The Nation Newspaper

Category: Agriculture

  • FACAN seeks measures to boost exports, curb rejections

    The Federation of Agricultural Commodities Association of Nigeria (FACAN) National President, Dr. Victor Iyama, has urged the government to monitor farmers’compliance with international standards to reduce rejections of agric exports.

    Presenting a  paper, titled: The problems of exporting finished agricultural products at a small and medium enterprises (SMEs) forum in Lagos, Iyama said   Nigeria  has the potential to become a major  agric  commodity trading hub,  taking  advantage of rising demand for  agric commodities globally.

    He added that consumption of agric commodities from Nigeria has increased.

    At present, he said the United States, European Union (EU) and Asia were the largest importers of the nation’s agric produce.

    Despite this, he noted that there was a growing awareness about microbial and chemical food safety among consumers  and this has led to rejections of produce due to non-compliance with EU requirements.

    From reports, the EU has created the communication portal Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) by which its food control bodies notify each other when unsafe products have been detected and for which measures have been taken to protect consumers. These alerts are often based on the outcome of risk based inspections and monitoring plans by control bodies.

    Due to rejections, he said huge amounts of produce were discarded which represent high economic losses and food waste.

    To respond to this, Iyama explained that issuance of Sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) certificates to genuine exporters are importance, if the government is to reduce rejections.

    He reiterated the readiness of the association to work with the government to ensure compliance with internationally approved SPS standards that would help boost international trade, particularly for the  agribusiness sector.

    Iyama has called for incentives such as credit at affordable rates to boost Nigeria’s agric exports.

    He said: “We   need incentives such as   easy access to loans, better infrastructure, tax concessions etc. Most of all good governance, consistency of fairly formulated policies, level playing fields and quick dispute resolution mechanism. We should encourage our private sector to help Nigeria in becoming a trade corridor for the African countries.”

    He said, however, that the agric commodities sector has had to grapple with a challenging operating environment in recent years, and one of them is poor power supply.

    According to him, adequate power supply was critical, adding that the nation needs  constant power supply  to keep the momentum of  exports  growth high, be it large-scale or small-scale food and  agricultural  operations  targeting the exports market.

    He explained that a shift from primary production to modern integrated agribusiness will provide lucrative opportunities to many smallholder farmers.

    This, he added, however, can only be achieved if power supply is adequate. He urged the government to speed up building “all projects that will ensure a modern infrastructure backbone for agric exports growth.

    Meanwhile, the  United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Investment and Technology Promotion Office (ITPO) in Nigeria has initiated a programme to help Nigeria end a decades-long dependence on oil and to diversify its economy.The programme, to be implemented with government institutions and private sector counterparts, encompasses a number of promotional activities to support the development of micro, small and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) clusters and the establishment of industrial parks, including in the agro-processing sector.

  • ‘There’s need to attract youths to agric’

    There are business opportunities for youths in agriculture and agribusiness, speakers at the Nigeria Agriculture Awards (NAA) project and essay competition, have said.

    At  the event, which held in Lagos, they said agriculture in other parts of the world is boosted by high-tech technology.

    They noted that the elderly have played an important role in making agriculture Nigeria’s highest earner; that it is now the turn of the youth to  comply with modern trends by using the latest  technology.

    Innovative developments, such as programming, use of high-yielding varieties, application of input and weather forecast compliance, they said, will boost agric.

    According to the Chief Executive Officer, AgroNigeria, Richard-Mark Mbaram,  this is the time for the youth to rise and take their place in the sector.

    He said his organisation was encouraging youths to produce mobile and web-based applications and tools that would help to improve agriculture.

    He praised NAA for its support to the youth , adding that they are key to the value chain.

    He said: “When you have the bulk of farmers and players in the agricultural space at around the age of 60, who  are on their way out, then you have got a challenge on your hand. Yet, you have to feed more people and you realise you have to do something very desperate and here we are desensitising them from joining the agricultural space. We, therefore, decided that we need to bring in a component that has to do with youths.

