mE GUARDIAN,Sunday, May22, 20n Agrocare 17l

Dealer Urges Banl<s To Be Part Of Agric Revolution . By Olukayode Oy.leye sised that the banks did that "in the past and inteIVention in tractor financing." semces and repairs of the tractors and the:sys-

got their fingers burnt," heobselVed that "there He expressed a sense of fulfilment "that tern to protect the tractor agamst theft;· re-

COMMERCIAL bani:, and bankers have are problems in agriculture that need to be Oceanic Bank is signing the MOU today, after moval of vItal partsand downtIme as a result been called upon to be part of agncu l- fixed before banks can easily finance agric 'sec- critically analysing the model presented to of tractor malfunctIon; conduct a research to tural revolutIOn 10 Nlgena. ThIS call was tor." One example is the infrastructure that them and partners are coming in, especially, as fine-tumn~ of the concept based on learnmg

made dunng the sl~mg of 10lnt Memoran- needs to be in p,lace." TOOAN is coming in, expanding and moving from practIce,obsemngprogress,case studIes dum of Understanding (MoU) by the Tractor He noted that 'bankers' fears are well founded, into Gombe and Adamawa states, after'Ogun and commumcatIons .. Owners and Operators AsSOCIatIon of Nlgena but advised colleagues in the banking sector "to and Kaduna have established their associa- The MOU IS to remam 10 forc e for 36 months, (TOOAN), Spnngfield Agro LImIted, PrOpCom do soul searching and realise that agricultural tions. I feel it is the beginning of greater suc- whIle the scope of collaboratIon WIll be re­and Oceamc Bankatthe bank's departmentof finanCing is a development fmancing project, cess, seeing the efforts oho months" coming Vle.wed every SIX months or as the ne~d anses. development finance on Thursday. for which the profits will come later." With the into fulfilment The document stated further that Oceamc

Mr. Pradeep Sarkar, general manager of changing attitude of bankers towards agricul- Mr. Kayode Kumolu, TOOAN's Public Relations Bank WIll faCIlItate the. lease finanCIng Of150 Spnngfield Agro Umlted, who made the call, ture, he pointed out, "we can unlock potentials Officer, from Ogun State thanked partners that tractors to selVlce.provlders Inchosen state of reCOgnIsed the success first recorded Wldl FIrst by financing agriculture; and profits will come have contributed to the success ofTOOAN. He mteIV";~tIon sublect to reqmSlte credIt ap-Bank 10 rractorfinancmgalmosta year ago. He later. The CBN is keen right now and is ready to gave an idea of the progress so far made provaL. .. expl essed optImIsm oranother success now share risks with banks to help banks lend to through bank inteIVention. "We sent signals to The loan tenor IS 24 months, WIth an optIon of thatOceamc Banlusgomg mto such a prolect agriculture." TOOAN in Kaduna that has already com- accelerated lIqUIdatIon, lust as 20 per ce~t of Mr. Sarkar acknowledged the success 10 pn- Oyakhamoh expressed the belief that "if we do menced opening bank accou nts with Oceanic the cost of tractor !:,,111 be the benefic lanes eq­vate sestor tractor financmgbusmess 10 IndIa, the right thing, we have everything to be the Bank We believe more will come after this cer- Ulty contrIbutIon, and the bank credIt WIll be sa}'Jng there IS no subsIdy for any area of agrl- food basket for the world. I believe it will work emony." ~o percent, WIth CBN guaranteeofNl,oOO,Ooo culture In IndIa, but It,!S financed 100 percent He added that agricultural lending shou ld Part of the content of the MOU stated that per oblIgor' and, after12 months m~o the loan, by. the pnvate sector. Refernng to the OptI- fonn a percentage of creditof the commercia l Springfield Agro Umited (SFAL), TOOAN, PrOp- guarantee IS reduced to N5g0,000. ~Ism express.ed by Oceamc Bank:, he saId banks. He commended PrOpCom for facilitat. Com and Oceanic Bank shall, among other Interest rate on dle loan IS 21 per cent, and Nlgena IS gomg 10 t~at dIrectIon, and ex- ing the MoU, describinta the deal with TOOAN things, be responsible for establishing a lease NAiC IS toc~arge 0.85 percent annually as asset pres~ed the hope that thIS WIll be a greatsuc- and Springfield Agro as 'a good deal." finance arrangement through Oceanic Bank msurance. The role of TOOAN IS expected to cess. . Mr. Tunde Oderinde, catalytic inteIVention for financing150 tractors for service providers; entaIl an endorsement of elIgIble seIVlce Mr. FelIx Oyakhamoh, head of development manager of PrOpCom, who described himself pilotingaguaranteeapproachtodemonstrate proVIder and a commItment to ensunng that

