By Fatima Muraina

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Ondo state government has said that it will commission the pilot phase of its farmers’ market which gulped N30 million in November 2023.

 The Special Assistant to the Governor on Agric and Agric business, Pastor Akin Olotu disclosed this in an interview with The Hope shortly after the  training organised for livestock farmers on feed formulation and alternative source of feed ingredient held in Akure, the Ondo state capital.

Olotu said the market will be handed over to the farmers after the commissioning for proper management, charging them to produce more and diversify their farming operations to make the market more functional when it commences full operation in November.

“The farm belongs to the farmers, they bring their produce there, there is no middle man or middle woman there.

“At the end of the entire process or cycle, you discover that the consumers are able to access and buy at a cheaper price because the cost of the middle men activities will not be there.

He said it will also, assist agro allied industries because instead of going from one location to another or from one farm to another looking for what to buy, people would have a special place where they can buy what they want.

“There will be two-way communication between buyers and sellers. It will even facilitate in-marketing because in the market, there will be an administrative office such that when you buy even for export, you can contact them about when you will be coming to pick your goods from  the market and the person in charge of the market will be able to send message to the farmers that somebody is interested in this product and he or she will be around at the communicated date and time.

“You can make online booking even when you are outside the country,” he further explained.

According to him, the farmers market advantages includes good price, good market information, quality product, good data for the state which we can use to plan.”

According to him, the market project is the Governor’s initiative, where Agribusiness is market-driven where what you are producing has a market in view in terms of who is buying, what they want to buy, the quantity, the variety and some other things.

” It is a market owned by farmers in the state which is going to be in the 18 local government so that when you produce, the one in Akure is going to be the central one.” he noted.

 The market, he further expressed, will add value to what they are doing and it will enable them work as a cooperative and at the end, both producers and processors will make their profits.

“The market is different from shasha market, shasha market is a satellite market for producers in another region of the country.

“We are not competing with them , but we believe that we can organize our farmers”, he declared.