The Nation Newspaper

Category: Agriculture

  • AFAN partners CBN on cassava cultivation in Auchi

    AFAN partners CBN on cassava cultivation in Auchi

    Dr Mohammed Abdullahi, All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN),, on Monday said that youths in the area would cultivate 500 hectares of cassava next year.

    Abdullahi disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Auchi, the headquarters of Etsako-West Local Government Area of the state.

    He said that the cassava project would be under the Edo Government/Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Anchor Borrowers’ Programme.

    He said that no fewer than 200 youths would be registered under cooperative societies and each of the farmers would cultivate one hectare of land.

    Abdullahi said the Auchi community had provided land for the project while the government would provide funds for land preparation which would commence in Dec. as well as input.

    The chairman said the state government’s Cluster Farming Scheme, was initiated to empower the youths to become self-reliant.

    He said that the state government had approved the Ozemhoya Multipurpose Cooperative Society as the off-taker of the produce.

    “The state government has directed that we register 200 youths for the project and we are appealing to the youths in the senatorial district to key into the project.

    “This is a forum for them to be empowered; this government is showing very serious interest in agriculture.

    NAN reports that the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme is a CBN’s initiative which is aimed at creating an economic linkage between small scale farmers (out growers) and reputable large scale processors.

    It also has the objective of increasing agricultural output and improving capacity utilization of integrated mills.

  • EU: Sadamu LG gets 120,000 tree seedlings

    EU: Sadamu LG gets 120,000 tree seedlings

    The European Union (EU) has donated 120,000 assorted tree seedlings to Sandamu Local Government Area of Katsina State.

    Alhaji Usman Ahmed, the Director of Agriculture, Sandamu Local Government Council, disclosed this to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Sandamu on Monday.

    He said that the council had started planting the seedlings in its efforts to implement the four-year EU fuel wood balancing programme in the area.

    He said that the EU initiative was aimed at providing sustainable energy due to the deficit of firewood, while protecting the environment against desertification and boosting the economic well-being of the people.

    Ahmed said that the council had taken delivery of 10 varieties of tree seedlings from the National Planning Commission and the EU for distribution to interested farmers at no cost.

    He said that the varieties of the seedlings included eucalyptus, neem, albezia, moringa, jastropa,gum arabic, pawpaw, patenolra, cashew and depsonia.

    He said the target of the scheme was 1,500 farmers, adding, however, that only 214 farmers had so far indicated interest in the programme.

    “We encouraged the farmers to plant the seedlings either on their farms or in their gardens,’’ he said.

    Ahmed said that the programme would be executed under five planting models which included institutional planting, woodlots, home gardening, wind brake and plantation cultivation.

    “We are providing a hoe, a watering can and one litre of pesticides free of charge to those who partake in the programme,’’ he added.

    He said that programme was specifically aimed at providing sustainable energy because of the shortage of fire wood and addressing the growing menace of desertification in the area.

    Ahmed said that more than 100 youths had received training under the programme on how to construct clean cooking stoves, as part of efforts to empower the unemployed people in the area.

  • How to boost cashew exports, by experts

    How to boost cashew exports, by experts

    Can  Nigeria grow its cashew export market?

    Yes, says the National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN) National Publicity Secretary, Sotonye Anga.

    He expects a major jump from last year’s 160,000 metric tonnes of raw cashew export worth $300 million.

    He however noted that the deficit in transport infrastrcuture may be a problem.

    Noting that shipping lines handle fewer agro exports, Anga observed that on-shore container- processing time was low.

    Waiting time for cashew exports at the ports, he said, was not improving as commodities stay too long before they are ferried out.

    For Nigeria to realise its full export potential, he canvassed more   investment in transport infrastructure

    Anga said the country also needed more storage facilities at ports.

    Group Executive Director (GED) Logistics and Distribution, Dangote  Group, Alhaji Sada Ladan, described the issue as disturbing.