finance departme~~, Oceamc Bank, agreed as a happy man that day, described how de- the viaoility of the tractor business model; es- repayments are made asand when du~ 10 wnt-WIth Sarkar, sa}'Jnl? agncul,:ural financmg IS pressing it was "that you can get a loan for tablishing systems and set conditions for leas- mg. TOOAN, ill addrnon, IS expected to proVIde lust aboutto start, anl, that we have not even house,for car, but not for agricultural equip- ing and monitoring of the loans, and necessary support and documents 10 case of scratch~~ the surface. Lookin!;l" back 10 tIme, ment."He said his motivation forthe tractor in- facilitating the acquisition and use of these accelerated repaymentto evaluate the account he saId before now, banks sh Ied away from teIVention came after "we found out that the tractors and repayment of the lease. of the benefiCIary malong payment an~ recal· agncultural financmg}nd have taken a lot of cost of land preparation is huge and needs to In addition, they are to establish systems for culate the new [Tlargms gomg fOIVVard. knocks from outSIde. Although he empha- be reduced. This was the motive for PrOpCom's ensuring proper and adequate maintenance 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 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. lunda Oderinde, catalytic intervention manager of PrOpCom (left), Mr. Pradeep Sarkar, general manager, Springfield Agro limited, 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.

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." PHOTO: OlUKAYOOE OYElEYE

Research Supervisory Body Outlines IlIA's Impact In Africa ~E report of an impact assessment reetion, IITA has been doing a few things, The Gates Foundation is helping us seek fuL"The reunion for IITA al~mni and their 1 :fudy released recently has indicated the directorgeneral told the alumni group. firms to produce it commercially. We are families, held in March , was attended by par·

that about 70 per cent of the impact by Last year, Innovation Africa™ (Research clustering IITA scientists in fewer locations ticipants from 11 countries, including United the Consultative Group on International Park for Africa) was created to help capture (hubs), so we ca n support th~m better. In States, Canada, United Kingdom, the Nether-Agricu ltural Research (CGIAR) in Africa more scientific synergy. short, we are investing in IITA's future." lands, Germany, Republic of Korea, Republic came from research outputs by the Interna- "The physical facilities should be ready by Hartmann commended the former staff for of China, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia , tional Institute of Tropical Agriculture June 2012. Please help us get the word out, es- keeping the associat ion running, stressing and Austra lia. Previous reunions had been (IITA). pecially to the private sector," he urged that such a commitment was remarkable. He held in the USA, Italy, and the UK. The 2007 assessment by CG IAR's Science alumni, announcing that "we are building a also praised present IITA staff, for remaining The reunions provide a great opportunity Council, wh ich is sti ll the la test from the coalition of three centres to serve Africa's faithfu l to the idea ls of the Institute. "Every for former and current staff to get together archives, showed that the value of the bene- crop needs." He explained the institute's ef- year, we give long service awards, and every to talk about IITA and its future. The next re­fit was greater than the total CGIAR invest- fort "on a Pan-African wide instrument to year we have sO[Tlethat have been with us for union will be held after two to three yea rs, ment in African since 1971. 'That is help nations taclde biological threats (pests oveno years! It is just incredible," he said. possibly in Africa. The alumni group of IITA so.merhing to be really proud of," says IITA's and diseases)." Members of th e alumni group expressed is made up of more than 400 former staff, director-ge neral, Dr. Peter Hartmann , at a re- "We are producing more commercial prod- gratitude to Hartmann for hisd efforts at some of which now occupy or have held im­union forum with former IITA staff in Bali, ucts," his list went on, adding that "we have IITA. Nangju Dimyati, chair of the fifth Re- portant positions in other globa l, interna-Indonesia. just released AflaSafeTM against Aflatoxins. union, sa id the alumni was "very grate- tional, and national institutions. 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 commitment 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-

What Bai1l<ers, FariTIers, Others Say' It· 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" 'ali 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 ,in 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

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'atdofBill 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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