Category: Agriculture

The Federal Government has pledged to provide fish feeds and fingerlings to boost fish production in the country.

Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Bukar Tijani, said artisan fish farmers would benefit from the deal.

Tijani, who spoke in Abuja at a meeting with the officials of the Nigerian Union of Fishermen and Seafood dealers (NUFAS), said the ministry had reviewed the registration forms for farmers under the Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GES) to provide fish feeds and fingerlings to the farmers.

The minister noted: “Without fishery, the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) was incomplete”.Tijani said that the FAO had recognised the fish sub-sector as the fastest growing sub-sector in the country’s food security quota.

“Bayelsa, Kogi states and other flood affected areas will be given free input first, while others will receive fish feeds at 50 per cent subsidy but free fingerlings.”

He listed outboard engines, fish nets, twines and water testing kit, among other input, to be provided also at subsidised rates to the farmers to boost production.

The minister also said that the programme was expected to boost the supply of additional 200,000 tonnes of fish and additional number of job opportunities in the sub-sector.

Earlier, the All farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) called for the inclusion of livestock and fish farmers in the Growth Enhancement Support (GES) scheme because of their contribution to the development of the economy. GES is the Federal Government’s fertiliser and seed subsidy programme, which it developed with the private sector to boost access to agricultural input by farmers.The conditions of the e-wallet scheme required a farmer to be registered under the GES and repay 50 per cent of the cost of farm input, while the federal and state governments would pay the 50 per cent balance at 25 per cent each.

Speaking on access to loan facilities to the fish farmers, Tijani said the ministry was working out modalities with some banks to facilitate the farmers’ access to loans.

He also said the Jonathan administration was working with NIMASA, Nigerian Navy, Customs and some international bodies to curb the high level of sea piracy.

He further said the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) and the Ministry of Environment were working to tackle oil spillage in the Niger Delta because it is affecting fishing.

According to him, the ministry will also work with the FCT Department of Agriculture to expand the FCT fish market and also establish a fish estate.

Earlier, President of NUFAS,Mr Anthony Ashagye, reiterated the union’s readiness to partner with the ministry to achieve the objective of ATA.

“The transformation agenda of Mr President, the MDGs’ target of 2015 and the Vision 20:2020 can be achieved if the core fishermen and fish farmers were carried along in the policy and management.

“NUFAS is ready to partner with the ministry to ensure availability, accessibility and affordability of fish to reduce diseases and death in the society in line with the ATA,” he said.

Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mrs Ibukun Odusote, NUFAS officials and other directors of the ministry attended the meeting.

The Plateau Chapter of the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) has fixed the price of a crate of eggs at N650.

The association took the decision at its monthly congress in Jos, following threats by middlemen to force down the price of eggs to N550 per crate.

Its Chairman, Mr Julius Gusan, said the step was necessary if farmers must make profit against the background of increased price of feeds and the activities of middlemen.

“The price of feeds has been on the rise since last year without commensurate rise in the price of eggs. This is not good for our farmers who are in the business to make profit.

“To make matters worse, the middlemen have continued to sap the efforts of the farmers by determining the price of our eggs to the disadvantage of the farmers and the consumers.

“I want to assure you that PAN is out to change that. As an association whose main objective is to protect the interest of its members, it is our legitimate right to set price for our products.

“ I am happy we have achieved that today and henceforth, we will continue to take some level of control over the prices of our products,’’ he said.

Gusan called on all poultry farmers in Plateau to adhere strictly to the resolution and warned that any farmer found selling below the approved price would be sanctioned.

He said the association was working with the Plateau Ministry of Agriculture to sustain the industry by ensuring its profitability.

“We are working with the Plateau Ministry of Agriculture to fashion out a way of stabilising the price of eggs that would be profitable to the farmers and affordable to the consumers.

“The Plateau Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr Steven Barko, has promised to assist the association by instituting a task force that will sanction any erring farmer, who sells below the benchmark, “ he said.

He called on farmers, who are yet to register with the association to do so as their interest would be better protected if they worked as a group.

The Federal Government has been urged to support pastoralists to enable them contribute to economic development.

An animal production specialist, Prof Abiodun Adeloye, said more support for pastoral communities would boost food security.

According to him, pastoralists need special grazing reserves where they can spend time and allow their cattle to move around.

Adeloye, who is of the Department of Animal Production, University of Ilorin, said grazing reserves would boost livestock population, reduce herding and seasonal migration, and enhance interaction among farmers, pastoralists, and rural dwellers.

At grazing reserves, the government would give each settler of land. Depending on the herd size and the capacity of the land, the settler is expected to pay rent.