    Speaking at a transport forum, organised by the Institute of Directors (IoD) in Lagos, he noted that due to the poor inland logistics and bad roads, it had become expensive for the group to move its  products  across the country.

    While the transport sector is functional, Ladan noted that it suffers from low quality, long travelling times and poor reliability, particularly the rail.

    The situation isexacerbated by  the conditions on transit roads from the North to the South.

    For example, some transporters complain that the road from Mokwa in Niger State has become almost impassable. As a result, drivers are forced to re-route, thereby adding about 40 per cent to the  costs of grains. In some areas, the combination of diversions and rain has seen truck freight rates soar over.

    Former Nigerian Airways Managing Director, Mr  Yomi Jones, said the nation’s performance on most logistics indicators, including the quality of transport infrastructure, was worse than that of other countries.

    He observed that the patterns in transport and trade logistics generate inefficiencies that lead to loss of much money and man hours and retards growth.

    He explained that the transport supply chain system was not providing the value-added services that have become the hallmark of modern logistics, such as multimodal systems, that combine the strengths of various transport modes into one integrated system.

    Jones stressed that logistics infrastructure covering road, rail, waterways and air network is the backbone of the economy.

    According to him, an ideal situation will be to have adequate infrastructure capacity riding on which the various modes can form a logistics chain for seamless flow of goods and services.

    Jones said Nigeria needs good logistics infrastructure to boost competencies and quality of services by  sector participants.

  • Stakeholders decry poor monitoring of foreign aid

    Stakeholders in the agriculture sector have raised the alarm over poor monitoring  of foreign aid to the sector.

    They said the development may scuttle government’s efforts to achieve food security.

    Former Mycotoxicology Society of Nigeria President Prof Dele Fapohunda said there was a need for increased government’s monitoring of foreign aid spending in agriculture to ensure the objectives of food security is achieved.

    This followed rising concern that aid spending was not being properly monitored.

    There have been series of controversies over money being spent on other projects other than the ones targeted by the foreign agencies.

    He called for more transparency and accountability of the aid spent by departments to support agriculture, adding that the country might not be able to move forward in her quest to reduce food insecurity.

    Fapohunda urged the government to ensure all departments are supported to spend foreign assistance to agriculture responsibly and effectively.

    According to him, the government needs to take an evidence-based approach to diverse departments handling foreign aid.

    A stakeholder, who chose to speak anonymously, expressed worries that so much money was being channeled from foreign donors to support programmes in cassava, and sought the strengthening of the department to measure how well the money was being used.

    The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) has called for a regional project information hub to stimulate investment in Africa.

    NEPAD’s Infrastructure Project Preparation Facility (IPPF) proposed that each country should be linked to a central hub to unlock bankable investment opportunities with information about projects accessible to potential investors.

    IPPF Co-ordinator Shem Simuyemba explained that the initiative would show the financial-readiness of projects in terms of the key returns that investors seek.

    He said unlike other parts of the world, the emergence of an indigenous class of trans-continental investors was only just the beginning for Africa, partly because of a history of state monopoly companies, which had crowded out the private sector and stifled its growth.

    Simuyemba also called for liberalisation of sectors still dominated by governments, such as information technology, energy generation and transport.

    He also stressed the importance of regional markets, saying they should be created through policy reforms, incentives and strengthened partnerships.

  • Firm, Kebbi partner on rice production

    To achieve rice sufficiency, Kebbi State is partnering WACOT Rice Limited on the commodity production.

    WACOT Rice, a member of TGI Group, is helping Nigeria to regain its status as a top rice producer. It has invested in rice processing plants. To this end, the company is supporting the Kebbi government to roll out sustainable agricultural standards and practices throughout its rice-production value chain.

    The group has established a modern ricemill in Argungu, Kebbi State, which will produce 120,000 metric tons yearly and 400 metric tonnes of rice daily.

