The Nation Newspaper

Category: Agriculture

  • Nedbank, IFC launch $50m facility for producers, traders

    NEDBANK’S Capital division and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) have launched a $50 million working capital finance and warehouse scheme to help commodity traders and processors in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) import agricultural commodities and export cash crops, with the first deal already having been signed with rice importers in Liberia.

    In a statement, the bank explained that this funding had ensured that food was still delivered to the country without any disruption, despite the Ebola outbreak threatening food security with restrictions on air travel and border closures.

    IFC Regional Head of Manufacturing, Agribusiness and Services for SSA, German Vegarra, added that the private sector had a crucial role to play in containing the economic effects of Ebola.

    “By partnering with Nedbank, IFC and (the) Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme will support commodity trade in Liberia to maintain economic activity and ensure food security in the country.

    “The scheme is crucial to deal with the real challenge of food security across the continent,” noted Nedbank Capital Global Commodity Finance (GCF) head, SeketeMokgehle, adding that Nedbank, as the only South African bank to have signed with the IFC, was “extremely pleased” to be able to play its part towards ensuring that food, a basic human right, was available to all African citizens.

    In SSA, in particular, 20 countries had recorded an overall improvement in food security, according to the Global Food Security Index 2014, but countries in the region still made up the bulk of the bottom tier of the index. Although the region had recorded high economic growth rates over the past five years, food security and, particularly, food affordability continued to be undermined in SSA.

    Nedbank hoped that the working capital finance and warehouse scheme would address, among many other challenges, SSA’s low average income, widespread poverty, weak logistical infrastructure, political unrest and heavy reliance on costly food imports amidst large geographical areas.

    The scheme, which was part of the IFC’s Global Warehouse Finance Programme (GWFP), was focused on providing funding to farmers and traders in emerging and nondeveloped countries in Africa who were often unable to procure finance owing to a lack of sufficient conventional loan collateral.

    The deals would be structured on a warehouse concept, with the physical commodity or collateral being stored in warehouses or other acceptable storage and in-transit methods to mitigate potential risks. As the product was sold, the trader would pay the lender, enhancing cash flow for the farmer but still protecting the commodity on behalf of the financier.

    “The GWFP covers transactions in Africa, excluding South Africa, whereby Nedbank’s GCF division provides finance against a specific agricultural commodity. This is managed under a collateral management arrangement, stock monitoring arrangement, warehouse receipt financing, in-transit against a freight forwarders receipt or similar financing structures,” advised Mokgehle, adding that GCF already provided these products and had been doing so since 1999 in its business.

  • Enriching lives of small rice farmers

    Enriching lives of small rice farmers

    As a result of government and donor-supported development programmes, Nigeria is making efforts to grow more rice than ever before. However, there are challenges facing farmers in their quest to perform at optimum level. As a way out, experts have called for partnership between farmers and researchers in developing locally suitable farming practices, DANIEL ESSIET reports.

    Musa Basa (not real name) lives in the North with his wife and children. They grow rice and other crops. But they have to contend with a harsh soil type.

    Typically, when Basa and other farmers prepare their land at the start of the rains, they hope that the rains would be abundant and evenly spread throughout the season.

    When the rains start, he plants seeds. The challenge however is that when the rains stop, the farms return to degraded lands.

    While  rainfall may  be  short and intense,  sometimes ,  the challenge  is minimising run-off and increasing infiltration which  are crucial.  Since they are not achieving this, many farming families don’t plant more rice on and around their fields.

    There are   situations where farmers have suffered   huge losses in quantity and quality of rice after harvest. This is also because dry soils don’t help rice growth and so producing enough is an enormous task. While  this is  an  example  of  what   some farmers suffer  in  the North, the case of Abdul Ganiyu Alabi Ojolowo,  a  rice  farmer  in Lagos  is different.

    An accountant by training, Ojolowo sells locally milled rice (ofada) that is of high quality. But the same cannot be said of few of his colleagues. There are circumstances were bags of rice were fraught with stones and debris.

