mE GUARDIAN,Sunday, May22, 20n
Agrocare
17l
Dealer Urges Banl<s To Be Part Of Agric Revolution . By Olukayode Oy.leye OMMERCIAL bani:, and bankers have been called upon to be part of agncu ltural revolutIOn 10 Nlgena. ThIS call was made dunng the sl~mg of 10lnt Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by the Tractor Owners and Operators AsSOCIatIon of Nlgena (TOOAN), Spnngfield Agro LImIted, PrOpCom and Oceamc Bankatthe bank's departmentof development finance on Thursday. Mr. Pradeep Sarkar, general manager of Spnngfield Agro Umlted, who made the call, reCOgnIsed the success first recorded Wldl FIrst Bank 10 rractorfinancmgalmosta year ago. He expl essed optImIsm oranother success now thatOceamc Banlusgomg mto such a prolect Mr. Sarkar acknowledged the success 10 pnvate sestor tractor financmgbusmess 10 IndIa, sa}'Jng there IS no subsIdy for any area of agrlculture In IndIa, but It,!S financed 100 percent by. the pnvate sector. Refernng to the OptI~Ism express.ed by Oceamc Bank:, he saId Nlgena IS gomg 10 t~at dIrectIon, and expres~ed the hope that thIS WIll be a greatsuccess. . Mr. FelIx Oyakhamoh, head of development finance departme~~, Oceamc Bank, agreed WIth Sarkar, sa}'Jnl? agncul,:ural financmg IS lust aboutto start, anl, that we have not even scratch~~ the surface. Lookin!;l" back 10 tIme, he saId before now, banks sh Ied away from agncultural financmg}nd have taken a lot of knocks from outSIde. Although he empha-
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sised that the banks did that "in the past and got their fingers burnt," heobselVed that "there are problems in agriculture that need to be fixed before banks can easily finance agric'sector." One example is the infrastructure that needs to be in p,lace." He noted that 'bankers' fears are well founded, but advised colleagues in the banking sector "to do soul searching and realise that agricultural finanCing is a development fmancing project, for which the profits will come later." With the changing attitude of bankers towards agriculture, he pointed out, "we can unlock potentials by financing agriculture; and profits will come later. The CBN is keen right now and is ready to share risks with banks to help banks lend to agriculture." Oyakhamoh expressed the belief that "if we do the right thing, we have everything to be the food basket for the world. I believe it will work He added that agricultural lending shou ld fonn a percentage of creditof the commercia l banks. He commended PrOpCom for facilitat. ing the MoU, describinta the deal with TOOAN and Springfield Agro as 'a good deal." Mr. Tunde Oderinde, catalytic inteIVention manager of PrOpCom, who described himself as a happy man that day, described how depressing it was "that you can get a loan for house,for car, but not for agricultural equipment."He said his motivation forthe tractor inteIVention came after "we found out that the cost of land preparation is huge and needs to be reduced. This was the motive for PrOpCom's
inteIVention in tractor financing." He expressed a sense of fulfilment "that Oceanic Bank is signing the MOU today, after critically analysing the model presented to them and partners are coming in, especially, as TOOAN is coming in, expanding and moving into Gombe and Adamawa states, after'Ogun and Kaduna have established their associations. I feel it is the beginning of greater success, seeing the efforts oho months" coming into fulfilment Mr. Kayode Kumolu, TOOAN's Public Relations Officer, from Ogun State thanked partners that have contributed to the success ofTOOAN. He gave an idea of the progress so far made through bank inteIVention. "We sent signals to TOOAN in Kaduna that has already commenced opening bank accou nts with Oceanic Bank We believe more will come after this ceremony." Part of the content of the MOU stated that Springfield Agro Umited (SFAL), TOOAN, PrOpCom and Oceanic Bank shall, among other things, be responsible for establishing a lease finance arrangement through Oceanic Bank for financing150 tractors for service providers; pilotingaguaranteeapproachtodemonstrate the viaoility of the tractor business model; establishing systems and set conditions for leasing and monitoring of the loans, and facilitating the acquisition and use of these tractors and repayment of the lease. In addition, they are to establish systems for ensuring proper and adequate maintenance ,