    TGI Group Group Managing Director,  Mr. Rahul Savara, said WACOT rice mill was recently inaugurated by the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo. He said the firm would help farmers conform to agricultural standards and practice, promote resource efficiency and sustainability, both on-farm and throughout the rice value-chain.

    According to him, his organisation is bringing significant global experience delivering knowledge and expertise in  rice  production  through quality control and strict inspection throughout the entire value chain.

    Savara said the quality of rice being produced at the mill is comparable to the best in the world. The mill, he said, has a production capacity of 120,000 metric tons per year and fully automated silos that have the capacity to store raw materials for up to six months of production.

    The state-of-the-art rice mill with a capital outlay of over N10billion and is expected to provide employment for 3,500 people and its procurement of rice paddy will reach at least 50,000 farmers, as the capacity grows.

    He appreciated the Federal Government for its various initiatives in support of agriculture through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other mediums, which has impacted the growth of the sector positively, and has also served as a motivation for private sector players in the sector.

    “Therefore, for us this is just the beginning. We have plans to invest over N100 billion over the next years in various agricultural value chains.

    ”It is worthy of note that the rice processing plant is the first rice mill to be conceptualised, executed and commissioned during the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.’’

    The construction of the mill was first announced by the  governor in November 2015, when President Muhammadu Buhari launched the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Anchor Borrowers Programme in Birnin-Kebbi.

    “One of the critical things that we are seeing today, especially the development of agriculture, is that this is growth with jobs. Several thousands of our people are farmers and are engaged in farming”.

    On how Kebbi has been able to achieve this feat, the governor disclosed recently that on assuming office and discovering the huge rice potentials in his state, he immediately partnered with the Bank of Industry and the Central Bank of Nigeria and to show his commitment, he put down a princely sum of N4 billion as financial assistance and inputs to rice farmers in the state to go into commercial farming.

  • Germany trains 230,000 farmers in Nigeria, others

    German Development Agency (GIZ) has trained 230,000 small farmers in Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, and Cameroon.

    The farmers were trained under its Farmer Business School training (FBS).

    In collaboration with 20 local partners, the organisation said it developed the Farmer Business Schools’ training programme to strengthen entrepreneurial skills.

    According to it, 440 trainers and supervisors were trained to organise the FBS programme. GIZ said one-fourth of farmer business school graduates were women. GIZ explained that graduates were taught  to  plan their production, record their income and expenses as well as the use of agricultural input and labour.  Seventy to 99 per cent of the farmers polled, it said, have increased cocoa and other crop yields by between 50 and 100 per cent.

    More than 60 per cent, the organisation said, have opened accounts with rural banks, and their savings will serve as collateral for new loans. A third of the FBS-trained smallholders have joined producer cooperatives to improve their position in the market.

    Accordingly, yearly household incomes from agricultural production have risen: the recorded increases lie between EUR 160 and EUR 756.  The report said: “Incomes from non-cocoa products, primarily food production, have more than quadrupled, with recorded increases of between EUR 660 and EUR 830. With this additional income, the small businesses are better able to cope with fluctuations in cocoa prices and yields. The total income effects for Western and Central African smallholders are estimated to be EUR 12.5 million.

    The project, according to the organisation, supports public and private extension services to provide business training for small farmers in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria and Cameroon.

    During the FBS, the organisation said the farmers learnt how to better plan cocoa and food production, costs associated with improved production techniques, and how they can increase yields and incomes through targeted investment.

    The organisation listed the agencies involved in the programme to include: National Planning Commission, Nigeria; Ghana Cocoa Board, Ghana; Ministry of Agriculture, Côte d’Ivoire; Ministry of Economy, Planning and Regional Development Cameroon and Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Togo.

    In addition, the  organisation said the project cooperates with agricultural trade companies and microfinance institutions, which provide the farmers with technical advice and training, market information and financial services. They also offer advisory services and training on food production and healthy diets. The project which started in 2014 will end next year.

