallholder rice farmers who were engaged by Olam and its partners recorded a 79% jump in their incomes.

SOURCE: TRIBUNE