    Added to this, he said, is  consumer’s perception of local rice as inferior, making it less competitive against imported varieties.

    Another constraint he highlighted, is the long distance between the villages where  the rice  farms are located,   and the supply  towns. The  towns  are  filled with  good  suppliers of  imported rice than  locally grown  ones.

    If the  government  must  change  the situation,  Ojolowo said, there is a need to  improve  infrastructure such as irrigation, milling and processing facilities and farm-to-market roads to boost rice  production.

    To some stakeholders, while  that is the  reality on ground,  researchers  and the government are  making    efforts  to boost   crop yields and improve  the soil.

    A Professor at the Department of Crop Protection, University of Maiduguri,Daniel Gwary, said  there are  tremendous  efforts  to   improve  food security with focus on rice production. The measures include improving harvesting and postharvest practices and equipment to achieve high-quality grain.

    Gwary advised however,  that  farmers  should  be  assisted  with inputs such as improved seeds, fertiliser, agrochemicals and  to benefit  from extension services.

    He said improving   rice production under rain-fed lowland and irrigated lowland should be  a priority, while  attention should  be  paid to rain-fed upland rice in some key states, adding that Nigeria  has huge potential, to not only achieve rice self-sufficiency but also to  become the rice granary of the continent.

    From  what  experts  have  observed ,  addressing the challenge in  rice  production  is crucial considering   that Nigeria spends billions of naira annually on the importation of rice

    This, they warned is not in the interest of the economy.

    According to Africa Rice Center, reliance on imported rice and limited efforts in increasing domestic production is costing sub-Saharan Africa almost $5billion annually, its new appointed Director-General, Dr. Harold Roy-Macauley, has  said.

    “Africa is losing about five billion dollars in the consumption of imported rice due to the high demand for the produce. However, even with the limited supply regionally, there are high chances for African countries to close that gap if the crop is given a lot of priority by the governments and scientists who play big roles in developing solutions for the challenges hindering massive rice production in Africa.”    Roy-Macauley said Africa’s rice growing countries must invest more resources to support more production of the cereal crop.

    To this end, scientists from the center are developing climate-smart rice varieties and   intends  to   field-test a number of flood-tolerant varieties in Nigeria. The center has been collaborating with local and international partners to develop improved rice varieties and technologies to increase rice productivity across the continent.

    A major partner of the centre in Nigeria is the National Cereals Research Institute (NCRI), Badeggi, Niger State.

    NCRI has the national mandate for the genetic improvement, production of breeders’ seeds and development of production, processing and utilisation technologies of six crops which include rice, soybeans, beniseed, sugar cane acha and castor. The institute had been able to develop 62 varieties of rice since inception.

    Supporting the institute is the West African Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP), a World Bank assisted programme.

    WAAPP Nigeria has entered into collaboration with National Cereal Research Institute (NCRI), Baddegi to boost rice production. Niger State is among the few states selected for the programme.

    Speaking at  an event recently, the  National Project Coordinator, WAAPP, Nigeria , Professor Damian Okey Chikwendu,  said that WAAPP is targeting root crops in the state.

    Chikwendu who was represented by the Environmental Focal Point Officer, Shitu Hussaini, listed its collaboration role with NCRI  to include  production of breeder and foundation seeds, as well as  implementing  System for Rice Intensification Initiative (SRI) in the state.

    According to the Coordinator, the seeds being targeted for production by WAAPP are the high yielding and drought resistant varieties.

    WAAPP-Nigeria in collaboration with some research institutes, has produced and released a total of 434 metric tonnes of rice.

    Chikwendu reiterated that the objective of WAAPP is to produce enough genetic materials in form of certified and foundation seeds in the priority agricultural commodities of rice, maize sorghum, yam and cassava to enable farmers increase their productivity.

    He said seeds would be provided to farmers through States’ Agricultural Development Programmes (ADPs), the research institutes and colleges of agriculture, as well as universities collaborating with WAAPP, which are the immediate hosts to the farmers in the adopted villages and the agricultural innovation platforms.

