French companies to partner with Kwara in Agriculture – Official

January 25, 2021

French representative in West Africa, Dr. Sonia Darracq has disclosed that French private companies would partner with Kwara government in different fields of agriculture – livestock, agricultural equipment and machinery and other value chains.

Darracq, who is the Regional Agricultural Counsellor for Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria, and Togo at the French Embassy, made the disclosure during her visit to Kwara State.

She described the recently launched Kwara State Agricultural Transformation Plan (2020-2030) as “the best possible strategic plan in terms of agribusiness development”.

“As the business environment is safe in Kwara, some French companies are already willing to start building a win-win public-private-partnerships in areas related to livestock (veterinary, feeding, processing, logistics, etc); agricultural equipment and machinery for all value chains (processing, packaging, cold chain, etc.); irrigation systems: expansion (technical cooperation) and equipment; post harvest issues and agrologistic hubs,” she added.

Darracq noted “Developing a network of agro-logistic hubs could drastically decrease post-harvest losses, contribute to structuring agricultural sectors and improve food safety and security”.

Darracq, who toured parts of the state in company of the Technical Assistant to the Governor on Agric, Abdulquawiy Olododo, explained that the cooperation in Technical Agriculture Education between the French Network of Technical Agriculture Colleges and the similar institutions in Kwara, mainly ARMTI, will be strengthened.

She said the partnership will also involve several stakeholders within and outside the academic, including in the area of vocational trainings.

Darracq recalled that collaboration with Kwara State started in February 2020 when Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq attended the Paris International Agriculture Show.

Her words: “When the Governor visited the Paris International Agriculture Show in February 2020, we then had the opportunity to exchange ideas about the many agricultural sectors France and Kwara State may be interested in working together. But our activities were distracted by the critical consequences of the pandemic on a huge part of the population in Nigeria.

“However, working ways reorganised and reinvented, and when he recently visited the French Ambassador, His Excellency proposed to begin working on our cooperation in the agribusiness sector by a visit of the French Agriculture Counsellor to Kwara State.”