The Nation Newspaper

Category: Agriculture

  • How to boost shea butter export

    A member of the Nigerian-Vietnam Business Association, Sunny Anjorin, has  called on the Federal Government to establish Shea tree plantations to boost the economy and export growth.

    Nigeria presently makes about $320 million from export of 445 metric tonnes of Shea butter, according to available information, but could earn up to $500 million from 1million metric tonnes if it harnesses its huge potential.

    Anjorin said the establishment of more plantations would encourage Nigerians  to engage more in the business.

    Income from the business, he believed, would empower majority of the people, who live below the poverty line.

    Shea butter production is common in 19 states, but is found in huge quantities in Niger, Kwara, Kebbi, Kaduna, Kogi, Benue, Ogun and Oyo states.

    He   said the future of investing in Shea butter is huge and urged more investors to explore huge opportunities in the sector.

    Following Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research’s (NIFOR’s) feat   on Shea tree, he  said it has gestation period  has been from between 15 and 30 years to seven years before it starts fruiting.

    He noted that there is a growing demand for shea butter and allied products across the globe but meeting the demand has been problematic because of the numerous problems facing the shea industry in the country.

    Shea tree grows in several African countries such as Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Sudan, Guinea, Central African Republic, Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia, Benin, Togo, Cameroon, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo.

    Of the estimated over 680,000 metric tonnes of shea nuts produced annually in West Africa, Nigeria accounts for over 370,000 metric tonnes, or 53 per cent of the capacity, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria.

  • FIIRO trains women, youths in fish export

    To address the unemployment, youths and women across the  country are undergoing training at the Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi (FIIRO) on fish smoking technology aimed at equipping them for export of dry fish.

    Speaking during the opening of the  workshop on ‘Fish Smoking Technology’ (Batch B) in Lagos, FIIRO Director-General/CEO, Prof Gloria Elemo,  disclosed that at the end of the training, participants would have armed themselves with the requisite knowledge to produce high quality smoked fish for the local and foreign market.

    Elemo noted that unemployment should have no room considering the great potential and abundant human/natural resources available in the country.

    She pointed out that FIIRO will soon start implementing its various job creating strategies in collaboration with some other agencies aimed at reducing unemployment to the barest minimum in the country.

    “One of such programmes is the national Techno-entrepreneurship Development Initiative, an initiative designed by FIIRO with the support of the Federal Government of Nigeria,” she said. According to her, this initiative has the capacity to train two million unemployed youths and women annually at full implementation, in addition to various numbers of small and medium enterprises that will grow there from.

    “The training could be conceived one of the immediate intervention programme of the federal government to reduce unemployment through empowerment of youths and women who in turn would graduate to be job providers rather than job seekers,” Elemo added.

  • Creating opportunities for IDPs through agric

    United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Nigeria and British-American Tobacco Foundation are creating business and employment opportunities for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Northeast through agriculture, writes DANIEL ESSIET.

    Building on its work in meeting early-recovery needs of conflict-affected populations in the Northeast, the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) Nigeria  has supported farmers with inputs to help them resgain their lost livelihoods.

    Over 600 farmers were supported with seeds, fertiliser and insecticide in Ngwom community in Mafa Local Government Area in Borno State.

    The intervention was part of UNDP Nigeria’s integrated community stabilisation package which  used Ngwom as its pilot scheme.

    The government of Japan is supporting the project, which has been providing agricultural inputs for rainy season farming, irrigation, livestock farming and fishery to about 1,700 farmers in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe states.

    In Adamawa, more than 200 farmers received inputs. Most of the beneficiaries are Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Borno State while others are from host communities.

    The private sector has keyed into the project.

    One of such organisations is British-American Tobacco Nigeria (BATN) Foundation that has unfolded a rural-friendly programme for IDPs to access agriculture support services and entrepreneurship.