    He said the project is interested in producing certified seeds to go round to farmers.

    The project is currently targeting 1.5 million farmers.

    On SRI, he  said the programme is  sponsoring the promotion of an integrated menu of agronomic and soil management practices known respectively as System of Rice Intensification (SRI) and Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) in Ebonyi, Niger and Jigawa states.

    The project involves sponsoring 20 Demonstration Rice Plots in each state, and an additional 10 plots in Jigawa State under the management of a partner-NGO called Green Sahel Agricultural and Rural Development Initiative (GSARDI).  The project which  involves the provision of training, utilise both theoretical presentations and practical sessions at the  demonstrations plots.

    Recently, to boost rice production, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development demonstrated the use of locally fabricated rice threshing machine to farmers in Lavun Local Government Area of Niger.

    The Director, Rice Value Chain, Dr Victor Onyeneke, who introduced and demonstrated the machine to over 100 farmers, said the idea was to remove impurity associated with paddy rice.

    Represented by Mrs. Ihecherem Nneka, an Assistant Chief Agricultural Officer, Onyeneke said the machine saves time compared to using manual method of processing the paddy rice. “Most of our processed local rice cannot compete favourably with foreign rice because of impurities such as stones and others from the farms. “The introduction of thresher cleaner machine will ensure that our local rice compete favourably with any foreign rice,’’ he said.

    Onyeneke said the programme was part of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda of the Federal Government introducing the mobile rice thresher to rice farmers across the country, adding that the idea behind the fabrication of the machine with local content was in collaboration with  the Ministry, Africa Rice and the National Centre for Agricultural Mechanisation (NCAM), Ilorin.

    He said the machine which would be put into use by the farmers for one month, would be sold to rice producing communities in the state at between N300, 000 and N700, 000 each.

    The State’s Director, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Bello Salihu, said  the machine is capable of threshing one tonne of paddy rice per hour.

    Salihu said the manual labour would have taken between eight hours for the same processing.

    He said that the introduction of the machine was to address the challenges of production and processing faced by rice farmers in the country.

  • Varsities discuss soil fertility

    A roundtable to create awareness for the Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) project has ended in Accra.

    It was organised by the University of Alicante in Spain, in collaboration with five West African universities — , the Federal University of Technology, Nigeria, the University of Ghana, the University of The Gambia, the University of Dschang in Cameroun and the Njala University in Sierra Leone.

    The Coordinator for the discussion, Ms Ester Boldrini, explained that the ISFM system was a set of agricultural practices adapted to local conditions to maximise the efficiency of nutrient and water use to improve productivity.

    According to her, capacity building in the partner universities was very important and expressed the hope that the outcome of the discussion would impact positively on students from the various universities.

    On the challenges that the implementation of the ISFM en-countered in participating countries, a lecturer of the Federal University of Technology in Nigeria, Prof. Matthew Bajon Ogun, noted that the level of training of extension officers on the ISFM was inadequate, thereby making it difficult for farmers to adopt the programme.

    He, therefore, entreated the governments of participating countries to make incentives available for risk absorption in case the ISFM project failed, so that “farmers will have something to fall back on”.

    Ogun observed that the centres of excellence which would be established would help address issues faced by farmers and researchers who engaged in the ISFM project.

    The forum attracted researchers, lecturers, Soil Science students, policy makers and representatives of the various universities.

    The ISFM project, which spans three years, is aimed at building the capacities of the universities in the ISFM project. It involves training courses for stakeholders and the establishment of centres of excellence in the participating universities.

    It also includes conferences to strengthen cooperation between academia and industry and the establishment of academic and industry funds.

    The project is being sponsored by the African, Caribbean and Pacific/European Union (ACP-EU) cooperation programme in higher education.

  • Curbing fish wastage through smoking technology

    Curbing fish wastage through smoking technology

     Fish is a staple food vital for good health. But the challenge for fish farmers is storage after harvest to enable them sell. Following this, there is a campaign to introduce smoked fish technology to prevent spoilage and help farmers earn more income. DANIEL ESSIET reports.

