Agricultural firm, Tedama farms Limited, has unveiled the first of its kind green house farm in Elebele Communitiy in Ogbia Council Area of Bayelsa State.
Speaking with newsmen during a tour of the farm, Managing Director of the company, Barr. Ebelema Terry Danadana, stated that the farm was made of locally sourced materials.
He noted that as against the common practice whereby most Nigerian farmers import equipments needed for greenhouse farms from China and other countries, his farm spared no efforts in sourcing for these materials in the country, just as he reiterated that upon the use of the locally sourced materials, the farm was already yielding the expected results.
Danadana, who also doubles as the Chairman of the SPDC’s owned Kolo Creek Cluster Development Board (KCDB) while restating his desire towards creating jobs for the teeming unemployed youths through his firm mentioned that the Tedama farms was his second farm.
He averred that alongside the green house farms in which he has planted varieties of pepper, he also has commenced the rearing of no fewer than 30,000 fingerlings of different specie of fish, has over ten thousand birds in his poultry farm as well as has started a snail farm, amongst others.
The Tide learnt that greenhouse farming is the growing of plants and vegetable crops in a structure with walls and a roof made of transparent materials and that the interior of a greenhouse when exposed to sunlight is warmer than the external temperature, protecting the plants from extreme conditions.
While calling on government and its institutions to make available incentives in terms of funds for farmers to enable them expand their farms for the purposes of food production and job creation, the Tedama CEO/MD revealed that he currently has no fewer than ten employees under the payrole of the farm, stressing that as the farm progresses, he would engage additional workforce.
“This is my second farm. It’s situated on a twenty-two(22) plots of land for a start. But we actually started in 2014. Today we’ve more than 30,000 fingerlings of various types of fishes.
“As you can see, we also have Green House farms made of locally sourced materials, as against importation of materials needed for it from China and other parts of the world. We’ve planted green pepper, red, etc.
“We’ve a snail farm with hatchery. We’ve commenced the Construction of the administrative building for the staffs of our farms and God willing as time progresses we shall be engaging more workforce for this farm so that the world would see and know that as a state, Bayelsans have started getting it right in farming. This is our vision as a firm”, he said.
“I call on the government to ensure that whenever agricultural loans and other incentives for farmers are disbursed that they get to the genuine farmers who need them so that they can enlarge and diversify their farming business and create jobs for people as well as make food sufficiently available for Bayelsa state in particular and Nigeria in general.
“I want to task the youths and any unemployed person not to be waiting for the white collar jobs which are not forthcoming. They should engage in agriculture and overtime they’ll be glad they did”, he added.

By: Ariwera Ibibo-Howells, Yenagoa