By Editor
Awesome and mind boggling could rightly described the experience of the DG Bureau of Tourism Development Amb. Wale Ojo-Lanre and his team who on Tuesday, went on a voyage of discovery into yet another tourist potential in Ekiti State in the area of agric tourism .
This followed a scheduled inspection of Aquatem Global Farm, a fishery research center located in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital on Tuesday.
The proprietor of the expansive world class research institute Dr. Ebenezer Temitope Adebayo gave a good account of himself as an accomplished PhD in Hydrobiology and Fisheries as he took his visitors round his state of the art research facility which specializes in fish rearing, processing and smoking for local and international markets.
The fish farm comprises 6 standard fish ponds where fishes of different shapes and sizes were kept, a hatchery, a processing room and an ovum.
According to Emure Ekiti born zoologist; “This farm is a research Farm where we are trying to see how to put things right in the world of Aquaculture and Fishery. We sited it in Ekiti State to see how we can give the people of Ekiti and the environs adequate information about the best practices on how to grow fish”.
He explained that fish can be eaten without any health implications if normal procedures are followed during the processing.
His words: “After bringing out the fish from the water, what is the next? The next thing is to eat the fish with your health preserved on one hand and secondly that our environment is not degraded for optimisation and eco-balancing. For example, the fish we produce here is not aided by any addictives or suppliments and totally carcinogenic free for consumption”
On his projection for the research institute, Adebayo who doubles as the Chairman Association of Aquaculture and Fishery in Ekiti disclosed that one of his lofty dreams is to put Ekiti State on the global community in terms of fish production.
“From the foundation, we’ve been able to have what the international requirement is. I’m a consultant to the Fisheries Society of Nigeria as a professional member and so the knowledge and rudiments to go about it was not the problem. That is why we started from the genesis: from the construction of the farm. If you look at our environment, we don’t disturb the public and we try to control everything that is coming from here including the water level. So easily the projection for international market is not a problem at all”
However, he lamented the major challenge facing the farm which he identified as environmental challenge due to flooding.
“Ureje River had been helpful but the labour of one year can be swept off in one day. Although the channelization has been done, but it was not sufficient because the water still outflows its bank and when this happens, we are always at the receiving end leading to heavy losses. The other threat is what we can handle. On the other, hand the environment is largely under utilized because the funding is coming from one man, we don’t really have enough funds but we are managing with the little we have.
Responding, the DG Bureau of Tourism Development applauded the ingenuity of the research center for the great initiative of putting together the magnificent structure to boost food production and Agric tourism in the State.
“Ekiti remains the hub of tourism and the government of Mr Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji has been intentional in boosting Tourism potentials in Ekiti State following the creation of Bureau of Tourism Development to tap the various unexplored tourism landmarks readily available in the state such as mountain hike, heritage tourism, religious tourism, education tourism and this is Agric tourism to mention just a few”
