As Utomi takes a leap of faith and fate...

With the drastic fall in earnings from crude oil, Nigeria's only hope of getting out of the current economic quagmire is to seek alternative means of earning forex to bridge the huge gap between demand and supply.

Agriculture is, perhaps, one sure means of achieving this more expeditiously, given the availability of arable land and human labor.

With his Integrated Produce City (IPC), due for flag off tomorrow near Benin, Edo State, Prof. Utomi is not only making one of the most strategic moves towards the pursuit of forex earning via the export of agricultural products, he's also showing the right way to farm-which ensures the right crops are grown for maximum yield and optimally harvested and moved to silos for local consumptions and packaging for export.

With IPC, Utomi, a Development Economist, is set to practice what he's been preaching over the years at the Lagos Business School (LBS), Pan African Unversity (PAU), and indeed in the media and in lecture circuits.

Just imagine if another 5 IPCs, one per geopolitical zone, are set up across Nigeria! Jobs will be created in millions, food will be produced in abundance and forex will be earned in earnest.

Well done, Prof. Pat Utomi! Congratulations Nigeria!

http://guardian.ng/business-services/centre-to-launch-integrated-produce-city/

Pat Utomi to launch Integrated Produce City

The Centre for Value and Leadership (CVL) an organisation with the goal to equip youths with values and leadership skills, which would make them more effective and serve as catalyst for improvement of quality of life is set to launch its agriculture initiative tagged the Integrated Produce City (IPC).

Founder of the Centre, Pat Utomi made this known while speaking at an international conference on agriculture with the theme: ”Back to agriculture” in Lagos recently. He said the turning of the sod of the project might be the biggest value machine to enter the agric space in Nigeria for decades.

According to him, the goals of the Integrated Produce City in Edo State is to reduce waste in the agriculture value chain to its barest minimum, optimise efficiencies of a cluster model and enhance distribution of logistic for both local consumption and exports.

“The initiative would improve access to know how and market information for farmers and manufacturers, create both financial end products markets through commodities exchange on ground and electronic trading platforms, as well as, boost small holders’ productivity through extension service provision and out-grower programme to be deployed”.

Utomi said the centre plans that the value chains of Cassava, Palm Produce, Yam and Corn will inspire farmers and stimulate production in the five states of Ondo, Ekiti, Kogi, Edo, Delta and Anambra, which constitute the catchment areas for the IPC, while another in Oyo would service Lagos, Oyo, Ogun and a third in Niger state to service Abuja, the federal capital territory.