    Hajia Halima Ahamda is a beneficiary. A widow with three children from Tarila District of Yola South Local Government Area of Adamawa State, she and her kinsmen and women migrated to Yola in 2015, after being displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency.

    Mrs Ahamda is a peasant farmer, who cultivated crops and kept livestock before the attack.

    Last year, BATN Foundation, in collaboration with Adamawa State FADAMA III AF, supported her and 999 IDPs through its livelihood support project.

    She was trained in livestock best practices, and given one male and three female goats.

    One year after, she is celebrating her success because the female goats have produced seven kids, with others pregnant.

    Mrs Ahamda said she would sell the animals and use the money to solve her domestic needs, such as paying her children’s school fees and expanding her agriculture enterprise.

    Mrs Ahamda is not the only one  BATN Foundation has touched. Mallam Jubril Shuaibu is another beneficiary. A native of Ganana Tinja Village in Fika Local Government Area of Yobe State, in 2014, he was among those displaced by the Boko Haram crisis.

    His property was destroyed. Without any means of livelihood, he and his family were forced to stay at IDPs camp at Damaturu.

    BATN Foundation collaborated with the International Food and Agriculture Development Climate Adaptation and Agribusiness Support Programme (IFAD-CASP) Yobe State office, last year, to implement a livelihood support project.

    Shuaibu received training and agriculture inputs to set up a farm, including four bags of 50kg fertiliser, 50 kg rice seed, two litres of herbicides and technical support.

    At the end of the season last December, he harvested 1.9 tonnes of rice from his 0.45-hectare farm.

    Proceeds from the produce sale, he said, were used to rebuild his burnt house, and feed his family.

    Speaking in Lagos, BATN Chairman Chief Kola Jamodu said the foundation had voted N700 million to boost agriculture. The amount is to be spent over a five-year period, under its Nigeria’s Country plan. So far, the foundation has spent N1.5 billion on agricbusiness.

    He said the project is targeting 62,000 rural farmers and five million people.

    Jamodu said the foundation would empower small farm holders to ensure food security in the country.

    He explained that BATN Foundation had taken intervention with small holding farmers as a serious business. This  is because the it sees them as a means of alleviating poverty on a large scale.

    Farmers, according to him, are offered quality seeds, fertiliser, agrochemicals, and  free training.

    Jamodu said the foundation had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NiMET) for the establishment of a collaboration to provide weather information to farmers.

    According to him, the objective of the deal is for NiMET to provide weather information, including the likely period of dry spell and locations of likely flash flood occurrences to farmers, who depend on rain-fed agriculture.

    British American Tobacco Managing Director, Chris McAlister said   in this modern agriculture, many farmers were still struggling with the pre-requisite to move from small scale to large scale farming and that this has threaten their ability to rise out of poverty.

    He reiterated that his organisa-tion would continue to provide funding and other assistance to ensure that they were able to support agricultural enterprises and improve the livelihood of those living in the rural areas, because they accounts for nearly 73.2 per cent of less privileged households in Nigeria.

    BATN Foundation Executive Director Abimbola Okoya said the foundation had established model farms across the country as part of its agriculture technology transfer to boost entrepreneurship.

    The model farms, with the ability to generate income, are part of the solution to taming the exodus of the youth to urban areas with their high income turnover expected to attract the youth into agribusiness.

  • ‘Govt banking on agric to transform economy’

    President Muhammedu Buhari-led administration is striving to reduce hunger and poverty through transforming agriculture, Ogun State Commissioner for Agriculture Mrs. Adepeju Adebajo has said.

    She spoke at the Women in Management, Business and Public Service (WIMBIZ) CEO Policy Maker Breakfast in Lagos.

    A panelist on the occasion, Mrs. Adebajo said the government was determined to transform agriculture into a competitive industry that creates jobs and sustains its food security campaign.

    She said the Federal Government had taken steps to expand the sector to ensure food security. They include efforts to strengthen policies and the capacity to raise yields, promote market access among farmers, and improve management of the country’s rapidly expanding agriculture industry.

