Category: Southeast report

Over 100 women rice growers have been exposed to modern techniques in Enugu State. They were trained in better ways to produce and process the grains.

The exercise was organised by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development as part of efforts to address unemployment and hunger which have become a major threat to quality of life.

The training had 65 per cent practical sessions and field trips with a view to preparing them to grasp the critical aspects of rice production, processing and value addition thereby create wealth and employment.

The permanent secretary of the ministry, Mr. S. T. Echono, who delivered a keynote address, told the women farmers that under the President Goodluck Jonathan’s Transformation Agenda, the issues of unemployment among “our women, wealth creation and above all food and nutritional security is being amplified and tackled particularly with attention to women for the benefit of Nigerians.”

The permanent secretary who was represented by the Deputy Director, Nutrition, in the ministry of agriculture, Mrs. Zainab Towobola, said there was the need in contemporary Nigeria for government to harness its human resources into actionable programmes and have them implemented to make meaningful impact on the economy.

He explained that this informed the training workshop, saying, “It has therefore become necessary to set up a deliberate drive for the training of women nationwide on different agricultural enterprises along the value chains.”

“This particular programme on rice processing is from Nutrition Value Chain of the ministry and the objective is to train women on modern method of rice processing ensuring that it retains its ntritiona value and to empower women as rice processors and organise them into cooperative clusters/societies”, he old the participants.

He further told the women: “The ministry has deployed some straregies using the value chain development approach that would enable value chain actors from producers, to processors, marketers and service providers to conduct their operations as profitable businesses. The goal is to make Nigeria self sufficient in rice production and also create a sustainable means of livelihood for women nationwide.

“I am aware that at the end of this training, each trainee would have been equipped to face the challenges emanating from setting up a rice production and processing enterprise. Let me assure you that any trainee that shows high level of commitment and seriousness and more importantly puts what she learnt into practice will be further supported and encouraged.

“I urge all trainees here today to be committed and build a consensus around all relevant areas of the rice value chain to see that the targets for rice production and processing in Nigeria are achieved.”

The Enugu state commissioner for agriculture, Engr. Mike Eneh who chaired the opening ceremony told the women that the training was aimed at improving quality and nutritional value of the rice being produced. This is because some of the local rice being produced have lots of sands and stones and the workshop will train them of hoe to eliminate such bad practices,

After the training, the commissioner assured them, the quality of rice they wiil produce would be high and match the imported ones in all aspects.

According to him, most of the imported rice we are eating have low nutritional content because most of them had over stayed in their strategic silos.

“But when you look at our local riceit is nutritios, delicious. This is what we want to achieve so that we can improve in these qualities. Nigeria has enough potentials to produce the rice they can eat. We need to leverage on the potentials available.

“Everyday you go to bed and wake up, Nigeria has spent about one billion naira importing rice. But this must stop. We cannot continue to eat what we cannot produce because we have can reduce what we eat and which we have the potentials to do so.

“There are many places to grow rice in Nigeria. More than enough. Now with Mr. President’s Agenda for Agriculture we hope it is going to be a boom in rice production.”

The presenter of the training, Engr. Isah Mohammed took the participants through a number of processes which include quantitative and qualitative loss, parboiling and method of rice paddy after harvesting.

He also introduced them to the use of the collapsible wooden dry platform to avoid the introduction of stones, impurities, stray animals and other foreign matters.

A case has been made to take cancer awareness to rural areas where residents scarcely hear about the scourge.

Medical experts and other professionals made the call at a lecture at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) where Nigerians in general were urged to submit regularly to medical checks in order to detect early signs of cancer.

At the lecture, the Vice Chancellor of the university Prof. Chukwuma Ozumba said his administration was determined to provide a good atmosphere for staff and students. He also said the pioneer university would not only improve on its excellent research credentials, but try to break new grounds.

The 90th inaugural lecture was organised inside the moot court ball at the Enugu campus of the university. Inaugural lecture is simply an exhibition of intellectual prowess by professors in academics.

The atmosphere was electrifying as several dance groups, the university musical theatre group and the Ladies of Honour dance troupe added glamour to the event. It was also a roll call of who is who in the academia. Renowned academics from virtually all universities in the country and some from Europe, America, Asia and South Africa were in attendance. Traditional rulers and the clergy were not left out. Anambra State Governor Willie Obiano was represented by the state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Joe Akabike.

In a lecture entitled “Cancer in Nigeria: Surviving the emerging epidemic,” renowned oncologist at the Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Prof. Emmanuel Rapuluchukwu Ezeome traced the origin of cancer to the Greek word “Karkinos”, meaning crab.

He said that Karkinos was what the father of medicine, Hippocrates used to describe a collection of tumours (lumps, swellings) which are known to be deadly and incurable.

On the African concepts of cancer, Prof. Ezeome, disclosed that the earliest evidence of its existence in humans was in Africa, in the form of fossilized bone tumors, human mummies in ancient Egypt, and ancient manuscripts, adding that growths suggestive of the bone cancer, osteosarcoma had been seen in mummies.

He further noted that in modern scientific understanding, the fundamental cause of any cancerous growth is a problem in the gene that controls the activity of the cells of that part of the body, adding that while the body is able to repair most of the genetic damage, some do escape repair and repetitive damage will accumulate in the genes and sometimes these defective genes will command the cells under their control to start growing and dividing uncontrollably and to become immortal.

Speaking further on the clinical manifestations of cancer, the oncologist, observed that cancer affects every organ and system in the body, from the head to the toe, and from skin to the deepest organs in the body, stressing that different organs have different potentials to develop cancer, but cancers of some organs are commoner than others.

“The improvement in survival from cancer has come from a combination of events which have taken place in the last few decades. Effective use of screening to pick the common cancers very early, improved effective treatment of the cancers, using a combination of several modalities, principally involving better and safer chemotherapeutic drugs, more precisely targeted surgeries and radiotherapy”, the 90th inaugural lecturer added.

On his recommendations for an improved cancer control in Nigeria, Prof. Emmanuel Ezeome, called for the establishment of a National Cancer Institute to serve as a strong instrument that would drive cancer control effort in the country.

He identified the absence of an organized structure as being responsible for the failure of first cancer control plan, and regretted that except for the oncology centre at UNTH, a country that is as large as Nigeria, has no regional centre for cancer control.

In her remarks, the deputy vice chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, UNEC, Prof. Ifeoma Enemo, who represented the vice chancellor, UNN, Prof. Chukwuma Ozumba called on Nigerians to see their doctors periodically for early diagnosis of diseases such as cancer and described Prof. Ezeome as the pride of the University.

Earlier, the chairman of the local organizing committee for the lecture, Dr. Uche Enoch Ogbonnaya, told journalists that the topic of the lecture was critical, in view of the rising cases of cancer in the country and enjoined the media to carry the message to rural communities to educate more Nigerians on the dangers of cancer.

Ogbonnaya who is a neurosurgeon, described Prof. Ezeome as an excellent researcher and scholar who has made meaningful contribution to the development of modern medicine in Africa.