IN line with the Federal Government's current focus on not just agriculture but agro-processing into semi-finished product, Psaltry International Limited is poised to set the pace in agro-processing while carrying local farmers along. Its Managing Director, Mrs. Oluyemisi Iranloye, who is also the President of African Women in Agriculture spoke with EBERE AMEH on the plans of the company, their community development efforts, among othersWhat is Psaltry International Limited all about' It is a starch production company located at Alayide village in Iseyin Local Government area of Oyo State. We aim at producing the best quality starch for our food, pharmaceutical and allied industries.Our raw material is cassava and so our style is to have farmers farm for us and we buy from them. Our plan for farmers is to have them trained on how to produce economically viable cassava. We also provide extension services for them. We provide tractors and we give them stem and chemicals to spray. All that is on credit with no interest.The factory itself is cultivating about 40% of its raw material requirement just to cushion the third party effect. We can't rely entirely on the farmers until we run the programme for about two three years and we see that they can cope with our demand.The factory owns about 500 hectares of farmland and in this vicinity there are about 5,000 hectares of farmland. So we have a 500 hectares farmland inside a 5000 hectare community land. There are about 20 villages around here and we are concentrating on them. So the problem of farmers not seeing where to sell their product or having to transport to hundreds of kilometres will be eroded. The factory is so close and the longest distance to some of them is about 30 to 36 km.We have about 15 permanent staff and about 60 contract staff. But when the factory starts running, we'd have about 30 to 40 permanent staff and about 80 contract staff. And we'd be linked to about 500 farmers. We want to take only 500, work with them, groom, them, empower them. Before November ending, they'd have been able to cultivate about 500-600 hectares of land and the factory itself would have done about 400 hectares. For this maiden year we need to start with 1000 hectares.The farmers didn't go to school but they understand business. As soon as they saw the factory, they reduced the rate of their maize production and increased that of cassava.Our major business is not farming, we are only farming to show farmers how to do it. We are following the international standard and that is what we are teaching the farmers to do. Psaltry is out to show the model of what agricultural enterprise is supposed to be. If it is actually going to provide any transformation at all, it has to be rural-based. It has to provide infrastructure and be a market for the community. That is when it becomes a blessing, otherwise it not.This is also what the NIRSAL programme of the Central Bank of Nigeria preaches; promotion of rural enterprise. That factories should move to the villages as that is the only way we can impact on them over a long term. That is how sustainable agriculture is practiced. Farmers should not be made to spend all their money on transport and be paid peanuts afterwards. Farming should be profitable to the farmer too. Ours is actually a very simple project, but very novel. We are taking the bull by the horns.You seem so versed in Agriculture, when did you start and has it always been cassava'We started about four years ago. We started gradually acquiring the land and just last year we felt we were ready to expand it and build the factory and plant cassava. When we started, we were doing maize, cassava and even yam. We were doing all these to raise cash. Now we feel we should just face cassava. We opted for cassava because that is what we want to use as our raw material.I'm a Biochemist. My first major work experience was at Ekha Agro Farms Limited where I rose to the rank of the Executive Director. I have attended several management training courses in Nigeria and abroad among which is the Nigerian SME Equity investment for International trade and Development in 2005 at El Camino College, Torrance, California, USA.I was a member of the presidential committee on Cassava Development and Utilization in Nigeria between 2005 and 2007 and member of the 2006 UNIDO/ministry of Commerce Committee that wrote the blue print for cassava development in Nigeria.I obtained two international awards during my career. The first was at the first Cassava Scientific Conference in Gent, Belgium, in 2007 where I bagged the best orally presented presentation for a paper titled Challenges of industrial utilization of cassava in Africa, a conference sponsored by international organizations such as IITA, EU, Bill Gates Foundation, Danfort Science Center, USA etc. My second award was bagged in 2010 as the Female Leading Agro Entrepreneur in Nigeria, an award given by the American Department of State for my strong and continuous contribution to the cassava rural poor farmers in Nigeria. This award qualified me to attend one of the most prestigious American exchange programmes, African Women Entrepreneur Program (AWEP) in Washington DC.So I'm among those who have made a lot of impact in the cassava industry in the country and beyond. Because of that I were able to see many mistakes and many things that was done wrong. Together with a seasoned technologist whom I invited to share in my dream after my retirement from Ekha, we put Psaltry International together and decided to do it the way we think it should be done. So I'm not new in Agriculture.What are the challenges you envisage'The challenge of getting enough supply of cassava from the farmers. What we are planting is just about 40% of what we require. However, we are already working with the farmers and so we may not have that problem.Power, yes, we'd have issues with that, but everybody in this country is running on generator and we are going to be ahead of many because we are going to use our waste to produce energy. Once we break even, we want to use our waste to produce power.With the government rural electrification project, we'd soon have light and with that we may have more constant power because there is no other factory around here.My immediate challenge is fertilizer. My plants are turning yellow and I desperately need it.What impact would your company have on its host community'A project of this nature, no doubt, will have great impact on the community. Though we are yet to start operation, we have started making some community development efforts. I will take you round the villages to see for yourself.This community had no road here four years ago and today there is a road. Besides road, the village had no water. During the dry season, the only stream they have dries up and half of the population has elephantiasis.Our first attempt to dig a borehole for them was a wasted effort as we sunk a whooping N500,000 without success. Our equipment could not penetrate the rocks underground and we had to seek the assistance of the government.In conjunction with the government who provided the rig, we drilled a borehole for them. When we gave them the water it was a celebration, a festival. That singular pump serves the whole 20 villages around here.We have about 500 of them presently, all from this community. Farmers who would hitherto do one acre are now doing a minimum of 5 acres because we are encouraging them. We believe that with that, they would be able to feed from it and send their children to school. We are providing the input, so they don't need to scratch their head for the money. Those things which they cannot do, which is mechanization, we have brought to them.
Click here to read full news..
