ABUAD To Generate $15 Million From Mango Plantation

Afe Babalola University Ado Ekiti (ABUAD) has started a mango plantation aimed at generating no less than Fifteen Million Dollars annually. The mango plantation which started last year has five mango species of five hundred thousand mangoes on the farm.

Speaking at the commissioning of a bridge that leads to the plantation, Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi commended the agric initiative and reiterated the commitment of his administration to generating at least 50% of its Internally Generated Revenue from the sector; adding that the Afe Babalola initiative was worth emulating.

Dr. Fayemi said the recently launched Youth Commercial Agriculture Development programme was aimed at repositioning the State as the food basket of the South-West as well as generating employment for the unemployed but creative youths in the State.

He said the effort of Aare Afe Babalola of committing such resources to the development of the State was laudable even as he described it as “an uncommon commitment to humanity”; saying that Afe Babalola University (ABUAD) represents a clear departure from the disconnect between town and gown.

“When an individual, but an individual of no mean repute, commits his resources to something that is in the overall larger interest of not just our State but also the country, it speaks volume about the character and quality of that individual and not just about the resources because we know that there are several Nigerians that are endowed with resources but they dont put the resources in this kind of thing for benefiit to the community”, he lauded.

The Proprietor of the University, Aare Afe Babalola said the University was established as a solution to decay in the education sector and to make education functional by embarking on commercial agriculture to bridge the gap between education and its effects on the society.

Babalola said the agric initiative of the University which has now focused on mango production and exporting will generate between $15 million and $20 million annually for the University.

He added that the University does not plan to process the produce into fruit juice since it already has enough market demand for the mango which can produce fruits within a year of its planting.

Last modified: May 17, 2012