By Gabriel Ewepu

ABUJA – AS hunger blows hard on Nigerians, an agribusiness firm, Eden Group, weekend, disclosed moves to boost food production and security with massive production of organic fertilizers, animal, and fish feeds including pharmaceuticals and confectioneries.

This was made known by the Founder, Eden Group, Dr Ashimashiga Michael Akoloaga, while pointing out that it is necessary for farmers to adopt and apply organic fertilizer based on the negative impact of synthetic fertilizers on the health of Nigerians and the soil, and added that with the 16 years of painstaking research, the Eden Group has been able to come up with agribusiness solutions including healthcare delivery.

Meanwhile, according to Akoloaga, Moringa value chain in the agricultural sector remains the biggest foreign exchange earner for Nigeria, therefore, Government and development partners should focus on it based on its huge potential to attract direct foreign investors. Currently, Nigeria is not on the world stage for Moringa production despite all its potential to become the largest and lead producer of Moringa in terms of planting, processing, and exporting.

He said: “We have also realized that to make Nigeria great and better as in the days of the old, we can only achieve that by the deliberate and determined establishment of Industries that have a direct impact to the over 200 million Nigerians, which is Eden Moringa.

“This is a Nigerian product Eden Moringa e-fertilizer. You can see the raw products here. This is chicken feed, cow dung, potash, limestone and the main extract, which is the Moringa extract, and it can produce five trailers load of organic fertilizer, and the small bags there of one kg is equivalent to producing 10 bags of the 50kg, and only one kg of that when you add it there, and that is what is showing the wonders.

“So we want to regain back our lost land nutrients as a result of synthetic or chemical fertilizer that have been polluted our environment and all over the world.

“A bag of our fertilizer, 50kg is N30,000, 25kg is N18,000, and 5kg is N5,000.

“If the farmer doesn’t have N30,000, and he or she has N15,000, they can come with a guarantor to stand for him or her while he or she pays the remaining N15,000 with instalment of N5,000 for three months.”

According to him, “We are not out there competing with anybody, and we are here to tell Nigerian farmers that the money they are spending on their farms, they can get results with Eden e-Moringa organic fertilizer, applying half of it the farmer gets more than the best that they apply a chemical fertilizer.”

Meanwhile, speaking on the Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, Eden Group signed with Lima, a Chinese Company on establishing a factory for the production of organic fertilizers and other products, he said, “In our agreement and the MoU and even most of the documents we have signed with them, they are here to make sure that they maintain this factory as long as the factory exists.

“They are the ones bringing in the machines. They are the ones who know the problems of the machines.

“If there is any problem there and our arrangement is that we are paying for their staff salary who will be managing those machines as long as we are in operation.”

Managing Director, Lima Company, Nigeria, Gatsby Kang, who acknowledged the efforts of Eden Group on boosting food production in Nigeria and Africa, also guaranteed that his company based on the MoU will not disappoint.

“As I mentioned, we have a China factory that can produce the quality parts of the machine. So at least we can guarantee because this is produced by us and we can guarantee that quality is seen.

“Training of local workers on how to use, and maintain to promote long life-span of the machines, and we have the spare parts that will arrive here in two days, and the time Eden Group needs parts, we can supply immediately, and that is all promised”, Kang added.