    According to her, the economy remains on a solid footing, and the Federal Government is supporting the sector to play a critical role in the transformation, adding that agriculture is at the heart of that process.

    To curb unemployment, she noted that youths were being equipped with skills that would help them gain employment in agriculture.

    She reiterated that investing in agriculture could lead to huge returns for young people, and that the sector had enormous potential.

    According to Mrs. Adebajo, a training has been held to give some youths guidance in value-addition and food processing practices.

    She stressed that science and technology should be combined to enhance the transformation the sector required and to attract youths.

    She said the sector needed Information Communication technology (ICT) skills to propel  new technologies and innovation to address the challenges farmers face.

    In Ogun State, Mrs Adebajo said, agriculture is receiving attention, adding that the sector has shown  that it can provide employment, eradicate poverty and lead to economic diversification and industrialisation of the state.

    Unilever Ghana and Nigeria Executive Vice-President Yaw Nsarkoh said increased agricultural productivity would boost national income.

    He reiterated the readiness of the company to support smallholder farmers and help ensure a positive impact on the economy.

    Nsarkoh said huge labour force was a critical national asset, calling for a system that rewards efficiency and merit.

    Executive Council, WIMBIZ Chairperson, Olubunmi Aboderin-Talabi said the organisation had reached 93,000 women through its activities.

    The forum provides a platform for high-level participants, including representatives from the private sector, to exchange views on investing in people for multiplier effect.

  • PZ Cussons invests N60b in oil palm estates

    PZ Cussons has reiterated its resolve to deepen investments in the palm oil sector with N60 billion.

    This follows high demand for edible oils and high levels of domestic consumption.

    Its Chief Executive Officer, Christos Giannopoulos, told the Association of Business Editors in Nigeria (ABES) in Lagos that about N45 billion is going into upstream (plantation).

    PZ Cussons Nigeria entered into a joint venture (JV) agreement with Wilmar of Malaysia with a view to reawakening dead oil palm estates across Nigeria, particularly in Cross River State.

    According to him, the company acquired 26,400 hectares of old plantation in Cross River State. Target is to hit 50,000 hectares (ha) in a few years. These  include the defunct Calaro Oil Palm Estate, formerly owned by Cross River government, located in Akamkpa/Odukpani area, Ibad plantations in Akamkpa; Kwa Falls in AkamkpaAkpabuyo, and Oban plantations.

    PZ Wilmar’s investments in oil palm plantations and associated infrastructure in Cross River State are estimated at N45 billion.

    About N20 billion has also been pumped into an oil palm refinery in Lagos.

    Other projects executed by the organisation include a pilot out-grower scheme with 150 farmers, construction of a refinery with a capacity for 1000 tonne per day.

  • Taraba govt. urges residents to plant trees to protect environment

    Mr Julius Butu, the Executive Secretary, Taraba Environmental Protection Agency (TEPA) on Friday urged the people of the state to embark on massive tree planting to protect the environment.

    Butu told newsmen in Jalingo that planting trees would help in preserving the environment for conducive human and animal habitation.

    He noted that government was planning to lead the tree planting campaign for a friendly environment. “I want to appeal to all residents of Taraba to embark on massive planting of trees.

    “Nigeria is signatory to Paris Agreement that encourages protection of the environment by all members and there is no other way to achieve this than to plant more trees.

    Read Also: ‘Why we don’t approve every request to fell trees’

    “We urge the people of the state to plant both economic and other trees to check hazards associated with absence of trees.

    “We appeal to the people to shun harmful environmental practices such as bush burning, deforestation and indiscriminate disposal of plastic and other waste, ‘’ Butu said.

    The executive secretary said the state government through TEPA had taken steps to check indiscriminate disposal of plastic waste by creating awareness among motorists, organisations, among others, to keep wastebaskets.