    “We said we would have two categories – tertiary and secondary. For the tertiary category, we told them to bring themselves into maximum of three by identifying a problem area in agriculture space and proffer solutions to it and give us the timeline their intervention will make headway in the sector. We turned to secondary schools and said, ‘we want you to imaging yourself as the Minister of Agriculture; write an essay and tell us what you would do to develop the sector’ and we got wonderful ideas from these youths.”

    Mbaram commended this year’s World Food Prize Winner, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, former Agric minister and president of African Development Bank (AfDB), for his support to NAA .

    Chief Risk Officer, Global Operations, Triton Group, Anil Sodani, said youth involvement in agro-industrial development would foster sustainable economic growth and create jobs.

    Sodani, who expressed the belief that agriculture could lead to huge returns for young people, urged stakeholders and the government to adopt a more systematic approach to support more youths to run their own farms and agribusinesses.

    He challenged governments and financial institutions to prioritise this support through policies, funding and programming — an investment he said will accelerate agricultural growth while addressing food security.

    The Senior Project Manager, Postharvest Loss Alliance for Nutrition (PLAN), Nigeria, Dr. Augustine Okoruwa, highlighted the role of youths in reducing post-harvest losses. The losses represent between  40 and 60 per cent of total harvest.

    He listed poor transportation, drying, storage, pest infestation, disease, and poor market access as the causes.

    He said his organisation was making a headway in its bid to  reduce the losses by  promoting proper packing and processing of perishable  produce among  farmers.

    As part of efforts to proffer solutions to the challenges in the sector, the Central Committee of the NAA  planned the competition to attract younger generation.

    The contest had as theme, “Building a crop of young YoungAgropreneurs,” was aimed at involving youths who would contribute to the development of the agricultural sector.

    Awards were presented to young innovators from various institutions.  Cash awards were presented to three groups that emerged winners in the tertiary category as well as to two students from different schools that emerged winners in the secondary school category.

    In the tertiary category, the overall winner won a star prize of N1 million, second winner N500, 000 while the third winner got N250, 000.

    In the secondary school category, the first prize winner went home with N250, 000 while the second best N150, 000.

    Under the NAA Youth Project Competition category, the winner was Team Smart Farms. The team included Mamud Abdulrasaq, BalogunIdris Abayomi and Yusuf YusufFalawiyo. The  first runner-up was Team Digital. It consists  Ogunbiyi Yusuf Gbenga, Salawu Saheed, and Abiodun Ogundijo.The  second runner-up  was Team UNILAG. The team comprises  AdohTobechukwu, Moses Adeyemo Seun and Bamidele Wilson.

    The winner under the NAA Essay Competition category was Ndebilite Amarachi, while the first runner-up was MarvellousAdelaja.

    MarvellousAdelaja, an SSS 1 student of Jextoban Secondary School, said “My mom encouraged me to go for this competition, as she told me that the money from her catfish business was used to pay my JSS 1 school fees. Moreover, after I was notified as the second winner of this competition, I made up my mind to be an agricultural blogger.”The essay and project competition positively attracted a sizeable number of youths from different parts of the country and was sponsored by Triton Group.

  • Plateau engages 400 extension workers to curb potato loss

    Plateau engages 400 extension workers to curb potato loss

    Plateau State Government has engaged 400 extension workers to teach farmers improved methods to mitigate loss of Irish potatoes across the 17 Local Government Areas.

    Mrs Lynda Barau, the Plateau Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural resources, stated this at a stakeholder’s town hall meeting organised by Voices for Food Security (VFS) in partnership with Country Women Association of Nigeria (COWAN) on Tuesday in Jos.

    She said Plateau was known in Nigeria for Irish Potatoes cultivation but have suffered losses over the years due to climate change.

    “The extension workers will be posted to communities in the 17 LGAs soon to assist farmers.

