Page 66 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 9

FEATURES

it’s quite a stringent process.

You have to first get approval from
the National Drug Law Enforce-
ment Agency, to ensure that it’s not
psychoactive. Then we have to get
approval from the National Agricul-
tural Seed Council, to say that these
are non-psychoactive hemp seeds.
It’s taking time, but it’s my sincerest
prayer that they realize that if we get
on this it’s going to present us with
unique and tremendous economic
opportunities for growth. There are
so many sectors that can benefit: the
transport sector, the garment sector,
the health sector, the construction
sector. Why are we continuing to
build with materials which are a vio-
lation of our natural environment?

If we begin to use stuff like hemp
and natural building materials which
We have put consideration into the and so on. enable our buildings to have natural
propagation, the taste, whether it aeration, we will see that our energy
changes color when cut, whether it Aside from yam, a crop I’m real- costs reduce. It will require individ-
mounds perfectly when pounded ly excited about and see in it the uals across the country to begin to
and so on. It is very clean, with next potential to create employment sing the gospel of hemp and the
to no chemicals and maintains its as well as build wealth is hemp, opportunities it presents and once
white color when cut because its industrial hemp. There’s marijuana, that’s done, I feel that there will be
natural secretions protect it. The which is psychoactive, and hemp large scale adoption. It’s a crop I’m
farmers call it a miracle yam and which is not. This is a trillion-dollar very excited about.
have spread the word to various crop and we have the land, people
farmers to the point where it has and water resources available to Whichever Afrikan country
reached Ghana and farmers there grow this thing large scale. It has a embraces hemp as a first
have reached out. We are now ready plethora of uses: you can use it as a mover is going to dominate.
to scale across the board on a large fuel source, it can be processed into
scale. supplements, into a protein, into We really need to think
animal feed, into fiber, into building about that. It’s the easiest
The yam value chain is worth close material, CBD oil as well, which can crop to manage.
to $13 billion. With inputs such also be used to treat critically ill and Absolutely. Most importantly we
as seeds, it will take it close to $19 clothing. It presents us with so many must begin to take care of our natu-
billion. It’s a huge opportunity and opportunities for growth. ral environment, we have to pre-
seeds are just a subsector of the serve our natural ecosystems. Why
overall value chain. We are current- Is the Nigerian government are we cutting down trees when
ly working on innovative methods open to farming hemp? we can grow hemp? It takes three
for storage and ensuring that with It’s something they’re starting to pay months to grow and cultivate and
adequate storage we can do proper close attention to; there have been that can be used as an alternative to
processing and export as well to a few governors who have been paper and all the materials our trees
countries where you have a huge Di- harping on the economic opportu- provide us with. This is something
aspora. Yam is also a staple amongst nities that hemp can bring. We are we can grow and preserve our trees.
people of Afrikan descent in central actually in the process as a company;
and South America, the Caribbean Our trees essentially keep us alive

66 | Heal . restore . rebirth . Afrika