    F Phil Onuoha has his way, all his fishes will be smoked. This followed dwindling sales, he suffered selling fish fresh.

    A hardworking and dedicated fish farmer, Onuoha prefers selling his fish fresh from the pond.

    The challenge however is that fresh fish can’t hold long periods of time.  Though consumers prefer fresh fish, his challenges are transportation and storage facilities to keep it in a condition that can still be sold after moving them from the ponds.

    For him and other farmers, transportation of live fish to the markets requires investment in trucks with fish holding cages.

    While long distance transport of fresh fish further requires ice or trucks with cooling devices, the road from his farm  to  the  market  is  bad during certain seasons.

    In Ikorodu, a Lagos suburb, where his farms are located, transporting fresh or live fish to rural markets was not feasible .

    Besides, being expensive, it takes him time to move fish to central  Lagos   where consumers are willing and able to pay higher prices.

    Not able to do direct marketing, he has to contend with  market  women  who come  to buy  on  the farm.

    Onuoha  said  the  women  would  always  want  him  to sell at a price that is not profitable and  to  serve  as major  link  to  the  market.

    While lowering the price will enable him  to  sell  more, he  said it  makes no  sense economically to do so.

    As a result, sale at most  times  is  often   poor  after harvest. Besides, he explained that  the    fish industry is prone to seasonal fluctuations in demand.

    In most cases, fluctuations in  demand  is taken care  of by  processing.

    According  to him, selling fish is a high-risk business, as they go bad very quickly, so they have to do whatever they  can to reduce the risk.

    The option  for him is  smoking. After harvest, he  smokes the fish within the farm. This helps  him  to  control  supply to the market, stabilise prices and reduce  waste.

    So far, he is making gains. His customers are aware he sells smoked fish. Also, consumers’ preferences for taste and price are taken care of.

    Although modern preservation technologies would simplify their processes and would enable them to sell fresh fish, them can’t  afford to buy  cold  storage  equipment which cost run into millions of naira.

    For such, smoking  fish  may  be  the way  to go.

    He said  small-scale fish traders  invest significant time and effort to preserve their stocks using traditional methods before they sell it.

    To  experts,  kilns  used for  traditional smoking involves burning wood which leads to a variety of problems.

    Aside producing  more greenhouse gas pollution , it  releases contaminants known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are hazardous to the human respiratory system.

    Farmers, also  suffer  from intense heat  that  affect their  health.

    The campaign now is to get more farmers introduced to smoking kiln technology that improve processing by reducing the smoke level to internationally acceptable standards.

    One of the organisations promoting  this is  the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP).

    WAAPP  has resolved  not    to  strengthen  fisheries  but  to  support   technology transfer  through  universities  and research  institutes.

    WAAPP-Nigeria National Project Coordinator, Prof. Damian  Chikwendu  said the  priority focus of the project  in Nigeria include aquaculture, poultry, cassava, maize, and rice among others.

    He said WAAPP-Nigeria is   committed to doing anything possible to promote aquaculture.

    In this regard, he  said  the National Institute for Freshwater Fisheries Research (NIFFR), New Bussa, Niger State is emerging into a National Center of Specialisation in Aquaculture. The objective, according to him,  is to develop and release top notch technologies in aquaculture for adoption in Nigeria and Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) countries to increase productivity.

    Chikwendusaid  the  programme is also supporting the smoked fish  project at  the  institute.

    Another institution also involved in this campaign is University of Ibadan,(UI).

    In its  Department of Aquaculture and Fisheries Management are specialists in aquaculture development .

    The  department  conducts  market research and provide  fish farmers  with business management support. It also  provides  technical assistance to visiting farmers.

    Speaking while receiving World Bank WAAPP  team at the university, its Head of Department, Aquaculture and Fisheries Management, Prof Bamidele Omitoyin  said the school is  training  students  on smoked fish technology.

