Sequel to a write-up I made on the problem of Osun farmers that are beneficiaries of the Quick Intervention Programme I received a telephone call. The voice on the other side sounded full of wisdom and after listening to her position for about eight minutes I observed that there is no way a telephone conversation could make her express her mind the way she really wanted to, so I asked for her location and I booked an appointment for a one on one discussion with her at her Ireti-Ayo, Ijebu-jesa road Victoo Venture Entrepreneur complex comprising of ware houses, raw materials and bagged animal feed exposition/sales hall, a moderate sized feed mill and mixer and an administrative office.
In the ware house are bags of different materials such as cereal grains, protein meals, fats and oils, minerals, feed additives, and miscellaneous raw materials. The dominant feed grain is corn. In addition to these are by-products, such as wheat bran and rice bran, abattoir waste such as crushed bones meal and fish processing and groundnut oil by-products that are bagged as cakes (kulikuli). After the oil is extracted, the remaining residue is used as feed ingredient.
At one corner of the exposition/sales hall one can see bags of rise hulls that are the waste product of rice milling. There are also bags of breweries waste.
Victoria Oluwaseun's Victooo Venture is an enterprise that is committed to providing her numerous customers with quality animal feed ingredients and pet food ingredients by processing high-quality agricultural commodities to make nutrient-rich feed for chickens, pigs, cattle, fish and some domestic pets.
The purpose of my visit was not to site-see so after the formal introduction and exchange of pleasantries, I asked her what advise she has for Osun government on how farmers that benefitted from the agricultural loan could be able to break even and repay the loans?
She was meticulous in her response. These are her words, "I am not a politician and I don't intend to be though my father, James Taye Kujembola who passed on 15 years ago was a politician before he died and I know that sometimes I can put myself into some troubles and I don't even know how I got there.
"I just want to say things the way I think it ought to be said. Like yesterday I was having a meeting with my staff and one of them said "I have learnt a lot from you, you live a simple life, like when we expect you to bring down the heaven, you just let go and you don't shy away from saying the truth".
" I've been supplying the agricultural market with animal feedstuffs for close to two decades. During this time I've built and maintained a reputation for producing quality animal feeds by using only the best raw materials that I source locally, along with an innovative milling processes and the latest nutritional research.
"I've been in the business of feed mills for almost twenty years and recent award I got from the Ijesa Unicorn Club was based on that. Other awardees of that day included Dr. Wale Bolorunduro, Ilesa International Breweries and Ijesa Sports' Club. I have been taking awards all around and I think I merit any award being given to me. My bank gave an award, World Bank gave me a scholarship and I am still into the programme, my school gave an award for being the most inspiring student, last week Tuesday I was given a slot to appear on a live programme at 92.3 FM' Lagos. These are for you to let you know that I just don't know why I'm receiving some things.
"I am talking on behalf of feed millers. For the last twenty years that I have been in this business we have never had a government that considered our plight. Feeding is the most important factor in successful animal care. An animal will only perform at it's potential if it is fed well.l
"There was never anything being set aside for animal feeds production in Osun state. Down the history of loans being given to farmer from the time of OSADEP under Oyinlola, only crop farmers were considered and animal feeding is the key-point of animal husbandry, even the poultry farmers were not given anything. Then we have Poultry Association of Nigeria, Pig farmers, Fish farmers but they were always considering crop farmers.
"So when this government came they started a whole lots of new things there is the one they called O'Pigs, O'Fish, O'Broilers and lots of Os but where is the result. Can you raise animals without the collaboration of the animal feed millers? How much does a bag of fish feeds cost in the market today? How many of the O'Fish beneficiaries were able to break even? I just think that when you want to do things do it in a proper way. This last christmas time how many families could afford a full grown broiler fowl?
"It is the cost of feeding these animals that can finally determine their market value. .. Things are changing in meat production and I think we should understand the importance of feed millers in meat production."
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