    “I advise farmers to listen to them because some officers complained of farmers recalcitrant attitude of saying their forefather’s used the same method and got bumper yield, so refuse the improved method,’’ she said.

    Barau said the Ministry would work with women who are 60 per cent farmers’ population in facilitating land clearing for cooperative cluster farming and early delivery of farm inputs.

    “The State government will facilitate their access to farm inputs at subsidised rates from manufacturers.

    “The state’s abattoir will be renovated to boost animal husbandry business as Dangote company will establish an Agro-Allied investment on wheat and maize in Plateau,’’ she explained.

    In her remarks, Mrs Jessica Vonkat, the Coordinator of COWAN in Plateau said that climate change was deepening the scale of poor farm yields, poverty, hunger, unemployment and their consequences.

    She said that agricultural operation was not focused on supporting small holder farmers, research, knowledge development and dissemination and extension services.

    “Women farmers lack resources to access farmlands, assets; farm inputs; knowledge and market information. Government at all levels should take appropriate measures in terms of policy formulation and implementation to address issues of food security,’’ she said.

    Women farmers complained of stringent conditions for access to loans, especially for widows.

    Some stakeholders alleged that government’s agricultural interventions were being hijacked by friends and families of politicians.

    The meeting was also supported by Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) Resource Centre.

  • Buhari expresses regrets over neglect of cocoa sector

    Buhari expresses regrets over neglect of cocoa sector

    President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed regrets over the neglect of the cocoa sector over the years, saying his administration will work to reposition it and other non-oil export commodities.

    Buhari said this at the First International Cocoa Summit organised by the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment in collaboration with Cocoa Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Abuja on Monday.

    The President, represented by Chief Audu Ogbeh, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that the country’s annual production of cocoa declined from 420,000 tonnes in the 60s to 192,000 tonnes in 2015.

    He noted that the position of the country had dropped from being the fourth global cocoa producing country to the seventh.

    Buhari said that the theme of the conference titled ‘Cocoa, a strategic Commodity for National Economic Development’, was apt as it was in line with his administration’s agenda to diversify the economy of the country.

    He appealed to stakeholders to join hands with the Federal Government to improve the production, packaging and marketing of non-oil export commodities.

    “This sector has suffered neglect as a result of over reliance on crude oil.

    “Government is working hard to improve the business environment for local and foreign investors as well as encouraging the development of domestic consumption.

    “The Federal Government is committed to restoring the agricultural and industrial sector to its prime position and I call on all stakeholders to key into the government policy of promotion of non-oil export as an alternative source of revenue.

    “I wish to assure you that the implementation of our reforms of the Ease of Doing Business will be the backbone for the repositioning of the cocoa sub- sector in Nigeria,’’ he said.

    In a message, Sen. Bukola Saraki, the President of the Senate, called on state governors to make land available to youth farmers to cultivate cocoa.

    Saraki, represented by Sen. Yusuf Abdullahi Yusuf (Taraba Central), assured cocoa farmers that the National Assembly would consider legislation aimed at promoting cocoa production in the country.

    In his words, Ogbeh said that Federal Government was planning a relaunch of cocoa production in the South-West part of the country.

    The minister, who said that Ondo and Cross River States produced 60 per cent of cocoa in the country, appealed to other states to join in the production to promote non-oil export.

    The Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr Okechukwu Enelamah, said the summit would enable stakeholders to brainstorm with a view to achieving economic diversification and maximum return on investments.

    The President, Cocoa Association of Nigeria (CAN), Mr Sayina Riman, said that a five year strategic plan would be formulated at the end of the conference to move the sector forward.

    “This sector is apt because we will arrive at a document to upscale Nigeria cocoa production.’’

    Dr Jean-Marc Anga, the Executive Director, International Cocoa Organisation, said the organisation would assist the country in the implementation of its action plan on cocoa.

    Anga said that research and development was a major driving force toward improving cocoa production in Nigeria.