  • Kwara rice ready for harvest by November, says Commissioner

    Kwara rice ready for harvest by November, says Commissioner

    The Kwara Government said on Thursday that by November it would begin to harvest the rice cultivated by its small holder farmers under CBN’s Anchor Borrowers’ Programme.

    Mr Adegoke Bamidele, the state’s Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources , disclosed this in Ilorin while receiving a Community Scorecard on smallholder farmers’ accessibility to Agriculture financing in Nigeria.

    The scorecard was presented by the Centre for Community Empowerment and Poverty Eradication (CCEPE), a partner of Actionaid Nigeria.

    Also speaking, Malam Ahmed Mohammed, the Director, Agricultural Engineering and Services in the ministry, said the government started programme with the cultivation of 50 hectares of rice at Tsada Tshonga in Edu Local Government Area of the state.

    Mohammed explained that the state keyed into the programme under the Hyst Global Business Limited/Anchor Borrower programme.

    Hyst is a rice milling company based in Abuja.

    He added that another 3,000 hectares would be cultivated across the state in the dry season.

    “The plan is to ensure that Kwara produce enough rice to feed the whole North-Central states.

    “N1 billion has just been approved for that by the state House of Assembly,” he said.

    The commissioner also stated that another N1 billion is being disbursed to “off-taker’’ farmers under the state’s Off-taker Demand Driven Agricultural Loan scheme.

    According to him, the scheme will involve the allocation of land, agricultural inputs and funds for the labourers.

    He said that the state government had approved the purchase of 20,000 tonnes of fertilizer for onward distribution to farmers under the scheme.

  • ‘Tractorisation project will move Nigeria out of food insecurity’

    ‘Tractorisation project will move Nigeria out of food insecurity’

    The University of Nigeria, Nsukka, (UNN) says it is embarking on a tractorisation project, which is aimed at moving Nigeria out of the stranglehold of food insecurity.

    The Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Benjamin Ozumba, said this when he featured at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja on Thursday.

    He said that the university, in collaboration with some foreign and Nigerian universities, the private sector, governments and other relevant stakeholders, would begin the project with the production of 500 tractors.

    Ozumba said that the project would be executed via four platforms, adding that these included the Tractor Assembly/Manufacturing Production (TAMP) and Tractor Value Chain Support Service (TVCSS) schemes.

    He said that the other two platforms were the Tractor Vocational and Entrepreneurship Programme (TCEP) and the Tractor Outreach/Extension Workshop Support Centres (TOEWSC) schemes.

    “We need tractorisation.

    “So, the vision is to move Nigeria out of this stranglehold of food insecurity to food security so that we can export and make money for our God-given territory,’’ he said.

    The vice-chancellor, who noted that Nigeria was a commodity-based economy, said that the university was embarking on the project so as to facilitate the transition of the country from a commodity-based economy to a knowledge-based economy.

    He said that the tractorisation project was introduced, as part of efforts to commercialise the institution to enable it to be self-financing, while generating revenue for the Federal Government.

    According to him, “With the tractorisation, we will be able to achieve the goals of the Minister of Agriculture and the Federal Republic of Nigeria to generate more than 15 billion dollars annually to pay our external debts and run the country.

    “Every other country that has made it now is able to feed itself. The big question is can Nigeria feed itself with peasant farming? The big answer is ‘No’.

    “We still struggle to produce palm oil and groundnut oil, which we used to be greatest exporters, and so on.’’

    Ozumba said that most of the citizens still engaged in peasant farming, adding that the farmers also relied on crude farm implements to produce food which was not enough to feed the nation.

    “If you read the dailies often, you will see that the Minister of Agriculture has been repeatedly saying that if we are not able to generate 15 billion U.S. dollars through exports, Nigeria will be in trouble by the year 2020.

    “The question then is how do we do that? Currently, most farmers in Nigeria engage in peasant farming.

    “Peasant farming is where farmers just go to their farms to produce enough cocoyam, enough cassava, enough Ugwu (vegetable) and so on, just to feed their families.

