DEBO THOMAS is the founder of Hastom Nigeria – an agro-allied firm that is into the cultivation of cashew and livestock, based in Ogbomosho, Oyo state. Debo in this interview tells JOSEPHINE OKOJIE that the country will only reap the full benefits from cashew production when it starts adding value to the crop.
What inspired the establishment of Hastom Farms?
In 2010, I was into sales of computers and phones in a school environment and anytime the students are on strike, I do not get to make any sales because they were my major customers. In the search for a business that is not LATECH determined, I went into poultry business but the investment failed because I went into the business without an adequate understanding of the sector. I noticed that lots of people who were interested in agriculture are mostly from the city and their major problem is farmland and in Ogbomosho, we have abundant land.
So, I started by helping people to purchase land. Our first client then was a Nigerian based in South Africa who wanted to venture into agriculture. We acquired about 100 hectares and in less than 2months we sold the entire land and from then I was convinced that land sales for agriculture was the right business for me at that point. In 2015, I had a customer who contacted me through Nairaland -a popular online platform in Nigeria, where I usually advertise the farmlands we sell. He contacted me because I stay in Ogbomosho and he wanted to buy cashew from here since Oyo state has good quality cashew nuts. I took him around the major warehouses and we could not get enough cashews to buy. Going around the town with him in search of the crop made me realise that there is a huge demand-supply gap, this prompted me to further research on the crop and I realise that demand far out weights supply. I started investigating to know why Nigerians are not investing in cashew production. I found out that people do not want to tie down their investment for a long time since cashew is a long term crop. In 2015, I decided to venture into cashew cultivation to bridge the gap. Today, we have cultivated cashew trees on 550 acres and we have 430 herds of cattle. Also, we have sold about 3,000 farmlands.
Why are Nigerians not investing in cashew processing?
Nigerians are not investing in cashew processing because it is capital intensive and the enabling infrastructures to aid production are lacking. Banks are still not willing to lend to the sector especially for crops which are long term. Also, adequate attention is not being given to the cultivation of the crop like other crops. The government needs to give cashew cultivation the kind of attention it is giving to other crops.
How can Nigeria reap its full benefits in cashew production?
Value addition is the only way we can reap the full benefit in the cultivation of cashew in the country. We need to start processing raw cashew nuts because that is where the real benefit is. This is why Hastom is planning to start processing its cashew nuts for export. We have been growing our production to have enough to feed our processing plant when it comes on stream next year. To expand our production we launched an online platform where people can also invest in cashew plantations and trees.
Why are youths not finding agriculture attractive and what can the government do to ensure youths take up agric as a profession?
Farmers in the rural areas engaged in agriculture are very poor because most of them do not get any value addition since the whole primary production is still entangled in poverty with the issue of low productivity and high time spent on farmlands. This makes youth not take agriculture as a profession even those that study courses on agriculture. The crude way of farming in the country is another reason why youths do not find agriculture attractive. The government must develop mechanisation and give the youths access to lands with this agriculture becomes attractive for youths. We need innovation to do farming differently from the older generation of farmers who were mostly entangled in poverty.
