The director general of the Oyo State Agribusiness Development Agency, Debo Akande, on Friday said the state government had intensified efforts to reduce post-harvest losses and strengthen the agricultural value chain.

In an interview in Ibadan, Mr Akande stated that post-harvest losses, estimated at about 40 per cent in Nigeria, remained a major challenge. He listed factors responsible for post-harvest losses as poor rural infrastructure, distance to markets, and inadequate storage systems.

“Lack of rural infrastructure, especially roads, is one of the major causes of post-harvest losses. Farmers are unable to move perishable goods immediately, and even non-perishables are often stored in unsafe conditions,” he said.

Mr Akande said that the state government had commenced the construction of 1,200 kilometres of feeder roads to open remote communities and improve farm-to-market movement.

He also said that the road projects were part of a strategic plan to unlock agrarian communities and link them to processing centres and industrial hubs.

According to him, the initiative is in addition to the construction of major inter-community roads, which the administration has embarked on to support agribusiness investments.

He identified some of the major roads as those linking Fashola, Shaki and Oyo, adding that they were designed to connect farmers to industrial clusters.

Mr Akande said the state was also establishing aggregation centres in communities to allow farmers to temporarily store produce and reduce spoilage.

He said the state had adopted a demand-driven approach to agriculture, attracting at least 16 medium-scale processing factories between 2019 and 2025, to serve as primary markets for farmers.

“These centres and factories have become major off-takers. One factory alone has over 3,000 cassava farmers supplying raw materials. For perishables like tomatoes, pepper and banana, processors now operate closer to production communities,” the OYSADA boss said.

Mr Akande said further that the government had also established agribusiness transformation centres and industrial hubs to promote processing and export-oriented value addition.

He said eight processing factories were currently operating within the Fashola Agribusiness Hub, with more facilities under development for livestock, cassava, and produce processing.

Mr Akande said that the state was complementing infrastructure with capacity-building for farmers in post-harvest handling, storage, and quality control.

He said that the government had also prioritised gender inclusion, setting a 30 per cent minimum quota for women beneficiaries across all agricultural interventions.

“Out of the 16 new processing factories, five are owned by women. At the Fashola hub alone, two of the factories and one cashew farm are operated by women,”he said.

Mr Akande added that the state was running targeted women-focused initiatives, including the WATEA agribusiness programme supported by the French government, implemented at LAUTECH and Oyo State College of Agriculture and Technology.

“We are not only involving women at farm levels, but also at the level of industrial participation. This is deliberate because economic empowerment of women has a direct impact on rural development,” he said.

Mr Akande reiterated that Oyo state would continue to strengthen agribusiness systems, attract investments and reduce post-harvest losses as part of efforts to ensure food security and boost rural incomes.

(NAN)