Travel agency facilitates agro-tourism for farmers, others

In a bid to improve the income of farmers and unlock the potentials in the agricultural sector, Hadur Travel and Tours, an international tour operator, is facilitating agro-tourism for farmers and agribusiness investors.

The need for wealth and job creation in agribusiness ventures through agro-tourism brought together farmers and entrepreneurs under the platform of Hadur Travel and Tours, recently in Lagos.

Agro tourism is the practice of utilising the art and science of producing crops and animals for aesthetics and pleasure. It could take people including farmers to attraction centres like game reserves, dams, festivals/exhibitions, farm sites /structures, among others.  Agro-tourism holds a lot of prospects for the economy.

According to Olufunke Taiwo, CEO, Hadur Travel and Tours, agro-tourism is the potential money spinner, as it leads to creation of agribusiness ventures, it is a source of wealth, using agriculture as reference point.

Taiwo says acquiring that knowledge in an environment that is suited to the environment in Nigeria and other African countries, which utilises the latest cutting-edge but simple technologies, is available on the African soil at the Songhai Centre, in Port Novo, Benin Republic. Therefore, for about three years, Hadur Travel and Tours, pioneer of agro-tourism in Nigeria, has been at the fore-front of taking knowledge-seeking tourists to this centre, and other places to acquire agribusiness knowledge.

At the centre, the intricacies of farming are practised with latest easy-to-utilise technologies. The centre was founded by Godfery Nzamujo, a Dominican reverend father, in 1985.

Speaking at the forum, Adewunmi Adeyemi, head, forest information technology, Lagos ministry of agriculture, says, “agro-tourism will afford you the opportunity to diversify your goals. The downward crash of oil the country is experiencing is the effect of building the economy around crude oil. It is what people can see to relax with so they can learn from it.”

According to Taiwo, when agro-tourists or trainees come to the Songhai Centre, they choose which aspects of the production they could adopt. Also recently in Port Novo, Benin Republic, Godfery Nzamujo advises investors to adopt an integrated approach rather than focusing on only one or two aspects of farming. He says this is to ensure that wastes in one section of the farm can be utilised as raw materials in other sections and thereby eliminate wastage and create wealth

Participants are taught on how to start, grow and improve their businesses as Hadur travels is re-branding and repositioning itself to expose all players in the agribusiness to learn how they can create their own sustainable agro-ventures and consequently help develop the untapped potentials in the sector.

Josephine Okojie