    “It cannot get Nigeria anywhere and we will just go about importing rice when we can produce better quality rice in the country.

    “But can we produce rice with our bare hands as we do now? The answer is a big ‘No’; so we need tractorisation to boost mechanised farming.

    “The only way this can happen is to use our land resources maximally and see how many hectares we can put under cultivation.

    “But you cannot cultivate hectares of land without the use of tractors, hence the rationale behind our tractorisation project.

    “Honestly, you cannot engage in large-scale farming without the use of tractors,’’ he added.

  • FAO to address livestock development challenges in Nigeria

    FAO to address livestock development challenges in Nigeria

    Mr Suffyan Koroma, Food and Agriculture Organisation Country Representative to Nigeria, has said that the organisation will organise a livestock development conference in August to address challenges in the sector.

    Koroma made the disclosure when he presented his letter of commission to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, in Abuja on Tuesday.

    He said the conference was part of the organisation’s support to improve the utilisation of grazing reserves in the country.

    “Our support to improve the utilisation of grazing reserves and stock routes to mitigate conflicts and promote commercialised stock production has led to calls for a national conference on livestock development.

    “The conference is expected to come up with comprehensive recommendations to address all issues associated with grazing reserves and livestock production; this will happen sometime this month.

    “We are also looking at developing a national dialogue for the livestock policy development,” he said.

    Koroma further said that the activities of the FAO to respond to the crisis in the northeast was “fully aligned” with the intervention initiative of the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.

    He added that FAO supported Nigeria’s economic growth plan and agricultural promotion policy aimed at reducing food and agricultural imports and boosting exports.

    “The strong confidence my UN colleagues have in my technical and leadership ability led to revised implementation modalities of the UN sustainable development framework for Nigeria.

    “It also put FAO as the lead agency for the diversified economic growth outcome area which is a key aspiration for Nigeria within the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan.”

    In his response, the foreign affairs minister commended the FAO’s response to the crisis in the northeast.

    He said that the resumption of the new country representative would contribute to “more holistic approach to putting agriculture front and centre of our development goals”.

    Onyeama also commended the organisation’s initiative to organise a livestock development conference adding that the transhumance crisis needed to be addressed sub-regionally.

    “This has led to conflict and security issues and it is one of the items we also want to place on the sub-regional agenda of ECOWAS because it is not just a national issue.

    “The transhumance aspect of it is significant and we have to adopt a sub-regional approach to addressing that issue; the national conference to address that will be important,” he said.

  • Consumers face expensive yam as sellers raise prices

    Consumers face expensive yam as sellers raise prices

    Consumers  of yam across the country are battling expensive price of the commodity after sellers have increased the prices in response to a shortage, hurting family budgets already squeezed by high food prices.

    According to analysts, the rising prices of food commodities have a direct bearing on inflation, exerting  additional pressure on the cost of living.

    The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)  said  the constant increase in food prices was largely responsible for the upsurge in inflation figures.

    In some areas in Lagos, such as Ikeja, a big tuber of yam sells for between N1,500 and N2,000. While on the Mainland, it goes for N700 to N1000.

    In August last year, a  sizeable tuber of yam sold for  between N300 and N350. It shot up to  N550 to N600.

    Speaking with The Nation, a food stuff seller in Shomolu area of Lagos, Abia Onyeka explained that the increase in yam price was expected with only old yam in the market.

    He explained that  since the new yam  was not yet out, the old yam  in the market is now expensive.

    New yam  was supposed to be out since March, but has starting coming out.. Old yam is finishing so the few left will be very expensive.

    With new yams coming into the market, Onyeka maintained that the price would soon drop from N900 to N600.

    He believes the market forces of demand and supply are playing out at the moment, noting that high demand for yam has sparked an increase in price.

    The situation in Enugu State is however, different, as high cost of yam in the state is not due to scarcity, but cost of transporting the commodity from the north to the state.