semces and repairs of the tractors and the:systern to protect the tractor agamst theft;· removal of vItal partsand downtIme as a result of tractor malfunctIon; conduct a research to fine-tumn~ of the concept based on learnmg from practIce,obsemngprogress,case studIes and commumcatIons.. The MOU IS to remam 10 forc e for 36 months, whIle the scope of collaboratIon WIll be reVle.wed every SIX months or as the ne~d anses. The document stated further that Oceamc Bank WIll faCIlItate the. lease finanCIng Of150 tractors to selVlce.provlders Inchosen state of mteIV";~tIon sublect to reqmSlte credIt approvaL. .. The loan tenor IS24 months, WIth an optIon of accelerated lIqUIdatIon, lust as 20 per ce~t of the cost of tractor !:,,111 be the benefic lanes eqUlty contrIbutIon, and the bank credIt WIll be ~o percent, WIth CBN guaranteeofNl,oOO,Ooo per oblIgor' and, after12 months m~o the loan, guarantee IS reduced to N5g0,000. Interest rate on dle loan IS 21 per cent, and NAiC IS toc~arge 0.85 percent annually as asset msurance. The role of TOOAN IS expected to entaIl an endorsement of elIgIble seIVlce proVIder and a commItment to ensunng that repayments are made asand when du~ 10 wntmg. TOOAN, ill addrnon, IS expected to proVIde necessary support and documents 10 case of accelerated repaymentto evaluate the account of the benefiCIary malong payment an~ recal· culate the new [Tlargms gomg fOIVVard. As means of checks and balances, TOOAN was charged with the responsibility of setting up a task force and to "fund the activities of the task force to support OceaniC Bank in the monitoringof the tractors unde'rthis initiative."TOOAN will support Oceanic Bank and Springfield Agro in the process of repossession from a defaulting service provider and reallocation of the recovered tractor to any other interested
party willing to offset the remainingoutstaildmgfease.
Springfield Agro Limited, on the other hand, was saddled with the role of delivering "the tractor to the service provider and the lease
Mr. lunda Oderinde, catalytic intervention manager of PrOpCom (left), Mr. Pradeep Sarkar, general manager, Springfield Agro limit ed, Mr. Felix Oyakamoh. head of development finance depart· ment, Oceanic Bank Pic, Yekinni Olagoke, chairman of the Tractor Owners and Operators Association of Nigeria (TOOAN) and Sudhar Kumarjha of TaKTractors exchanging banters al the end of the signing of memorandum of understanding on tractor financing at the bank's department of development finance, Victoria Island, Lagos, on Thursday.
PHOTO: OlUKAYOOE OYElEYE
shall take effect upon the receipt of the tractor. SFAL, it was gathered, "shall give warranty covering for the tractor for a period ofl,soo hours or2 years, and shall train mechanics in viable clusters of participating states." Tractors facilitated through this relationship are expected to beregistered in the Oceanic Bank's name "till the seIVice provider, through TOOAN, has fully repaid the lease, then the ownership of the tractor will be transferred to the service provider after fulfilling the mandatory process and proced ure for the transfer." PrOpCom would be expected to conduct a re-' search fine-tuning of the concept based on learning and practice and obselVing progress. Overall, it was agreed that "the MOU may be amended in writing by mutual consent of the parties as may be necessary from time to time." Mr. Sudhir Kumarjha from TaKTractors, Kaduna, who was present at the ceremony, said "we are still a little bit new and are trying our best in the tractor business."
Research Supervisory Body Outlines IlIA's Impact In Africa ~E report of an impact assessment
1 :f udy released recently has indicated
that about 70 per cent of the impact by the Consultative Group on International Agricu ltural Research (CGIAR) in Africa came from research outputs by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). The 2007 assessment by CG IAR's Science Council, wh ich is sti ll the la test from the archives, showed that the value of the benefit was greater than the total CGIAR investment in African since 1971. 'That is so.m erhing to be really proud of," says IITA's director-ge neral, Dr. Peter Hartmann , at a reunion forum with former IITA staff in Bali, Indonesia. According to him, 60 percent of the maize grown in West and Central Africa today comes from IITA va rieties, wh il e IITA had remained a very stable institute. "It goes for nothing sexy and does not play the latest fa shion game. It does the basic, steadily and consistently. That is its force. This works," he said. Hartmann, however, mentioned that the success recorded by the institute was a resu lt of the comm itment and foundation laid by the former staff. He emphasised that the present management never reinvented the wheel. '"We did not have to undo anything. We just had to build on what you all had built. So it was enjoyable," he added. On the CGIAR reforms and the future of IITA, Hartmann said the institute was work-' ing towards diversifying its support base, but maintaining the CGIAR as one of the supporters. To help the institute in this di-
reetion, IITA has been doing a few things, the directorgeneral told the alumni group. Last year, Innovation Africa™ (Research Park for Africa) was created to help capture more scientific synergy. "The physical facilities should be ready by June 2012. Please help us get the word out, especially to the private sector," he urged alumni, announcing that "we are building a coalition of three centres to serve Africa's crop needs." He explained the institute's effort "on a Pan-African wide instrument to help nations taclde biological threats (pests and diseases)." "We are producing more commercial products," his list went on, adding that "we have just released AflaSafeTM against Aflatoxins.