    In addition, he  said  farmers  are  trained  to process fish free from benzo-a pyrene considered hazardous to health.  The facilities in the department, he maintained,  has  the capacity to smoke one tonne per batch within 24hours, adding that UI has all it takes to deliver services in areas of aquaculture.

    The university fish farm, for instance, he noted is well positioned to deliver dividends in aquaculture research while essential infrastructure are also on ground to support research and production activities in the animal sciences.

    At  the Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research (NIMOR) ,Lagos, the  World Bank WAAPP Task Team Leader ,DrAbdoulayeTouré  said  access to smoked  technology is making real change possible for  fish farmers .

    With the support of  WAAPP, he  said  NIMOR  has  trained entrepreneurs on modern fish smoking technology and introduced an industrial fish smoking kiln fabricated by the institute.

    He  said the improved fish smoking project aimed to catalyse the development of sustainable value chain fish smoking improving energy efficiency and supply.

    He  reiterated  that  WAAPP   is implementing a regional fisheries strategy aimed at improving the sustainable regional supply of fish and fishery products. The programme has five different result areas, the fifth one being food security, which primarily focuses on the implementation of activities, geared at reducing post-harvest fish losses that occur in small-scale fisheries.

    In line with   this,  NIOMR  Executive Director, DrGbolahamAkande has urged cat fish farmers to embrace canning as a means of preserving their products.

    He said cat fish farmers were recording losses due to poor  preservation and lack of value chain, adding  that canning would boost the income of the fish farmers.

    “Canning the catfish will create value and increase the income of farmers. Instead of selling fishes unprocessed and at ridiculous prices, farmers  should either smoke or can them to enhance their profit,” he said.

    According to Akande, canned catfish   would compete favourably with the imported  canned products  such as Geisha and Sardine and  also has the potential to become an export product for  the country.

    Its  Head of Extension and Media Relations, Dr. Mabel Yarhere, said that the Catfish Canning Innovation Platform (CCIP) project was sponsored by the Forum for African Agricultural Research with $100,000 (N19.7 million)

    She said the fund was to support research, processing, market survey, mobilisation of farmers and launching   various stage  of the project within nine months.

    According to her, farmers in the Southwest zone have been mobilised and empowered to embrace the project.

    “We have assisted the farmers with fingerlings and feeds to boost catfish production as a step towards the success of the CCIP,” she said, adding that the platform was connecting co-operative societies to  commercial banks, which would give them loans to drive their active participation in the projects.

    Remarking that the CCIP project was a platform set on a stable ground and would create an open market for existing farmers and aspiring ones, she expressed delight that some of the farmers were already setting up canneries through sponsorship by state governments.

    She assured of the safety of consuming canned catfish as it has no health implications.

    “We have followed the international best practices as specified by FAO from primary production to finished products. We have worked with various local and international regulatory agencies to ensure quality,” she said.

    To  support the  Federal Government’s  move to increase fish  production, the   National Association of Fish Farmers in Kebbi State said  it will partner with the state SURE-P on the establishment of fingerlings production centre and packaging of fish after harvest.

    Its Chairman, Alhaji Hussaini Raha, said the association would also partner with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and National Institute for Freshwater Fisheries Research, New Bussa, on the management of fish farms.

    Raha said an update of the membership records revealed 12,050 members located in Argungu, BirninKebbi, Bunza, Bagudo, Shanga, Yauri and Ngaski local government areas, producing tilapia and catfish.

    According to him, the association has also registered 9,000 artisans and 300 cooperative societies.

    He said that the association would strive to meet international standard in the production of smoked and fresh fish.

     

  • Don seeks viable agric policies

    Don seeks viable agric policies

    The  Federal Government has been urged to introduce policies that will make the agricultural sector more viable and productive to tackle increasing unemployment.

    The Country  Representative, Harvest  Plus, Dr  Paul Ilona made the call, at the meeting  of  the  Capacity Building in Agricultural Education in Nigeria (CBAEN) Project  at  the  Federal College of Agriculture(FCA)Akure, Ondo State.

