By Ayo Oyoze Baje
Quote
“We must rebrand farming to make it fun and profitable”
–
Dr. Moji Davids ( MD, Xtralarge Farms and Resorts )
Call it the power of passion, the voice of vision and the results of resilience by reaping thereof, if you like, or simply refer to it as the positive mentality of seeing only possibilities where others complain about persisting problems you are absolutely right on point. That is, as the wave-making, XtraLarge Farms and Resorts has beautifully evolved to epitomize all these, and more.
For hosting the first-ever World Agritourism Festival, a 90- day event which runs from May 16 to August 12, 2025 in the Centre of Excellence, Lagos state Nigeria, one is not surprised by the soaring waves of accolades from the state and federal governments, the Abike-Dabiri-led Diaspora Commission in addition to the much excited private sector and enlightened individuals as well. What more, Dr. Seyi Davids and Moji Davids, the Chief Executive Officer, CEO and Managing Director,MD respectively of XtraLarge Farms and Resorts are innovatively busy rewriting the history of agriculture with purely organic food items, along with tourism, entertainment while still promoting real estate business. In fact, so delighted was the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, that he gleefully commended Xtralarge Farms and Resorts for launching that epochal event. According to him, this initiative is seen as a boost to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s “Renewed Hope Agenda”.
The epoch-making festival has the salutatory aims to rebrand and promote sustainable agriculture, attract youth to the sector, and rebrand agriculture as a modern and attractive field through tourism. It features the Wealthinaires Convention, investment opportunities, and networking events. It also includes farm tours, food experiences, and cultural displays. The event is aimed at fostering rural development and preserving cultural heritage.
In specific terms, the Wealthinaires Convention is
a core highlight of the festival, by gathering top minds and impact-driven leaders in the agricultural and tourism sectors. That is for the cross pollination of ideas on moving the food security sector forward. Also, through the Farm Tours visitors can explore XtraLarge Farms and learn about their innovative farming practices and the sustainable solutions they provide. While the Food and Cultural Experiences festival offers opportunities to enjoy local cuisine, discover traditional crafts, and experience the rich culture of Lagos the
Investment Opportunities are keys that open the festival to investors. Besides all these, it aims to connect investors with promising agricultural ventures and promote economic empowerment in rural communities. On its part, the Global Outreach involves international editions of the festival, planned for the United Kingdom, UK, Canada, Australia, Dubai, and Central Europe. But there is more to the attention – grabbing festival.
Interestingly, the Wealthinaires Convention which took place at the Balmoral Convention Center, Ikeja, Lagos brought great minds together to key into the vision of the history — making festival with highly inspiring testimonies from some active members of the XtraLarge Farms family. For instance, a young lady who left the banking world to invest a meagre fifteen thousand naira (N15,000) back in 2018 openly confessed that she has made over Ten million from XtraLarge Farms and Resorts since then. That was even as it was announced that there was another cheque of One million, two hundred thousand (N1,200,000) waiting for her on that memorable day. Some others praised the company for the effectiveness of the organic food items that have healed them of one debilitating disease or the other, including diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney challenges.
Worthy of note is one significant factor that has stood the company out in good stead and that is integrity. It holds its words of promises and pledges in high esteem. It has never violated that sacred element of Trust. And that has garnered a lot of respect from individuals and investors across the social spectrum, from across the globe. That makes a great impact on its business transactions and pragmatic partnerships it has being engaged in over the decades. So, July 11th, 2025:slated for the Grand Summit, Awards, and Gala Night at the Marriott Hotel, Ikeja would furthermore strengthen its cardinal objectives.
These of course, include the promotion of sustainable agriculture and food security.
the boosting of rural development and economic empowerment to the investors. In addition, is the
preservation of cultural heritage, to showcase Nigeria’s agricultural potential to the world and attract investment and partnerships in the agricultural sector. Also, it would encourage youth and Diaspora involvement in agriculture.
To underscore the importance of marrying agriculture ( business and food security) with tourism and entertainment ( pleasure), a feat which XtraLarge Farms and Resorts has achieved, in 2024 alone Nigeria experienced a surge in tourism, particularly during the “Detty December” period as it is fondly called which saw a record-breaking revenue of N111.5 billion, with an estimated 1.2 million visitors, including both international and domestic tourists. It means that both Travel and tourism contributed 3.9% to Nigeria’s GDP in 2024, generating around ₦9.55 trillion (approximately $14.8 billion). That is awesome.
So, one can imagine how those figures would increase as XtraLarge Farms and Resorts intends to attract one million visitors to the Agritech City, at Idiroko every year. With that, Nigeria will begin to rub shoulders with South Africa, the USA, Ghana, the UK, and Germany which were among the top countries with visitors to Nigeria in 2024. Notable is that in the same year France ranked first with 102 million tourists, followed by
Spain with 93.8 million tourists and the
United States, 72.4 million tourists. So, what lessons should we learn from these fascinating experiences?
We all-as individuals and organizations – should understand and deploy,as the Davids have done to pursue our vision to its logical conclusion, no matter how high the hurdles we have to scale over might be. We should understand the importance of the bringing together of like minds who share in that same vision with us. And eventually, it pays being a good manager of people, money and materials, breathing the spirit of communality and seeing it as a family business..Above all, ” the secret of success is constancy of purpose” as Benjamin Disraeli aptly stated and as the duo of the Davids have rightly done.