Category: Agriculture

AGCO, an American tractor company, set to invest massively in the agro business sector in Nigeria held its 2nd annual AGCO Africa Summit in Berlin.

The AGCO Africa Summit gathers politicians, CEOs and industry experts to help Africa move in the right direction by developing a new vision for agriculture and sustainable investments.

The summit is a joint initiative of AGCO, Bayer CropScience, DEG – Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH and Rabobank.

Speaking during the ceremony, AGCO Chairman, President and CEO, Martin Richenhagen, said “Africa’s population is set to rise to two billion by 2050.” “But food security in Africa is by no means where it needs to be to face this challenge. It is a global responsibility to develop agriculture in Africa to meet the growing demand for food security and better nutrition.”

To meet the growing needs of Africa’s rapidly growing population, he said farm productivity must increase.

According to him, Africa is estimated to hold more than 60 per cent of the world’s remaining uncultivated arable land. This untapped reserve of farmland holds the key to ensuring a sustainable food supply.

“Large areas across Africa have suitable soil and climate for farming, but are not used,” explained Richenhagen. “We need to support agricultural mechanisation in Africa to create better food security.”

The National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN) plans to improve the quality of cashew nuts leaving the country, by 70 per cent.

Addressing stakeholders forum in Lagos, its President, Pastor Tola Faseru, said the annual production of raw cashew nuts is 120,000 metric tonnes valued at N23 billion.

With the support of the government, Faseru said the association hoped to increase the volume from 120,000 tons to 240,000 tonnes within the next six years.

He said the cashew Industry provides livelihood for over 300,000 families and has created over 600,000 jobs.

Faseru said Nigeria was home to 15 cashew processing factories whose combined production capacity was not enough to meet local demand.

With a population of over 160 million, Faseru said the market for edible cashew kernel is very huge, hence, the need to grow the business.

He said over 90 per cent of raw cashew nuts are exported to India, Vietnam and other countries.

In the last 13 months, Faseru said the executive committee of the association has worked at ensuring that cashew takes its rightful place in the economy. He said the efforts had yielded positive results and attention.

He said the association has stopped the use of polypropylene bags while farmers are encouraged to use jute bags in packaging cashew nuts. He added that producers are advised to dry the nut properly.

According to him, the association has taken a number of initiatives to develop the industry. These include the memorandum of understanding for the Nigerian Cashew Cluster Finance Scheme (NCCFS) signed with Nigerian Export Import Bank (NEXIM), Ecobank Plc, Abod Success Investment Limited, ACET Limited, KD Foods Limited, National Cashew Association of Nigeria, African Cashew Alliance, West African Trade Hub and AIMS Limited. The MoU is to facilitate access to over $2 million in financing to three Nigerian Cashew processing Firms to enable them increase cashew kernel production.Other initiatives of NCAN are: Special Cashew Production (Scp) Scheme, Kogi Cashew Corridor (KCC) and N10 billion Cashew Intervention Fund.

A former apiculture expert with the National Root Crops Research Institute, Umudike, Imo State, Mr Victor Obi, has cautioned on the use of pesticides to halt the dwindling honeybee colonies.

In an interview, Obi, now chief executive, Obi-de-bee Farms, said farming was becoming highly dependent on the use of chemicals to control insects pests and weeds.

According to him, honey bees are killed by powerful insecticides.

Besides, he said dangerous pesticides posed “high acute risks” to pollinators. Where spraying is done, he advised that it should be on the field and not on plants.

He said indiscriminate spraying of field chemicals have wiped out bee farms. Obi said herbicides destroy the flora, depriving the bees of natural source of feed.

He said: “Use of sophisticated equipment, such as aircraft, in spraying chemicals has not helped matters as such chemicals expand their impact beyond a given environment.”

According to him, government must ensure that farmers use only pesticides that are approved whose use would not have a detrimental effect on bees.

His words:”Use of biological rather than pest control should be encouraged. I advocated a legislation against indiscriminate use of chemicals and continued education of farmers. Honeybee colonies have disappeared in most parts of the country. Insects such as honey bees and wild bees help pollinate crop species and vegetable varieties, contributing to food production growth.”

He expressed concern about bee health and investing heavily in research to minimise the impact of crop protection products on bees and supporting the responsible and proper use of pesticides.

Agric expert, Mr Abiodun Adedeji also alerted that fraudulent pesticides are threatening farmers, land and produce. He said there are illegal pesticides and insecticides, which pose a potential threat to public health. According to him, many counterfeit pesticides sold in the market violate safety standards.

Illicit suppliers fraudulently use packaging and trademarks from agribusiness and chemicals companies that include Syngenta, BASF, DuPont and Dow to mask sales of fraudulent agricultural products.

