‘Govt should make agric more attractive to boost food security’

By Chinyere Anyanwu       [email protected]

The Federal Government has been urged to make agriculture more attractive to Nigerians to boost sufficiency and ensure food security in the country.

The Managing Director, Xtralarge Farms & Resort, Dr. Moji Davids, who gave the advice while speaking on The Morning Show on Arise Television, also called on Nigerians to take advantage of the several untapped business opportunities in agriculture.

Davids disclosed this while shedding light on the evolution of Xtralarge Farms and Resorts which metamorphosed from being a farm to a tourist and real estate investment destination in the country.

According to her, Xtralarge Farms is set up to raise a generation of passionate farmers to feed the country and the world at large with healthy natural products and provide a sustainable platform for financial empowerment to its members through the food and agricultural business. As the pioneer digital farming in Nigeria in 2015, Xtralarge Farms and Resorts also provided opportunities to people to participate actively in farming in a more dignifying form.

“Xtralarge Farms and Resorts is gradually becoming a destination for relaxation and unique experiences. We came into existence as an agricultural business with the aim of producing foods that are free of chemicals which pose serious dangers to the human system and have evolved into a major destination for tourism with huge prospects for real estate investment in the area of holiday homes establishment in the resort,” she said.

Speaking on the vision of Xtralarge Farms and Resorts, Mrs. Davids said Xtralarge Farms and Resorts was established to produce foods that are free of chemicals because there is a lot of damage and hazards which chemicals bring to the body system.

“We want to ensure that people have quality, natural food products. With our experience over the years, we have discovered that to be a very profitable farmer you need to have an accommodation facility in the farm because every time we farm we have to go home and before we come back a lot of things would have happened, including stealing, and even the workers need a lot of supervision.

So we decided to have a place where we can stay on the farm, relax and not miss home.”

Davids revealed that Xtralarge Farms was set up to redefine the practice of agriculture in Nigeria in order to stimulate the interest of  young Nigerians in farming. “As a nation, if we try to wear a new apparel for agriculture; not just presenting the hardship side alone, we will be able to stimulate the interest of most people in agriculture.

That’s what led to the establishment of the resorts.

“It’s been carefully named resorts not just an hotel but it is situated in a farm. All the comfort people have in their houses have been duplicated here. We place so much priority on ensuring the quality of the facilities we have there and the experience you get when you come there. Don’t forget that it’s a farm resort; apart from all the fun, we also ensure we take you on a tour of the farm where you not only see all farm animals, we also tell you the process. We also have some mini processing plants where, by yourself you can make some garri, palm oil. So you experience it – you go to milk the cow, to feed the rabbits because we want to arouse the interest of people in farming. We have a goal to attract at least one million visitors to the resorts every year.”

She explained further that Xtralarge Farms and Resorts also offers unique opportunity for home ownership.  “A lot of people love the idea of real estate but at the end of the day most people just end up buying the house and they lock it. Or you buy a house with the aim of renting it out to tenants but you don’t really get as much as you expect from rentals. But at Xtralarge, a commercial city, a tourist centre, a lot of people are coming in for different reasons. We have a package that makes you have a holiday home. You own the home and at the same time it is an investment for you. You can authorise us to give out your house to vacationers and you earn money,” she explained