    “We will assist Nigeria to develop a plan on cocoa but emphasis should be on quality and value addition,’’ Anga said.

    The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the Federal Government at the conference declared cocoa as a national drink for citizens of the country.

  • Enhancing commercial cassava production

    Enhancing commercial cassava production

    Over 70 per cent of small-holder farmers are engaged in cassava production.  A non-governmental organisation, African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), is striving to ensure that commercial cassava farming is enhanced with mechanisation, DANIEL ESSIET writes.

    Cassava is used for many things: Food, feed, ethanol and other industrial uses.

    Besides, it has a lot of derivatives.

    It is, particularly, valuable for rural small-holder farmers, breweries, pharmaceuticals, distilleries and ethanol-producing companies, which use  cassava flour and starch as raw materials. In most cases, these firms rely on imports for their raw materials.

     

    Initiative

    It is for this reason that a non-governmental organisation (NGO), African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), has taken the initiative to make cassava business attractive in Nigeria. It is working through Cassava Mechanisation and Agro-processing Project (CAMAP).

    CAMAP, funded  by United Kingdom Agency for International Development( UKAid), seeks  to  transform  the  cassava  sector  in  sub-Saharan Africa by enhancing  commercial  production,  processing and market linkages based on business models that engender sustainability.

    It also aims to address key constraints to cassava production,  improved varieties, poor agronomy, and lack of mechanisation and processing.

    One of the goals of the project is to reduce rural poverty by using cassava value-chain to generate employment and income. The other is to train and empower cassava farmers to run an hectare of cassava to yield between 30 and 45 tonnes. Stakeholders say the national average yield is about 20  tonnes per hectare.

    CAMAP Project Coordinator, AATF, Ayodele Omowumi, said the project  had opened a new vista for many cassava farmers in Ogun, Kogi, Oyo, Osun and Kwara states.

    The vision, according to him, is to build a sub-sector that creates a future where cassava farmers are economically bouyant, with enhanced livelihoods, and bring about food security.

    His job includes demonstrating to fellow farmers how to plant cassava crop profitably.

    He said cassava, a highly nutritious crop, can be time consuming to plant, maintain and harvest. This has caused many farmers to shun planting the crop and those who plant cassava neglect its maintenance leading to below optimum yields.

    He said CAMAP aims to reduce drudgery and increase productivity and incomes for farmers.

    With an evidence-based demonstration, he   said a 35 man-hour labour used to  cultivate an  hectare of land  can be reduced  to  45 minutes, using the appropriate technology.

    Also, the yield increase is more than 200  percent  in some cases.

    Through such efforts, Omowumi said many farmers have produced high-quality cassava and strong stems that are in the market.

    CAMAP, Omowumi said, targets youths and provide them training on farming as a business.

    The youths, according to him, have to be  organised in groups. Each group must acquire some hectares for cassava farming.

    To support  farmers, he  said  the project  has trained  tractor   operators,  project    coordinators and extension officers on   various  topics  including  agronomy,  tractor  operation,  repairs  and  maintenance;     land  clearing techniques and  selection  of machines for field operation.

    One of the beneficiaries under CAMAP is a young farmers’ cooperative group, Path-P Agricultural Enterprises. A fifteen-member group, led by a young estate surveyor, Abdul Waheed,  farms cocoa, palmoil, cowpea and cashew on a 35-acre farm in Imeri, Ondo State. This, they did using hoes and cutlasses. The practice, he explained, was tedious and tasking.

    One tubercrop, they had not explored, according to Waheed, is cassava, which they considered “hidden gold” with the potential to transform their lives. They saw an enormous potential to fill an unmet need in cassava. They got in touch with CAMAP. They were advised to acquire some land. Consequently, the group acquired 40 hectares on lease to grow the crop. They were  selected to  participate in the project after satisfying the  criteria, which included ownership of  hectares, willingness to contribute to the weeding and any other activity, such as stopping fire outbreak.