    He said that the state government had concluded plans to procure a waste recycling machine to encourage people to dispose waste properly and even earn little income from it.

    Butu explained that a clean environment would guarantee a healthy living for human beings and animals.

    NAN

  • Creating opportunities for IDPs through agric

    United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Nigeria and British-American Tobacco Foundation are creating business and employment opportunities for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Northeast through agriculture, writes DANIEL ESSIET.

    Building on its work in meeting early-recovery needs of conflict-affected populations in the Northeast, the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) Nigeria  has supported farmers with inputs to help them resgain their lost livelihoods.

    Over 600 farmers were supported with seeds, fertiliser and insecticide in Ngwom community in Mafa Local Government Area in Borno State.

    The intervention was part of UNDP Nigeria’s integrated community stabilisation package which  used Ngwom as its pilot scheme.

    The government of Japan is supporting the project, which has been providing agricultural inputs for rainy season farming, irrigation, livestock farming and fishery to about 1,700 farmers in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe states.

    In Adamawa, more than 200 farmers received inputs. Most of the beneficiaries are Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Borno State while others are from host communities.

    The private sector has keyed into the project.

    One of such organisations is British-American Tobacco Nigeria (BATN) Foundation that has unfolded a rural-friendly programme for IDPs to access agriculture support services and entrepreneurship.

    Hajia Halima Ahamda is a beneficiary. A widow with three children from Tarila District of Yola South Local Government Area of Adamawa State, she and her kinsmen and women migrated to Yola in 2015, after being displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency.

    Mrs Ahamda is a peasant farmer, who cultivated crops and kept livestock before the attack.

    Last year, BATN Foundation, in collaboration with Adamawa State FADAMA III AF, supported her and 999 IDPs through its livelihood support project.

    She was trained in livestock best practices, and given one male and three female goats.

    One year after, she is celebrating her success because the female goats have produced seven kids, with others pregnant.

    Mrs Ahamda said she would sell the animals and use the money to solve her domestic needs, such as paying her children’s school fees and expanding her agriculture enterprise.

    Mrs Ahamda is not the only one  BATN Foundation has touched. Mallam Jubril Shuaibu is another beneficiary. A native of Ganana Tinja Village in Fika Local Government Area of Yobe State, in 2014, he was among those displaced by the Boko Haram crisis.

    His property was destroyed. Without any means of livelihood, he and his family were forced to stay at IDPs camp at Damaturu.

    BATN Foundation collaborated with the International Food and Agriculture Development Climate Adaptation and Agribusiness Support Programme (IFAD-CASP) Yobe State office, last year, to implement a livelihood support project.

    Shuaibu received training and agriculture inputs to set up a farm, including four bags of 50kg fertiliser, 50 kg rice seed, two litres of herbicides and technical support.

    At the end of the season last December, he harvested 1.9 tonnes of rice from his 0.45-hectare farm.

    Proceeds from the produce sale, he said, were used to rebuild his burnt house, and feed his family.

    Speaking in Lagos, BATN Chairman Chief Kola Jamodu said the foundation had voted N700 million to boost agriculture. The amount is to be spent over a five-year period, under its Nigeria’s Country plan. So far, the foundation has spent N1.5 billion on agricbusiness.

    He said the project is targeting 62,000 rural farmers and five million people.

    Jamodu said the foundation would empower small farm holders to ensure food security in the country.

    He explained that BATN Foundation had taken intervention with small holding farmers as a serious business. This  is because the it sees them as a means of alleviating poverty on a large scale.

    Farmers, according to him, are offered quality seeds, fertiliser, agrochemicals, and  free training.

    Jamodu said the foundation had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NiMET) for the establishment of a collaboration to provide weather information to farmers.

    According to him, the objective of the deal is for NiMET to provide weather information, including the likely period of dry spell and locations of likely flash flood occurrences to farmers, who depend on rain-fed agriculture.