    According to him, unemployment rate which  stood  at  5.3 per cent in 2006  increased  to   29.5 per cent  in 2013.

    Delivering a paper,”Training and capacity building in value chains: Creating and strengthening linkages for job creation, profitability and agricultural transformation, Ilona said  good  policies would    make agricultural sector more viable and productive , ensuring  income for farmers to encourage others to join the agricultural sector.

    He   emphasised the need for agricultural financing and investment to enhance production in the country.

    He called for measures to mitigate the challenges of climate change, emphasising  the need for harvest security to prevent post-harvest losses to ensure increased revenue for farmers.

    Ilona  emphasised the need for a chain of market with competitive businesses ready to buy farm produce to prevent post-harvest losses.

    According  to him,  agriculture is the nation’s  greatest strength and critical for the country’s industrial growth.

    To increasing incomes in the sector, he  stressed the need to ensure diversification into cash crops, livestock and value addition on commodities.

    He said farmers would also be further encouraged,in addition to their food crop farming diversify into the cultivation of cash crops and livestock.

    According to him, there is the urgent need to reflect on agricultural policies to ascertain business ideals and attractiveness to the youths.

    He believed the youth should be better off if  their concerns with agricultural mechanisation, transportation, water and other basic amenities were provided. He   said young people would be more interested in value addition than actual production.

    CBAEN is an initiative of the Switzerland Government and sponsored by Bern University of Applied Science, Switzerland.

    The focus of the programme is to increase the capacity of agricultural trainers, extension workers and agricultural students in value chain approach,  to open more opportunities  in the production of various agricultural commodities, such as, cassava, cocoa, aquaculture and livestock among others. This will, ultimately reduce youth unemployment , alleviate poverty and reduce social vices, particularly illegal immigration of youths to foreign countries.

    The  beneficiary institutions  include FCA, Akure, FCA, Ishiagu, FCA, Umudike, Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute(ARMTI), Ilorin; Nigeria University Commission, National Board for Technical Education, Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria, Abuja and Ondo State Agricultural Development Project (ADP).

    The CBAEN team on the  Planning Mission included: Prof. Robert Lehmann (Bern University of Applied Science, Switzerland) and Dr. Ingrid Fromm (Bern University of Applied Science, Switzerland), Mr Andreas Brogers (Representative of the Switzerland Ambassador) and Prof. Placid Njoku (CBAEN consultant).

    Stakeholders, such  as  Cassava Adding Value for Africa (CAVA), HarvestPlus, Syngenta, Nestle, Plantation Industries Limited, WAAPP, among others, made pledges and commitments to partner with Federal College of Agriculture, Akure in various case studies that will form part of the CBAEN project.

  • Nigeria moves to save N431b from wheat imports

    Local wheat production is rising and Nigeria will achieve the 68 per cent local production target by year end, the Executive Director, Lake Chad Research Institute, Dr. Gbenga Olabanji, has said.

    He   said wheat production in the North would  increase the output from 45  per cent to 60 per cent.

    He added that the 68 per cent output target set by the Federal Government would be achieved by the end of the year.

    This will help the country to save N431bn from its wheat import bill.

    The LCRI boss said: ”Farmers have adopted the improved variety and we have released two new varieties in December, Reyna 28 and Norma Boulaug with average yield of 5.5 to six tonnes per hectare.

    “At present, we can say have attained about 45 per cent. But if we are to add all the products in all the Northern producing states, we will have close to 60 per cent, so the 68 per cent is still very much achievable.”

    Olabanji added that Lake Chad had released an improved variety of seeds that could produce up to  six tonnes per hectare of wheat while the area of production had also been increased to about 150, 000 hectare.

    The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, had in 2013 said Nigeria would meet 68 per cent wheat needs by 2015.

    “In two years, if we accelerate investment, we should be able to produce 2.2 million metric tonnes of wheat. This would meet 68 per cent of our domestic wheat requirements and save Nigeria N431bn in wheat imports annually,” the minister had said.