    Encouraged by their passion, the project assisted the young entrepreneurs. They  were  provided  the inputs, including quality stem cuttings, fertiliser and herbicide.

    Waheed feels CAMAP could not have come at a better time. He expressed joy with the advances they have made on the 40-hectare farm, using a transplanter to plant cassava.

    Hence, the new project has  become the group’s primary focus.  Their  plan is to use their wives  to process the cassava, sell  the products as  well as stems, and increase the land under cultivation to 150 hectares.

    Another group, Ibukun Oluwa Ayetoro (Yewa) FUG CMS Limited, has  a similar story.The 25-member group has 28-hectare farm  in Isa Ope, Yewa North in Ogun State.  Its Chairman, Mr Idowu Friday, said he  and the other farmers had  a challenge planting cassava, using  hoes at the time – which he confessed was  a tedious affair –before they received the project’s planting equipment.

    According  to him, they were  taught new farming practices, including adopting a higher yielding and disease-resistant cassava. They were advised on one square metre spacing and the use of fertiliser.To him, these were new methods.

    The CAMAP Project Coordinator noted that the benefits of assisting ambitious entrepreneurs such as Abdul Waheed and his  Path-P cooperative is clear: “That passion and pure entrepreneurial spirit to attempt changes like this, I believe will make an incredible impact.”

    According to him, it was  exciting working with the team.

    The Communications and Partnerships Officer, West Africa, African Agricultural Technology Foundation ( AATF ), Umaru Abu, said  CAMAP’s goal is to enhance cassava production and processing technologies to improve food security, farmers, processors, and marketers income.

    According to Abu, CAMAP  assists farmers to find markets. Buyers partnering with the project  to uptake from farmers,include Allied Atlantic Distillers Limited and Thai Farms.

    With the project’s  potential to drive significant agricultural innovation, Abu  said cassava business is poised to make an impact.

    One of the tools, the project offers  farmers is the  transplanter. According to him, the transplanter makes  cassava  planting a fun.  With a  ride-on transplanter, Abu  explained that  a  farmers can  plant  hectare of  cassava   in about one  hour.  If people will do the manual transplanting, he said it will take four people between one to two weeks to plant one hectare. This could be very costly because each planter could be paid per day.

    He said CAMAP will continue to change small scale farmers’lives by helping them to plant cassava on larger tracts by providing machines at a subsidised rate. The subsidised payments are used to build a revolving fund that ensures the sustainability of the project.

    He said, the project is being  carried  out in five states – Kogi, Kwara, Ogun, Osun and Oyo.

    According to Abu, AATF is committed to meeting Africa’s food security challenge in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Zambia, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda through the application of appropriate technology and improved seedlings.

    He said AATF receives its core financial support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID),  Rockefeller Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

    The project links farmers to mechanisation service providers, processors and, in turn, builds their capacity to engage in farming as a business based on best cassava agronomic practice.

    As  business model, the farmers are identified, linked to high yielding, disease resistant cassava varieties and supported with best agronomic practices (herbicide application, weeding, fertiliser application).

    Projects that AATF participates in include: striga-control in maize, development of insect-resistant cowpea, improvement of banana for resistance to banana bacterial wilt, biological control of aflatoxin, development of drought tolerance in maize, nitrogen-use and  water-use efficiency and salt-tolerant rice varieties for small scale farmers.

  • FADAMA gives input to 8,000 farmers

    Niger State Fadama 111 Additional Financing Project have distributed farm inputs to over 8,000 farmers this year to boost agricultural produce in the state.

    The state Project Coordinator, Aliyu Usman Kutigi made this known  at the opening of a workshop on ‘Developing the Rice and Sorghum Value Chains under the Niger state FADAMA project” in Minna.

    According to him, the farmers who were mainly sorghum and rice farmers were supported with the inputs in the bid of developing and supporting the rice and Sorghum value chains in the state.