    British American Tobacco Managing Director, Chris McAlister said   in this modern agriculture, many farmers were still struggling with the pre-requisite to move from small scale to large scale farming and that this has threaten their ability to rise out of poverty.

    He reiterated that his organisa-tion would continue to provide funding and other assistance to ensure that they were able to support agricultural enterprises and improve the livelihood of those living in the rural areas, because they accounts for nearly 73.2 per cent of less privileged households in Nigeria.

    BATN Foundation Executive Director Abimbola Okoya said the foundation had established model farms across the country as part of its agriculture technology transfer to boost entrepreneurship.

    The model farms, with the ability to generate income, are part of the solution to taming the exodus of the youth to urban areas with their high income turnover expected to attract the youth into agribusiness.

    On  five-year programme, BATN Foundation General Manager, Mrs. Ololade Johnson-Agiri said the goals include creating market access through market-driven interventions, encouraging participation in out grower schemes for the production of staples crops, such as maize, rice and cassava, propelling value addition through-out agric value chain and promo-ting mechanisation and good agricultural practices.

    Others are providing humanitarian aid to IDPs, supporting government-led interventions, promoting young engagement and participation in agriculture and building quality human capacity and enterprise development.

    On the enterprise development, she explained that the foundation is pursuing a model that creates economic opportunities for rural farmers across the value chains, by taking up the cost of production and providing linkage to market.

    The main goal, according to her, is to move them from subsistence to commercial agriculture.

    She stressed that the programme provides support to agri-preneurs to help them create, build and expand their businesses in a viable and sustainable way.

    She said the foundation will offer grants to reputable organisations who can deliver results in outlined thematic areas.

     

  • ‘Govt banking on agric to transform economy’

    President Muhammedu Buhari-led administration is striving to reduce hunger and poverty through transforming agriculture, Ogun State Commissioner for Agriculture Mrs. Adepeju Adebajo has said.

    She spoke at the Women in Management, Business and Public Service (WIMBIZ) CEO Policy Maker Breakfast in Lagos.

    A panelist on the occasion, Mrs. Adebajo said the government was determined to transform agriculture into a competitive industry that creates jobs and sustains its food security campaign.

    She said the Federal Government had taken steps to expand the sector to ensure food security. They include efforts to strengthen policies and the capacity to raise yields, promote market access among farmers, and improve management of the country’s rapidly expanding agriculture industry.

    According to her, the economy remains on a solid footing, and the Federal Government is supporting the sector to play a critical role in the transformation, adding that agriculture is at the heart of that process.

    To curb unemployment, she noted that youths were being equipped with skills that would help them gain employment in agriculture.

    She reiterated that investing in agriculture could lead to huge returns for young people, and that the sector had enormous potential.

    According to Mrs. Adebajo, a training has been held to give some youths guidance in value-addition and food processing practices.

    She stressed that science and technology should be combined to enhance the transformation the sector required and to attract youths.

    She said the sector needed Information Communication technology (ICT) skills to propel  new technologies and innovation to address the challenges farmers face.

    In Ogun State, Mrs Adebajo said, agriculture is receiving attention, adding that the sector has shown  that it can provide employment, eradicate poverty and lead to economic diversification and industrialisation of the state.

    Unilever Ghana and Nigeria Executive Vice-President Yaw Nsarkoh said increased agricultural productivity would boost national income.

    He reiterated the readiness of the company to support smallholder farmers and help ensure a positive impact on the economy.

    Nsarkoh said huge labour force was a critical national asset, calling for a system that rewards efficiency and merit.

    Executive Council, WIMBIZ Chairperson, Olubunmi Aboderin-Talabi said the organisation had reached 93,000 women through its activities.

    The forum provides a platform for high-level participants, including representatives from the private sector, to exchange views on investing in people for multiplier effect.

