By Olalekan Ola
About 150 million naira palm tree and pineapple farm has been gutted by fire at the Royal Farms on Friday at Akeredolu Village in Atakunmosa West Local Government Area, Osu, Osun State. The inferno was said to have been caused by suspected hunters from neighborhood farm.
Mr Rufus Jegede said this at a press conference on Sunday, noted that the inferno was suspected to have been caused by some individuals who put fire on the farm with a clandestine motive known to them.
Rufus who is the Director and founder of the Royal Farms, said he came to Akeredolu in 2015 to establish the farm, noting that he retired as a Chartered and Forensic Accountant as well as Tax expert.
He explained that the fire razed about 40,000 palm tree, 5 acres of land of pineapple
“On Friday, we suddenly discovered that the farm has been gutted by fire. We discovered that fast majority of the farm had been burnt down. About 40,000 palm trees were lost with 5 acres of land of pineapple. The neighbors did nothing to stop the fire incident but stopped the fire from entrying their farms.
“This suggests that some people conspired to put fire on the farm. The action is intensional and deliberate to put fire on our farm. This is the third term fire outbreak would happen in the farm. The fire occured at the extreme end of the farm and extended to the whole farm.
“More than 50 acres of the farm was burn down, estimated about 150 million naira palm tree and pineapple farm. This will affect this year’s harvest because it affected the palm tree and all the pineapple were totally destroyed”, Rufus said.
He said one suspect identified as Sunday has been arrested by the police, Osu division in Atakunmosa West Local Government, adding that the suspect would soon be prosecuted.
He added that the man arrested had been terrorizing the environment for long, stealing farm produce in the farm. “He has been trespassing here, who lived at Ololude village. Everybody knows him as monster in this area”.
Speaking on the contribution of agriculture to food sufficiency in Nigeria, Rufus said agriculture played significant role in the nation’s food sufficiency, adding that the level of people’s involvement in agriculture is not encouraging which caused the present food crisis the nation is experiencing.
He said that the farm generated employment of about 30 workers in the farm. “We had contributed in term of reducing unemployment in the country to reduce food insufficient in the country.
“The farm involves in animal husbandry, pig rearing, palm oil production, pineaple, cattle rearing among other farm produce”, he declared.
Speaking further, he said the youths are not interested in farming but wanted to get rich overnight without doing any job. This is not good for the nation’s economy. “They are not interested in farming job. The youths are not ready to do any job but wanted to cut corner”.
Rufus added that government needs to review its policy on agriculture. “The government policy on agriculture is only existed in the media. There is no more agriculture settlement and trade centres in the country. So, agriculture in this country is on radio and television. People are not investing in agriculture”, he said.
“No government agency came here to ask for what is happening here. Government does not invest in agriculture and every farmer needs government support. Therefore, government needs to support farmers in order to free from the food crisis facing the country”.