A Food expert, Prof Tola Atinmo, has expressed support for the inclusion of information on country-of-origin on food labels.

Atinmo, president, Federation of African Nutrition Societies (FANUS) and of the Department of Human Nutrition University of Ibadan, said this in a chat with The Nation.

He said fresh meat, poultry, fish and dairy products, fruit and vegetables, and other single-ingredient products should carry labels indicating their country of origin. This, according to him, would help government agencies address the challenges of food safety.

It would also ensure that consumers know where their meat or dairy products come from. It will also help to know if foods were transported over a long distance so consumers can avoid buying them.

He said people have the right to know what’s in the food they buy and they need to be able to do it easily and quickly so that they can make healthy choices.

He said all kind of edible products were being imported into the country without proper examination of the potential for negative consequences. Consequently, Atinmo advocated a regulation that will compel food companies to add key data on food labels, including name, list of ingredients, ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ dates.

He canvassed stronger rules against deceptive labeling of ‘fake’ foods. Atinmo said consumers must be concerned about welfare and the environment and should know where the meat they buy comes from, including those in processed products .

Food safety advocate Prof Stephen Fapohunda welcomed “improvements” on origin labelling and fake foods.

Fapohunda, of Department of Biosciences, Bacbock University, Ogun State, said there was no good justification for ‘hiding away’ core health information on food packaging.

He said every piece of information should be legible, adding that the origin country of products is a key criteria for consumers when buying food. He said that it is not easy for consumers to find out where their food comes from as origin information remains absent from many foods sold in the markets.

According to him, when manufacturers do declare the origin on a voluntary basis, writing “made in” or “product of”, it’s often also impossible to figure out if a product was only processed, transformed or farmed in the given country.

He said most consumers are interested in the origin because they relate this to the quality and the safety of the food.

He advocated that origin labelling should become mandatory for all meats, milk, unprocessed foods, single-ingredient foods such as flour and sugar and ingredients that represent more than 50 per cent of a food.

he German Minister of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, IlseAigner, and the Food and Agriculture Organisation Director-General José Graziano da Silva have called for a significant increase in responsible investments in agriculture to eradicate hunger and feed a growing world population.

Investments in agriculture are still too low in those regions where rural poverty and hunger are most severe, Aigner and Graziano da Silva stressed during a meeting ahead of the Berlin Summit.

“We need to concentrate our efforts on the farmers. Farmers are the key players in the rural environment and here lies the greatest potential for generating added value – both in terms of economic development and in guaranteeing food security in these countries,” said Aigner. “

The German government spends over 700 million euros each year on food security and rural development in developing countries. One of the goals here is to achieve sustainable yield increases. This is done by promoting locally based training and education, for example, and we have initiated a number of important agricultural training schemes.

“Agricultural investment has long shown itself to be one of the most effective and sustainable means for reducing hunger and poverty. We need to invest more. And, equally as important, we need to invest better,” said Graziano da Silva. “It is up to national governments, assisted by the international community, to create conditions where farmers can invest more and to increase their own investments in ways that generate economic and social benefits, as well as environmentally sustainable results.”

At present, around 870 million of the world’s poorest people, or one in eight, are suffering from hunger and have inadequate access to food. Most of them live in rural areas in developing countries.

Aigner and Graziano da Silva underlined that farmers need a supportive environment that makes agriculture attractive for investments. They need good governance, clear and fair incentives, and access to good infrastructure, public services and information in rural areas. National governments should ensure that these conditions are in place.

Good governance of large-scale investments, often by international investors, is necessary to ensure that the rights and livelihoods of local communities are protected and the degradation of natural resources is avoided.

The Emir of Dass in Bauchi State, Alhaji Bilyaminu Ohtman, has attributed the failure of rice mills in his domain to “human error and neglect”. Othman also said the rice mills failed after several attempts because of lack of government’s commitment to develop the agricultural sector.

The monarch spoke during the inauguration of the Rice Processing Centre initiated by TAKDAN Women Fadama Users Group in Dass, headquarters of Dass Local Government.

He said three rice mills established in the area, including that of the Better Life for Rural Women during the regime of Ibrahim Babangida, collapsed due to human errors and neglect.

The monarch encouraged the various women groups struggling to establish rice mills in the area centre and pledged to support them.

He advised the TAKDAN group against sharing the profits realised from the venture, but to reserve certain percentage that could be used as maintenance cost to enable them to sustain the centre.

Othman,however, commended the state Fadama III Project for assisting the centre with funds, which had enabled the group to establish the centre and called on other associations to emulate the women group.

Earlier, the Secretary of the group, Hajiya Hajara Bello, told the gathering that the centre, which was established in 2008, started its activities manually until it was registered last year as Fadama Users Group with the state Fadama III Project.