Adeloye said in those reservs there are water points to spread the cattle to avoid pressure. He said what the pastoralists in the north need are large water points along tracks.

This, according to him,would mitigate adverse effects of drought and alleviate the suffering of livestock farmers.

In most areas of the country, grazing reserves are not within the reach of about three-quarters of the herders.About 60 per cent of migrant pastoralists, who use the grazing reserves keep to the same reserves yearly. The number and the distribution of the grazing reserves are grossly insufficient for livestock farming. Good reserves that attract many pastoral farmers are overcrowded and there is strain of infrastructure. Animals that charged into the reserve literally drink the water in the dams and outgrow pasture resources.

About 35 per cent of land that was cultivable 50 years ago is now desert in Borno, Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Yobe, Zamfara, Sokoto and Kebbi states.

Nomads travel long distances in search of grazing land, and are headed back.

The livelihoods of some 15 million pastoralists in the North are threatened by decreasing access to water and pasture — shortages linked to climate change.

Tensions linked to pastoralist-farmer disputes have been mounting in recent months in several states.

The Lagos government has reiterated its determination to regulate cooperative associations to boost confidence in them.

Speaking in Lagos during a workshop on cooperative auditing and reporting for cooperators, the Commissioner for Agriculture and Cooperatives, Prince Gbolahan Lawal, said the government was improving the quality of financial management among cooperative associations.

According to him, the cooperative landscape is changing with an increasing emphasis on financial discipline and prioritisation of expenditures.

As a result, he said it was important the leadership of cooperatives associations achieved long-lasting improvements, transparency and accountability.

Gbolahan said the state government is committed to agricultural cooperative societies through World Bank projects and programmes, such as FADAMA, which are designed to boost food production.

To make such programmes achieve their aims, the commissioner said financial management is critical to improving the quality of service and that funding is used to address priorities.

Gbolahan said the public would have greater trust in cooperative associations if there was strong financial stewardship, accountability and transparency in the use of public funds.

He said it was important for cooperative associations to get it right because their activities impact on many areas.

The Commissioner said equipping them with audit skills was necessary to build sustainable financial capacity and improve accountability and transparency in the use of public funds.

He said the state cooperative college provides education for cooperative societies.

He said the state has over 12,000 registered cooperative societies managed by about 36,000 trustees. They have a combined membership of over two million people and a assets worth N40billion.

The Commissioner for Establishment, Pensions and Training, Mrs Florence Oguntuase, said the government would continue to support the agric ministry’s efforts to make agriculture a source of income for its farmers and their coleagues in other states.

She expressed optimism that the college would meet the aspirations of the people of the state through its training programmes.

A quality mark is needed for meat produced in the country to assure consumers of their safety, a lecturer in the Department of Bio-Sciences and Bio-Technology, Babcock University, Prof Dele Fapohunda, has said.

He also said there should a system quality control for meat through the use of bar codes.

The measures, he noted, should provide identification, registration and traceability of farm animals and animal products.

Fapohunda, a past President of the Mycotoxicology Society of Nigeria, urged the government to create an information system, which could track the history of an animal’s life from birth to slaughter, with data encrypted in a code.

This, according to him, would enable a consumer to find out details about the meat they buy; in particular how and with what it was fed, where the animal was grown, whether it was vaccinated and at what time the meat products were made.

He said the codes would be collected from breeding farms and stored on a single database, allowing experts to identify the economic costs of keeping animals on different farms.

Fapohunda said this would help improve farm efficiency and boost meat production.

He said the government needs to take steps to identify hazards and prevent foodborne illness, adding that information obtained from animal database would enhance food safety efforts, helping to avoid future outbreaks and ensure a safer food supply for consumers.”

Fapohunda said meat quality seal would tighten hygiene controls on ground.

The food safety expert said the system would have a positive impact on public health.

He said the codes will be collected from breeding farms and stored on a single database, allowing experts to identify the economic costs of keeping animals on different farms.

CHANGE is needed to improve national production, the Kwara State Chairman of Agriculture and Allied Employees Union of Nigeria (AAEUN), Comrade David Kayode Ehindero, has said.

He highlighted the importance of increasing the productivity of land, not just for food, but also of other services in the industry.

He said there is need to balance the many different priorities demanded of farmers.

Ehindero said if the Agriculture Transformation Agenda must be achieved, then there is need for the support by stakeholders for the programme, most especially the Labour organisation, such as AAEUN, whose members are committed to improving agricultural practice at different professional levels.

While commending the government on its plan to revolutionalise agriculture, ehindero, who is also the National Coordinator of Gentleman Farmers’ Scheme called for collaboration at national and state levels on the most effective and sustainable ways to improve farming.