  • ‘Sugarcane ethanol production can boost energy’

    AGRICULTURE and Rural Management Training Institute (ARMTI) Executive Director Dr. Olufemi Oladunni   has called for large-scale ethanol fuel production from sugarcane to reduce dependence on oil imports and promote agro-business.

    Oladunni stressed the need to explore ways to support farmers and improve their livelihood in the face social and economic challenges.

    With the nation facing increasing energy crisis, he said the solution lay in producing ethanol.

    He added that sugarcane ethanol  could reduce fossil fuel importation while making sugarcane part of the energy mix.

    He said producing energy from agriculture would create jobs and other economic activities.

    Meanwhile, farmers in Kebbi State have started massive planting of sugarcane at TunganAmadu and Tungan Mai Ramu areas of Shanga and Koko Besse for ethanol production.

    The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Kebbi State Government, last year, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the production of ethanol. Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, while interacting with farmers during his visit to some of the sugarcane producing communities, said his administration would consolidate on the plan  to establish an industry for the production of biofuel.

    He said appropriate machinery would be given to farmers for optimal extraction of sugarcane to serve the industry.

    Bagudu added that his administration would reconstruct the road linking the sugarcane producing communities.

  • ‘Mechanisation in farming below 30%’

    Nigeria needs additional 750,000 tractors to meet global farm mechanisation, Dizengoff West Africa Country Manager Antti Ritvonen has said.

    Ritvonen said at a briefing in Lagos  that the level of mechanised in farming was below 30 per cent, pointing out  that “Nigeria is far behind and in the very early stage of mechanisation, there is so much more tractors needed.

    “Recently, I read some statistics indicating  that Nigeria has a deficit of over 100,000 tractors for mechainsation. If you compare with  the rest of Africa, in terms of mechanisation, Nigeria is like half of what is obtainable from average. Nigeria is very far behind and we are in the very early stage of mechanisation.”

    He said he was advocating not just the provision of tractors, “but I mean mechanisation needed in Nigeria. We are taking baby steps but obviously we have to start from somewhere and Nigerian agriculture has so much potential,’’ he said.

    Ritvonen  said the  cost of tractors, which was around N10 million had prompted the firm to partner commercial banks to find solutions for customers.

    He said: “You can get a good tractor from below N10 million and in line with this, we have been collaborating very closely with leading service providers in the country. We have been trying to work with banks and other financial institutions to find some finance solutions for the customer. I will say that we have yet to get results from these banks.

    “What we found out is that local and commercial banks are not really friendly when it comes to agriculture financing. The high demands that the banks are setting is a limitation.

    “What the banks are requesting for is like 200 per cent guarantee from customers and that is huge. The banks are not ready to take any risk whatsoever and it is not sensible or reasonable.

    “The kind of financing mechanised agriculture in Nigeria needs is huge and government finance, very often are complicated for the smaller farmer who does not have a lawyer.’’

    He  stressed that for the sector  to make greater gains, the government would need to continue investing, supporting agricultural mechanisation, such as granting preferential policies to support funds for famers, enterprises to purchase machines.

    According to him, the level of farm mechanisation in Nigeria requires more to be done in terms of introduction of better equipment for each farming operation in order to reduce drudgery, to improve efficiency by saving on time and labour, improve productivity, minimise wastage and reduce labour costs for each operation.

    Ritvonen said Nigeria had the potential of developing mechanisation in agriculture, but was behind other Africa countries.

    “There are two major challenges in the development of mechanisation in Nigeria; one is the size of the farm and inability of government to give affordable finance to drive mechanisation.

    He said greenhouses give farmers a  way to ensure that their crops are safe from pests and heat.

    He noted, however, that many farmers failed to get good profits from greenhouse crops because they could not manage the two important factors that determine plant growth and productivity.

    He added that the management of insect pests and diseases is the biggest challenge in greenhouse farming.

    To this end, he said his organisation trains would be greenhouse growers on pest control and good agronomical practices.