By Olufunmilayo Obadina, Angela Nkwocha, Wuraola Oloruneto

Farmers in Osun State are Lagos bound, not by road but by train. The trains are packed full with all sorts of agricultural produce. The farmers mission: Sell off the produce. When they finish selling, the proceeds will be used to procure manufactured products. The trains return to Osun with the cargo. Unlike the conventional train operated by the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) which charges its passengers a fee, the Osun farmers ride in these trains free.

The Osun Farmers Trains project is an initiative of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, government of the state led by Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola but not without the collaborative efforts of the NRC. The coming on stream of the project is a fulfilled promise, ahead of the first anniversary of the coming into office of Aregbesola. On the assumption of office of the governor in November, last year, he had promised to affect the lives of the people in a way that had not been seen before.

The Osun Farmers Trains project is part of the revolution by the Aregbesola government that is sweeping through the state like a wild bush fire. The revolution is actually encapsulated in a six-point integral action plans that seek to banish hunger, banish unemployment, restore healthy living, promote functional education and enhance communal peace and progress. Excitement is everywhere in the air in the state over the farmers trains.

“The Aregbesola revolution is touching every aspect of the Osun life. But what makes the farmers trains really significant is that this a project that touches two critical sectors”, an ecstatic farmer in Oshogbo, who gave his name as Biodun Oladejo, said.

The two critical sectors referred to by the farmer are agriculture and transport. Osun no doubt has comparative advantage in agriculture, this being the occupation of a significant population of the state. The agricultural potentials of the state received further boost on the assumption of office of Aregbesola when he deployed substantial inputs and financial resources to the sector.

The question then arose: Now that Osun has enough food to eat to the point of excess, what do we do with the extra? Selling the excess naturally makes sense. Lagos has a large population and the attendant market for farm produce. This makes Lagos the target of the Osun farm produce.

And transporting the farm produce by train offers the least cost possible. This gave birth to the Osun Farmers Trains project that is set to empower the farmers, bring more manufactured products from Lagos to the state at lower prices for the people, boost the economy and ease the pressure on the roads.

For the farmers, the benefit is several fold. With the Aregbesola’s government’s priority on agriculture and food security, there is more than enough food to eat. Now, the excess will not lay waste as it has happened under successive administrations in Osun. There is a ready made market for the excess farm produce in Lagos. And transporting the farms produce from Osun is no longer a burden.

The collaborative efforts of the ACN government and the NRC has taken care of that. The icing on the cake of this offer is that the farmers are not paying a dime for the transportation. The entire cost is being borne by the state government. When the trains discharge the cargo in Lagos and the farm produce are sold, they will not return to Osun empty.

The trains will bring back the manufactured products procured with the proceeds from the farm produce. The bottom line is that the manufactured products from Lagos are transported free to Osun, thus making the items to be sold in the state at the prices obtainable in Lagos.

The process has a multiplier effect on the Osun economy. One, it puts more money in the pockets of the farmers. The more money that goes into the farmers pockets, the more tax they pay into the government coffers and the higher the state’s internally generated revenue.

Two, the project leaves the Osun people with more disposable income because manufactured products are now bought at lower prices, i.e. the Lagos prices. In the past, one government after the other in Osun had paid lip service to the issue of employment generation in the state. Aregbesola government will go down in the history of the state as one that is taking genuine steps at addressing the challenge of unemployment.

It took the bold step to take thousands of graduates in search of employment out of the streets with the Osun Youth Employment Scheme (OYES). Now, the Osun Farmers Trains will even take many more youths out of the unemployment market. The project is an invitation to the youths to build a future through modern-day farming and use it is a springboard to contribute to the development of their state.

The incentives are already in place with implements for mechanized farming and funding provided by government. And once, the farm produce are harvested, the trains are on hand to move them to Lagos markets. An elated government official in Oshogbo said the project will not only revive agriculture but will also set up the state capital (Oshogbo) as a hub of economic activities for the production, distribution and access to agricultural goods as well as manufactured items between the southern and northern parts of Nigeria.

“The Osun Farmers Trains project is designed to have multi-dimensional impact on the economy of several states adjoining Osun”, the official said. He added: “For this purpose, 40 dedicated wagons have been procured by the Osun government to evacuate the agricultural produce to Lagos and return with manufactured products to Osun free of charge to farmers and business people. A huge business hub will then be constructed as a mid-market where traders from the north or east or even adjoining states to Osun will come more conveniently to shop for goods in Oshogbo at Lagos price, instead of going all the way to Lagos”.

According to him, the impact of the scheme is that it will boost agriculture and create employment opportunities by attracting many idle hands from the cities to the villagers to participate in the opportunities that the agro-based businesses will create as investment in that sector is expected to increase.

“The bottom line in all these is the creation of wealth and opportunities for Osun citizens which the Aregbesola government is building”, the official said, quoting the governor as saying that when the economic hub is completed in Oshogbo, it will be the first of its kind in West Africa.

“This will reinvent Oshogbo in the world economic map – a credit that will go to the Osun ACN government and its revolutionary governor”, the official stressed. Another feature of the Farmers Trains project is the direct impact it will have on the haulage sector which has practically destroyed the roads network in the country.

The Osun government official said: “Another spin-off from the project is that it will largely unburden the road of its heavy traffic. This crystallizes from the first consignment of 600 tonnes of cement which started off simultaneously with the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the state government and the NRC a few weeks back. Each haulage consignment is the equivalent of 25 trailers.

“With 25 trailers taken off the roads this way, our roads will have a longer lifespan. That is just one cement consignment not to talk of numerous other food produce the dedicated wagons will haul to and fro Lagos.”

Revolutionizing the agriculture and transport sectors,the Osun Farmers Trains project, among other landmark projects, may, as well, be a befitting 365th day gift for the people of the state as the Aregbesola government marks its first year in office on November 27.