    Kutigi also said that over 2, 000 farmers have been trained and desks officers have been trained in various capacity building trainings which was aimed at strengthening their capacities in the execution of their primary functions.

    He urged the participants of the workshop to utilize every medium in towards improving their productivity to enable them bring positive changes into the spectrum of rice and Sorghum value chain and disemminate vital agricultural information to the farmers.

    The Coordinator expressed the determination of FADAMA in improving the overall agricultural productivity a d the general improvement in the socio-econnomic well-being of small farmers throughout the state.

    In his address, the Executive Director of Nagarta Nigeria Limited, AlhajiSalihu Yusuf said that the e capacity workshop of the desk officers and farmers in order to keep them abreast of world best practices.

  • Experts move to boost productivity of farmed animals

    Veterinary experts are delivering a £5.5 million initiative to improve the health and productivity of farmed animals in sub-Saharan Africa.

    The scheme aims to boost the livelihood of livestock farmers by delivering evidence-based technologies that offer sustainable solutions to their challenges.

    The Supporting Evidence Based Interventions initiative (SEBI) has received funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

    Three programmes have been established to help address different challenges.

    The first programme aims to identify evidence-based interventions to cut death rates and reproductive losses in dairy cattle in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Tanzania.

    Sub-grants will be provided to enable research groups to investigate the causes of these losses. The first of the grants has been awarded to University of Glasgow to build a disease surveillance platform in Tanzania.

    A second programme will facilitate data gathering and the development of analytical tools to better track livestock performance.

    Researchers are setting up an international network of practitioners—the Livestock Data for Decisions (LD4D) community—to standardise systems of data management across borders.

    The third strand of the initiative will fund researchers to evaluate innovative veterinary interventions for their use in developing countries.

    SEBI has already awarded £125,000 to the University of Guelph to fund field trials of a hand held device that can detect animal diseases. The portable sensor allows dairy farmers to rapidly diagnose specific diseases in cows from a small volume of blood or milk.

    A team of eight has been recruited to drive forward the SEBI initiative, which is based at the University of Edinburgh’s Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies.

    Researchers are working with a range of partners to meet their targets, including Scotland’s Rural College, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Australia and the International Livestock Research Institute in Kenya.

    Project lead Professor Andy Peters said: “SEBI is a pilot project but we anticipate that, if we are successful, it will expand to become the ‘go to’ organisation for the evaluation of novel veterinary technologies and livestock improvement interventions in Africa.”

  • Nigeria, Morocco collaborate on agric insurance

    Nigeria and Morocco have set up a steering committee to develop a sustainable crop insurance scheme for the country.

    The committee comprises representatives of the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC), Bank of Agricultue (BOA), the Moroccan agricultural insurance company, MAMDA and MAMDA RE.

    In developing the insurance scheme, the committee is expected to use parametric products and leverage the Moroccan model for crops covering selected areas of between 5,000 and 10,000 hectares of land.

    NAIC Managing Director Mrs. Folashade Joseph made this known at the inauguration of the committee in Abuja.

    Mrs. Joseph said the committee was another step by the government to boost agriculture as an alternative revenue earner for the country.

    With the challenges posed to agriculture by climate change, Mrs. Joseph said there was a need for farmers to accept climate-smart agriculture and embrace agricultural risk management.

    She said NAIC would continue to collaborate with international partners to develop and deploy insurance products that would help in managing emerging risks.

    The NAIC chief traced the new initiative to the visit of King Mohammed VI of Morocco to Nigeria last December, during which he and President Muhammadu Buhari signed 15 bilateral agreements on trade, agriculture and oil and gas.

    As a follow-up to that, she said NAIC last month visied MAMDA RE in Morocco to further activate the terms of the agreement and to understudy the Moroccan experience in the development and deployment of Area Yield Index Insurance products.