    The Special Assistant to the Minister on Media and Strategy, Dr. Olukayode Oyeleye, however, said Nigeria had over the years witnessed some setbacks in local production of the commodity due to lack of planting materials, government policy changes and lack of incentives to stakeholders.

    Oyeleye said:  “The huge increase in consumption coupled with low productivity resulted in importation to fill the gap between demand and supply.

    “Local consumption in the country has reached four million tonnes while production stood at 100,000 tons in 2012. To reverse this trend where more than N600billion in foreign exchange is spent on wheat importation, the Wheat Value Chain was put in place.’’

  • Trade Hub to boost cashew nut production

    The West Africa Trade Hub of the  United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has earmarked over US$150,000 to help finance processing raw cashew nuts to increase regional trade competitiveness, improve food security, and reduce poverty over the next five years.

    The programme, which is in partnership with Cashew Alliance, is among other objectives, aimed at boosting international exports, jobs, and investments; and also to promote broader, more sustainable growth by improving both the private sector’s capacity and policies, rules and practices that govern regional and external trade.

    It will also increase regional trade in key commodities through more value added exports: shea, cashew, mango, rice, maize, millet/sorghum, livestock — cattle, and small ruminants.

    Value Chain Development Team Lead of the Trade Hub, Mr. William Bill Noble, said  in Accra, at a workshop organised for finance-access facilitators from some selected African countries and aimed at training them to secure finance and investment for firms to help increase the level of transformation in the processing of raw nuts to add-value — said: “We are going to provide financing to promote cashew nut processing in the region through approval of business plans and proposals. It is a trade project working with processors to add value to such commodities.”

    There are over 40,000 metric tonnes (mt) of raw cashew nuts produced in the country, all in rural areas creating employment for thousands, with women in the majority, and export figures averaging 80,000mt: with inflows from Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Benin going to major destinations such as India, Vietnam and Brazil.

     

  • FAO unveils new crop to end hunger in West Africa

    FAO unveils new crop to end hunger in West Africa

    The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has stepped up efforts to end hunger and poverty in West Africa, following the introduction of a new crop meant to contribute to National and Global food security.

    The crop, known as Quinoa, is described as a highly nutritious food crop that can survive in various growing conditions. It  also has a high potential to contribute to regional and global food security due to its nutritional characteristics and agronomical versatility.

    According to the FAO, Quinoa is the only food plant that offers all essential amino acids, trace elements and vitamins in a healthy balance and also gluten free.

    Similarly, the crop can be an important alternative, especially to populations that have no access to adequate sources of protein. FAO characterised Quinoa as one of humanity’s most promising crop relative to the fact it is the answer to the myriad of problems of human nutrition.

    At a regional training of trainers’ workshop in Dodowa in the Greater Accra Region, , FAO Regional Representative for Africa, Dr Lamourdia Thiombiano, said the benefits of the Quinoa crop have been established with some evidence, demonstrating its potential for hunger and poverty reduction at national, regional and global levels.

    Thiombiano indicated that the demand for the crop had risen as a result of its nutritious nature, resulting in a mad rush for its cultivation in over 70 countries.

  • BATN empowers small farmers

    BATN empowers small farmers

    The British American Tobacco Nigeria Foundation (BATNF) has reiterated its commitment to supporting the government’s poverty alleviation schemes with its strategic investments  targeted at  empowering small farmers, to improve productivity and earn decent incomes from their agricultural activities.

    Its General Manager, Abimbola Okoya, while speaking at an interactive session organised by the foundation for its key stakeholders to map out new strategies to boost agricultural productivity with a focus on better ways of enriching smallholder famers, said  their activities are focused on where they could achieve the most impact in the agriculture value chain.

    “The British American Tobacco Nigeria Foundation has recorded remarkable milestones through the deployment of strategic intervention schemes focusing on provision of potable water supply, vocational skills development, agricultural development, and environmental protection since its establishment in 2002,” said Ms Okoya, while addressing stakeholders at the conference which held in Ibadan, Oyo State. “These interventions have transformed the lives of beneficiaries through capacity building initiatives and creation of enabling environment for smallholder farmers to effectively distribute their agricultural produce,” she added.