Bello said the group secured a grant from the FADAMA, which approved 85 per cent of the cost of the project and the group contributed 15 per cent of the total cost.

She added that the centre has modern machines that do not only process rice, but also de-stone it, adding that products of the centre compete favourably with foreign rice in the market.

The state Coordinator of Fadama III Project, Dr Ali Garba, said the project allocated N12 million to the centre while the group contributed N3 million.

Garba described the centre as one of the best in the Northeast.

The state Commissioner for Agriculture, Alhaji Tasiu Abubakar, said a such venture could reduce the country’s dependence on foreign rice as stated in the Federal Government’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda.

Abubakar was represented by the Programme Manager, state Agricultural Development Authority, Dr Aliyu Gital.

Meanwhile, more than 40 participants from 19 African countries have benefited from a training on integrated rice management practices that are crucial to bridge yield gaps in farmers’ fields.

The course was organised by the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) at its Regional Centre in Saint Louis, Senegal. It was supported by the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA), which has been sponsoring it since 2009.

AfricaRice Director-General, Dr Papa Abdoulaye Seck, said: “There is a desperate lack of trained capacity in rice R&D in sub-Saharan Africa.

“We are grateful to BADEA for supporting our capacity-building efforts to help create a new generation of rice research and extension professionals in the continent through quality and gender-balanced training.”

The training was targeted at rice researchers and extensionists, especially those who are linked to the activities of the Africa Rice Task Forces and Rice Sector Development Hubs.

It was conducted in separate sessions for Anglophone and Francophone participants.

Farmers have praised the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Oyo State, for giving them improved cassava seedlings.

The dissemination of the improved varieties is part of efforts by the Federal Government under its Agricultural Transformation Agenda to boost cassava production and the incomes of farmers.

In Benue State, home of cassava production, farmers said they expect good yields from cassava this year.

“With these improved varieties, we are hopeful of improved yields,” said Och’ Otukpo, Dr John Eimonye. ”We commend IITA and the Federal Government for initiating this programme,” he added.

Another farmer, Mr Boniface Eyimoga, who cultivated 15 hectares of cassava with the improved varieties, noted that the programme is making positive impact.

“As soon as we cultivated cassava, several people in the community joined.There is a kind of positive influence that the programme is having on cassava growing areas. More people are seeing the potential in cassava and they want to be part of it,” he explained.

He lauded the initiative, adding that it would create more opportunities for the youth and women in the communities.

“When we talk of agricultural revolution, this is one of the ways to achieve it. It is a step in the right direction,” he said.

Like in Benue State, several parts of Nigeria last year received improved planting materials.

In the last 45 years, IITA, working with national partners, have developed more than 40 improved cassava varieties with potential yields ranging from 20 to 40 tons per hectare as opposed to traditional varieties that give farmers less than 10 tons per hectare.

A scientist, Dr Richardson Okechukwu, who coordinates cassava transformation activities at IITA, said the deployment of the varieties would help Nigeria to maintain its leadership position in Africa, and create wealth for farmers. It would also ensure that the demand for roots by industries does not affect food security of Nigeria. “We are glad that farmers are getting these varieties in the country,” he added.

In the early 2000, IITA played a similar role under the Presidential Initiative on Cassava. Then, the institute provided farmers access to improved planting materials. These efforts pushed cassava production by 10 million tons in six years, making Nigeria the largest producer of cassava.

IITA Deputy Director-General for Partnerships and Capacity Development, Dr Kenton Dashiell,said IITA would continue to deploy its technologies to help the country maintain its lead in cassava production. “What we are looking at in this project is to narrow the yield gap,” Dashiell said.

He added that farmers were key stakeholders in the cassava transformation programme of the government, and that IITA recognises them in its research agenda.

A don, Prof Martins Antekhai, has urged on the government and private sector to create new uses for seafood products.

Antekhai, who is of Department of Fisheries, Lagos State University (LASU), emphasised the importance of the fishing industry to the economy in creating job and creating and generating revenue.

He harped on the need to promote aquaculture sub-sector as a catalyst to empower communities.

Antekhai said fishermen should be assisted in marketing and training techniques. These include, running trainings to boost hygienic fish handling, financial management, entrepreneurship and marketing.

Antekhai said the emphasis of the government should be towards enhancing fishery resources and production to alleviate poverty through self-employment.

He said the government should assist fishermen to meet the country’s huge demand for animal protein and contribute to foreign exchange.

To boost national production, Antekhai implored the government and the private sector to increase the productivity of fish farms, reduce post-harvest losses and encourage exporters to invest in integrated fish farms.

He said improved productivity, quality, and increased processing skills would have a positive impact on the price of the local fish.

Stressing the need to preserve sea products, the don advised coastal communities and fishermen to use local methods to preserve fish and other sea foods.