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In its quest to adopt technology for efficient, effective and climate friendly operations, Nigeria’s Dantata Foods and Allied Products Company Limited has signed an agreement with a United Kingdom based Agric-technology firm, RegenFARM Limited, and the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office of the British Government under its Agricultural sector intervention (LINKS Project) to pioneer a Regenerative Agricultural project in Nigeria.
Sanusi Bature, the General Manager, Corporate Services of Dantata Foods and Allied Products Company Limited, who told The Commerce Africa on Saturday that the deal worth US$100 million, said the project is expected to employ over 200,000 farmers across the pilot Nigerian states including Kano, Cross River, Jigawa, Kaduna, Bauchi, Katsina, Kebbi, Benue, Niger and Plateau.
A Regenerative Agriculture, according to Climate Reality Project, a nonprofit climate advocacy initiative, is a system of farming principles and practices that seeks to rehabilitate and enhance the entire ecosystem of the farm by placing a heavy premium on soil health with attention also paid to water management, fertilizer use, and more.
“This tripartite partnership is aimed at increasing quality food production, enhancing export opportunities of Nigeria’s Agricultural commodities and improving the soil fertility, nutrients content and organic matter,” the statement quoted the Chairman Dantata Foods, Alh. Tajuddeen Aminu Dantata, as saying while expressing fulfilment over the deal.
For Tajuddeen Aminu Dantata, one of Nigeria’s leading investors in food processing and agricultural backward integration projects, “the partnership has already galvanized access to markets in the UK and other parts of Europe for the organic commodities produced under the Regenerative Agriculture practices.”
“Regenerative Agriculture would be an all-embracing opportunity for the Agro-processing industry in the country, as the smallholder farmers’ (and) out-growers’ productivity, profitability and resilience to climate change will be greatly enhanced,” Mr. Jason Haywarda, the Managing Director/CEO of RegenFARM Limited, said after signing the deal.
For Nigeria, the Regenerative Agricultural project is timely and apt as the country contends with the challenges of soil degradation through flooding, erosion and continued cultivation which led to lower productivity of farm produce. The consistent application of inorganic fertilizer, pesticides and weed control chemicals have been discovered to have negative implications on the sustainability of farm lands over the years.