    Mrs. Joseph said the BOA had been NAIC’s strongest partner for over 30 years and assured the bank of NAIC’s continued support in the provision of risk management services to agricultural investors and farmers financed by BOA.

    She also assured BOA of prompt payment of claims to farmers on its insurance platform as well as the development of new insurance products and services to manage the peculiar risks of the agricultural sector.

    BOA Managing Director, Alhaji Kabiru Mohammed, said though his bank and NAIC had enjoyed a good relationship over a long time, there were new developments that made it important for them to strengthen the partnership to facilitate the realisation of the objections of the Federal Government in repositioning agriculture.

    Mohammed said emerging realities in the country had made it an imperative to change the mindset of farmers from the thinking that farming was no more than a traditional occupation.

    He said there was big money in agriculture but that those engaged in it must do it properly and strategically if they want to make profit.

    The BOA MD said there was need for his bank and NAIC to partner in collective marketing and information sharing.

    He said the bank was already looking beyond government intervention and was discussing with international development partners and investors as a way of boosting agriculture in the country.

    Mohammed said the inauguration of the committee was part of the effort towards internationalising the existing collaboration among the stakeholders in the sector.

  • Poultry farmers moan over feed cost

    With feed accounting for between 60 and 70 percent of production costs, poultry farmers are struggling with  high costs, Group Head, Policy & Strategy, Amo Byng Nigeria Limited, Francis Toromade, has said.

    He noted that corn and soybean meal — two key ingredients that make up almost 80 per cent of poultry feed — are volatile commodities.

    A tonne of locally-produced maize, he said, sells for N130,000 while the imported ones goes for N105,000. Because of this, he said poultry farmers had resorted to importing corn.

    Speaking in Lagos, Toromade said the industry’s challenges were unprecedented as the business was more complex, with the challenge of increasing corn export to neighbouring countries.

    The impact, according to him, has led to a drop in profits, pushing some farmers out of business. Eggs and chicken are among the cheapest and most-widely consumed protein staples in Nigeria.

    In the meantime, the Coordinator, Natnupreneur, Mr. Gbolade Adewole.  said his organisation was working with local farmers to increase domestic poultry production.

    According to him, a spell of bad weather or shortage in production wyll send corn and soybean meal prices rocketing.

  • Fed Govt donates rice to WFP

    The Federal Government has donated 5,000 metric tonnes of rice to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).

    This will help feed nearly half-a-million internally displaced people in the conflict-ravaged northeast of the country, where the threat of famine persists.

    WFP has begun moving the first batch of the rice – and expects a further 2,000 metric tons of millet pledged by the Nigerian authorities.

    “As a responsible government, the Federal Government, in recognition of the efforts of humanitarian actors and the need to ensure food security for the people affected by insurgency in the north east, has not only approved the distribution of 35,905 metric tonnes of grains to the people, but has also approved the release of 5,000 metric tons of rice for distribution by World Food Programme (WFP) in some communities affected by insurgency,” said Director-General,  National Emergency Management Agency(NEMA), Mustapha Yunusa Maihaja.

    Since its launch last year, WFP has expanded its offer of food, nutrition and cash to reach more than a million people monthly. Having overcome a funding challenge, it has set its target at 1.36 million people during the pre-harvest lean season, the hungriest time of the year.

    “This donation once again testifies to the quality of relations between WFP and Nigeria,” said Ronald Sibanda, WFP’s interim country director. “Our partnership with the Government’s specialised emergency agencies, both at the federal and state level, have been crucial in allowing us to assist those who need it most.”

    As part of a $100 million contribution to WFP’s Nigeria response, the US will cover the associated costs of getting the donated rice to those displaced in the hardest-hit states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.

    Nigeria’s crisis has spilled over borders, leaving millions in the broader Lake Chad Basin region uncertain of where their meal is coming from. Experts have warned that without sufficient and timely humanitarian assistance, northeast Nigeria risks tipping into famine.

    WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. Each year, WFP assists some 80 million people in about 80 countries.