The Gates Foundation is helping us seek firms to produce it commercially. We are clustering IITA scientists in fewer locations (hubs), so we ca n support th~m better. In short, we are investing in IITA's future." Hartmann commended the former staff for keeping the association running, stressi ng that such a commitment was remarkable. He also praised present IITA staff, for remaining faithfu l to the idea ls of the Institute. "Every year, we give long service awards, and every year we have sO[Tlethat have been with us for oveno years! It is just incredible," he said. Members of th e alumni group expressed gratitude to Hartmann for hisd efforts at IITA. Nangju Dimyati, chair of the fifth Reunion, sa id the alumni was "very grate-
fuL"The reunion for IITA al~mni and their families, held in March , was attended by par· ticipants from 11 countries, including United States, Canada, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Republic of Korea, Republic of China, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia , and Austra lia. Previous reunions had been held in the USA, Italy, and the UK. The reunions provide a great opportunity for former and current staff to get together to talk about IITA and its future. The next reunion will be held after two to three yea rs, possibly in Africa. The alumni group of IITA is made up of more than 400 form er staff, some of which now occupy or have held important positions in other globa l, international, and national institutions.
What Bai1l<ers, FariTIers, Others Say'
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il{ODUN 'Adewole from standard hatcheries and banl~, tres. : . .' , :, .' ...·.F.J.·r.st Bani.' said ~ lot. of in.. i· implements, substandard roads, Qladeji A1iio, r~presentative for latlvesare jiomg. on mthe need to provide for ice the permilnent seqetary in the bankers' fOl;urn: "Now" 'a li the . hlocks.• water pumping ma- Lagos Sta.te.Ministry qf Agriculbanks are m.andated [oser up chines .and boreholes, lack of. " ture, noted that, of the 78 pef' agriculturepes](S." modernbattery.cages,problems · cent of Jand 'mass ,i n Lagos not ; N1,lcleus llsta~e InitiaJlv" is ". of waste !lispqsal, proPJ~ms of .covered bywater, a greater part genu~inqlrOgramme that will fpeds, la.ck of op~rational vans, is under pressure for real estqte, mitigate production losses of the need fqf irrigation to ensure which has an upper hand than ,hal1lested. pr6du. c.e," .og.undij>e; conti.1J.\Jous P.l..?!lting ev.. ery.'.Je.ar . ,. agnctljtur~. Crops, fish farm, !\detola from Unio!' Banlc, (jebu' ." need . f.9r trilcto. r ;Ind. jm ... pie- pOUltry and plgge!): estates are .ode said. . . .. ' ' .. . inentsis,eedling~,. agrochemkals being established in various i LaW<I! Adebayo Lat~f;'an AFAN . . and prOCessing ma~hinl" and . parts of Lagos State by the st~te. ¢hieftain,call~flat;tentipl1'tothe modetnp:roces~ing Gentl;eS, J(e .go" .t. . . progle.ms l1e, $',*lshou;ldpeild- ' $aidEpeglv:i.sioI\!1~~dsic.ebjock • Gb. . froin.EIlte.Farnis; . j:lressed .)n. Epe (livisjon. These. m . ines.a.nd centres as ~· AgJj . wan\J6know;eX- ·. ~rfP?2.:!~~~el~~J.jti?~':S~'::~'.c.': . ·.~!l!~E~~~P~.~ -i~~~stl~~,_c. .._n~.!~~; ~~l.g: ~ei
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done to farmers and how the farmlands would be cleared. Bimtio Adelaja was· curious about wliat NESG does with research institutions and what plans are: being contempl<\red 'on' seed procurement, anjmai breeds, and what is the cost of private sector fertiliser. He asked about moratorium on agriculturallbans. Ovota Iyamll, ClllTentiy on bo'a tdofBill and Mellinda 6ates f6u,llOatirij}'spbnsoredresearch on.: s()ij .lriapping. of entire Afilca, Soia "we are· dpinll soil sqmplingfQr9l,1r.~oUr(try.' ,
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