On the challenge of access to funding, he urged the government to establish a Presidential Taskforce on Agriculture Credit to work out ways to enable real farmers get loans.

Fishermen operating along the Atlantic coastline in Akwa Ibom State have said the rising cost of fish is caused by frequent spills from the Qua Ibo oil spills operated by Mobil Producing Nigeria (MPN).

Mobil Producing, an affiliate of US oil firm, ExxonMobil, had in November and December last year, recorded oil spills at the fields.

Chairman, Artisan Fishermen Association of Nigeria (ARFAN), Rev. Samuel Ayadi, said the spills had affected fishing in the area.

Ayadi said more than 7,000 fishermen withdrew from the sea to pave way for the planned clean-up of the contaminated area.

“Before the oil spill, a basin of crayfish sold for N8, 000, but the same basin now goes for between N12, 000 and N13,000 following the spills.

‘’Like the fish of this Bonga, a portion of between N20,000 and N30,000, now costs N50,000 per portion.

“Even at the market, sometimes you cannot see enough to buy because of its scarcity and that is why most of the fishermen are now opting for frozen fish; and now the price of frozen fish is also increasing in this area.

“And we want the government to really come to the aid of the fishermen by assisting us and telling the oil company to really renovate their pipes so that fishermen can really go back to enjoy their fishing occupation.”

Ayadi said that the plight of the fishermen was further worsened due to the inability of the company to complete the clean up exercise as promised.

The Federal Government has restated its commitment to promoting the National Single Window Project to encourage international acceptance for agricultural commodities.

The Coordinating Director, Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS), Dr. Mike Nwaneri, said the platform would ensure safe import and export of agricultural produce.

He spoke at a stakeholders’ meeting on the activities of the service and the new trade project in Abuja.

Nwaneri said: “Importation is an international thing and there are global requirements for any product to move around the world so withthis, we can gain international acceptance especially our agric produce. So, in both country of export and import, there is a huge amount of documentation, inspection and possibly treatment required. So, this makes exportation hectic.

“The essence of introducing single window system is that forcesinvolved particularly in export and import trade in agricultural products seem to be cumbersome for exporters to adhere to, because anumber of certificates are required from different sources to be ableto achieve a successful export.”

Describing the project as a trade facilitation tool, he said it would reduce cost of doing business, time spent at the ports, enhance transparency and improve collaboration with government agencies.

He said the service has been partnering with the Nigerian Custom Service (NCS), stressing that it has begun an upgrade of its laboratories to detect Mycotoxins, a major common food contaminant.

Nwaneri identified the food poisoning bacteria (Aflatoxin) as part of reasons most agricultural commodities were being rejected at the international market.

However, he informed that the detecting equipment have been mounted at the NAQS zonal offices in Ikeja, Port Harcourt and Kano.

“NAQS undertakes emergency protocol to control and manage new pests’ incursions as part of its responsibilities to prevent spread of exotic pests and diseases of plants, animals, aquatic resources and theirproducts. It is a key national implementer of Sanitary andPhytosanitary Standards (SPS) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO),” he added.

In her presentation, Ghanaian Consultant to the NCS, Valentina Mintah, stated that the single window trade system could make trade across border, 50 per cent better, faster and cheaper within a period of five years.

According to her, “the optimum goal of the system is to create an integrated work space of data and business processes for trade-related activities and stakeholders with the trader at the core.”

She added that it would, among others, improve effective revenue collection for the Federal Government.

The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Ijebu-Ode chapter, has appealed to the Federal Government to assist rice farmers with finance and inputs to boost local rice production.

The Chairman ,Chief Kamoru Adeite, made the appeal during an interview in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State.

Adeite noted said the major challenges facing farmers in rice production were the lack of finance, farm equipment and encouragement from the government.

He said if the government could assist farmers to overcome these challenges, there would be no need for rice importation.

Adeite, who expressed the farmers’ readiness to embark on massive production of local rice with the government’s assistance, said that was the surest way rice importation could be discouraged.

He urged the Federal Government to be sincere in its quest to attain self-sufficiency in rice production in 2015 by encouraging farmers in all ramifications.

Adeite noted that the government’s intervention in local rice production would boost the economy and also encourage young persons to embrace farming.

The AFAN boss, who rued the huge amount of money the government had been spending annually on rice importation, noted that such spending was not in the best interest of the nation.

‘’If only the government can listen to our plea and assist us in rice production, I believe the idea of rice importation will be a thing of the past.

‘’We, farmers, are ready to partner with the government in attaining self-sufficiency in rice production but the government must also be ready to assist us,’’ he said.