Category: Agriculture

Agriculture accounts for an estimated 56 per cent of Kaduna’s Gross Domestic product (GDP) and employs approximately four million people. Kaduna produces 22 per cent of the country’s maize, 69 per cent of soya bean, 36 per cent of cotton and 10 per cent of ground nuts (peanuts) and the state trades’ agricultural produce to neighbouring states. The sector is dominated by wet season planting and an irrigated dry season planting. Most farmers currently produce cereal crops such as maize, sorghum, millet and rice during the rainy season. Cereal crops are exported to surrounding states and are an important source of cash. Kaduna is one of the largest producers of rice in Nigeria and it exports substantial quantities to other Nigerian states and other neighbouring African countries. The state is also an important producer of fruits and vegetables. The government of Kaduna State has laudable polices geared towards intense agricultural activities ostensibly as a means for reducing the level of youth unemployment, giving impetus to the factors that bring rapid socio-economic transformation and the provision of strong base for the take-off of industrial revolution.

Governor Patrick Yakowa is committed to addressing the relative lack of investment in agriculture by reactivating the extension services to open more opportunities to the teeming unemployed youth and the farmers locked in medieval agricultural practice. This is aimed at stimulating growth. Since the inception of the administration, both the peasant and the medium scale farmers have been the major focus of the Kaduna State Agricultural Development Project(KADP). Some of the yearly activities being pursued vigorously by the KADP, include sales and supply of agricultural inputs such as seeds, irrigation pumps, knapsack sprayers and agricultural chemicals at government approved subsidy of between 40 and 60 per cent to support the farmers. To ensure good quality seeds, the state government in collaboration with the Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR) and Agricultural Seeds Council, sells improved varieties of seeds during the planting season. Fadama III Project, a World Bank Assisted Project is being implemented in Kaduna in collaboration with the Federal Government in all the 23 local government areas. The development objective of the Fadama III Project is to increase the incomes of users of rural land and water resources on a sustainable basis. The state government is committing N45 million yearly while the 23 LGAs pays N2 million each to ensure effective implementation of the project in the state. Significant achievements have been made in the area of improvement of rural infrastructure, which includes construction of eight Fadama roads of over 30 kilometres and 100 market stalls as demanded by the project beneficiaries. The government is prosecuting its mandate of achieving incremental food and cash crop production through rain-fed and dry season agriculture, as well as livestock, fisheries and honey production, which has undoubtedly increased the farmers lot and improved the their overall standard of living. To this end, the state government has called on investors and entrepreneurs to take advantage of the agro business opportunities that abound and the business climate to come and invest. Concerted efforts have also been made to boost infrastructural facilities.

Harnessing the economic potential of the Moringa Olifera is the focus of the discussion at the first international conference on the crop at the University of Ilorin.

Moringa is a highly medicinal plant used for theraptic treatments.

Representatives of various organisations, including the Moringa Association, the academia, research institutes, colleges of agriculture and the National Agricultural Research System (NARS) are participating in the conference.

Delivering a lecture at the conference, the Executive Secretary, Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), Prof. Yusuf Abubakar said the plant had aroused overwhelming national and international interest.

Abubakar said: “Moringa has been described as an “all in one” plant in terms of its nutritional attributes, and elegantly summarised as a supermarket on a tree.

“It deserves all the attention of policy makers, researchers, farmers, products promoters, and other players across the product value chain.

“We recommend that it should be included amongst the value chain commodities of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA).”

He said that the conference could not have been organised at a better moment than now considering the enormous potential of Moringa in contributing to Nigeria’s food security, wealth creation and poverty alleviation.

According to him, Moringa is mostly found in the northern parts of the country, where it has been in use for many centuries by rural dwellers as a salad-like meal (kwado) or in soups (miyan zogala) and as a pot herb, until the recent discovery of its other benefits by researchers.

He noted that the plant, grown in home gardens or as living fences, the leaves are commonly sold in local markets in many forms.

He explained that recent scientific research classified Moringa as a very versatile plant as everything about it was useful in one way or the other, from its leaves to its roots.

The executive secretary said the plant was discovered to contain specific antioxidants and health promoting ingredients that offered veritable answers to malnutrition, hunger and diseases.

The Federal Government has been urged to take initiatives to drive a National Dairy Plan.

A consultant to German International Co-operation (GIZ) Sustainable Cocoa Business programme, Mr Dayo Mejabi Ekundayo, told The Nation that this will enable local producers to meet the growing demand for milk in the country. According to him, the consumption of dairy products has been growing exponentially.

He said the industry needs to be positioned to provide livelihood to Nigerians and ensure supply of quality milk and milk products.

Ekundayo, who is the Managing Director, Agricultural Business Concepts Limited, said consumers are demanding quality food products such as milk and other dairy products.

According to him, local operators are yet to build value into the supply chain to increase milk consumers’ confidence in the industry and reduce milk processors’ current reliance on imported raw materials.

He said local operators need to invest in the development of value added products .

Ekundayo said companies have started to tap into demand for commodity dairy product, adding that there is scope for adding value and developing brands. At this stage, he said the local industry is not capable of hunting for potential markets to export of dairy products.

He urged local operators to encourage dairy sector entrepreneurs to explore markets for dairy products.

Ekun dayo stressed for the need for luring foreign investors with technical expertise and funds to invest in the dairy sector. Besides, he said export of milk by-products could be enhanced, either in fresh or in powered form.

He urged the government to provide support and incentives to foreign and local investors to invest in the animal husbandry farms.

Ekundayo said that there was a need to establish large milk processing plants for enhancing the production of processed milk as much of the traded milk is marketed unprocessed.

Managing Director, Demacco Farms Limited, Mr Don Onyia said the local dairy industry need to be repositioned to show that it can produce its products in a sustainable way. He said the industry needs to work together to address barriers and opportunities to foster innovation and increase sales.

According to him, the industry’s has to demonstrate commitment to efficiency and responsibility both on the farm and throughout the value chain.

Improving national food production will depend on massive investment in research and extension, an expert, Prof Abel Ogunwale has said.

Extension is a service or system, which assists farmers through educational procedures in improving farming methods and techniques, production efficiency and income, which enhances level of living. All these have positive impact in lifting social and educational standards of the country.

Ogunwale, who is of Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, spoke while addressing the institution’s eight inaugural lecture series 2012.

Speaking on the theme, Repositioning Agricultural Extension: The umbilical cord of sustainable local food production, Ogunwale said the purpose of extension services is to transfer global agric information into localised knowledge that would be useful for the local farmer conditions. He said there was need for the nation to translate its huge agricultural potential into reality by encouraging local production and strengthening the value addition process.

A professor of agricultural extension, Ogunwale said national and local government staff and extension should be trained in food production so that they become familiar with approaches to improvement and knowledge of food production methods. Stressing the role of extension service, the expert said it is a key to achieving successful local capacity building by assisting farmers to choose the appropriate farming system, which will yield results within a locality.

Ogunwale said increase in agricultural productivity benefit the poor and dwellers through reduction in food prices. He said the government can improve production for small farmers by providing them better access to information and farming techniques generated by the extension service.

According to him, adopting and localising technology that fits local conditions need huge human and institutional capacity, and rural extension service offers the best pathway for localising technology.

The don stressed that investment in extension services can improve agricultural productivity, increase farmers’ income and will induce a conductive technological progress environment, which is critical in the process of agriculture productivity.