    The conferees discussed proactive approaches to increasing crop yield and enhancing natural resource through capacity building, technical assistance from reputable enterprise-based organisations as well as paving ways for easy access for the distribution of agricultural produce.

    Okoya said: “This strategic meeting with the technical partners becomes necessary due to BATN Foundation’s yearning for sustainable agricultural development, enriching lives of smallholder farmers, providing periodic information on agricultural development, and sharing learning on agriculture-related matters. The BATN Foundation is particularly concerned about the impact of the interventions on the lives of smallholder farmers and other beneficiaries within the value chain.”

    She said the organisation recognises the pivotal role of its partners in implementing the foundation’s corporate social investments. “All the stakeholders must adopt the BATNF’s new ways of working, one of which is ensuring that the interventions’ impact on the beneficiaries are easily measurable with respect to variables such as changes in average household, adequacy of level and stability of food supply and access, proportion of smallholder farmers and agro –entrepreneurs adopting new practices among many others,”  Okoya said.

  • ‘Nigeria’s blue revolution capable of reducing N125b fish import’

    Professor of Fisheries, Martins Antekhai  has said the fisheries sector is heading for a complete turnover with the blue revolution plan as multinational companies respond to  government’s call to join  the campaign to reduce the N125 billion annual fish import bill.

    Antekhai, who is of the Department of Fisheries, Lagos State University,  said  the decision of fisheries multinationals to cut down on imports and embrace aquaculture will play a big role in increasing national fish production, thereby creating  more jobs for Nigerians.

    He said a lot of investors are going to tap into the vast unutilised land and inland water resources to address the shortage of quality fish seeds, adding that it will give a boost to the sector.

    While the approach is going to deliver increased profitability in the long run, the don said reducing importation on the other hand will lead to the development of a virile fish export industry.

    Already, Antekhai added that the level of fish consumption is big enough to support aquaculture.

    In tandem with the Agriculture Transformation Agenda, Triton Aqua Africa Limited commenced its local harvest at Iwo, Osun State.

    Its Director of Production, Mr. Yashpal Jain said the firm is going into local production in a bid to reduce fish imports for which the company has been involved.

    Jain said the pilot phase of the project is located in Iwo, where it already had a poultry project in the past, but added that for the aquaculture scheme, additional 25 acres of land had to be secured.

    The pilot stage at Iwo, Jain explained, is growing the African catfish of the Clarias Gariepinus species in ponds as big as two standard plots of land for one.

    Overall, two large earthen ponds with the dimension of 100m x 80m, six of 100m x 40m and four nursing ponds of 80m x 25m are expected when the pilot fish farm infrastructure is completed.

    For Tilapia, he said though cages in which they are kept are expensive and usually imported, the company would source and fabricate locally such number as would be needed in the course of establishing the farms.

    From the existing ponds, 40 tonnes of catfish is expected at this instance; however, Jain explained that 2.2 cropping can be done in a year and would amount to 88 tonnes of full capacity at this stage.

    Chief Executive Officer, Raju Santani said Triton Group, which came into business in the country in 1995 owns a two-million catfish fingerling capacity hatchery in Ikeja, Lagos State from where it sourced the stock for the Iwo project.

    Santani said about $65million is planned for investment in catfish and tilapia production in the next five years to complement efforts of government to grow the local fisheries sector and create more job opportunities in Nigeria.

    He said the plan is to establish fish farms for both tilapia and catfish in different parts of the country. For this reason, various state governments were approached to partner with the company to grow fish, provide jobs and boost the economy.

    For instance, Oyo, Ogun, Kwara and Ekiti states have been approached with applications, for working relationship that would release water bodies like in the various Water Basins and dams for fisheries activities.

    The Tilapia to be farmed is specially improved breed, the Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia (GIFT), which he said are getting wider acceptability worldwide.