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Tag: Agric ministry

  • Agric Ministry inaugurates national biofortification steering committee

    Agric Ministry inaugurates national biofortification steering committee

    The Federal ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and HarvestPlus under the UKAID supported Scaling Climate Adapted Nutritious Crops in Nigeria has inaugurated the National Biofortification Steering Committee to serve as a high level advocacy group for biofortification in Nigeria.

    Staple crop biofortification is a practical, proven and demand-led response to hidden hunger—particularly amongst the hundreds of million of smallholder farming families who eat mostly what they grow themselves and cannot afford nutritionally diverse diets, and are also not easily reached by food fortification or supplementation initiatives.

     In a period of food crisis, people tend to focus more on food that will fill their stomachs and less attention to nutrition, this has the potential to worsen the already not so good nutrition outcome.

    The Steering committee will serve as an advisory, advocacy and lobby group made up of policy makers, experts and stakeholders that will provide guidance on issues relating to enabling policies for biofortification in Nigeria.

    Read Also: The Role of Static Compensators (STATCOM) in the Stability of Nigeria’s Aging Power Grid

    The committee will also deepen the inclusion of biofortification and climate smart agriculture into government policies and programs; and use it as a strategic tool to reduce negative health outcomes associated with micronutrient deficiencies in Nigeria and this will lead to improved access to nutritious foods.

    The committee will also see to the implementation of the various policies at both national and sub national levels cutting across the various biofortified crop value chains.

    Country manager Harvest Nigeria, Dr Yusuf Dollah, noted that the biofortification steering committee is an advocacy platform for biofortification in Nigeria which involves high level government officials, experts within the biofortification value chain in Nigeria.

  • Agric ministry, college train 100 Tarabans in okro processing

    They had thought the only place for okro was the soup-pot, until they attended a workshop by the Federal College of Horticulture, Dadin Kowa, Gombe State and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

    At the three-day workshop 100 Tarabans were trained in the production and processing of okro, as well as the health and commercial benefits of the crop.

    The workshop took place at a guest house provided by a Taraba State House of Assembly member, Charles Maijankai, in Jen, Karim-Lamido Local Government Area of Taraba State. It began on Wednesday and ended Friday.

    The trainees were drawn from five wards of Karim-Lamido: Jen Kaigama, Jen Ardido, Bkwin, Karim A and Karim B.

    At the end of the training, each of the participants was given: a knapsack hand sprayer (for spraying of herbicides to control weed), a mat (for the drying of okra), liquid fertilizer, okro seed (newest breed) and two litres of Relisate herbicide to be used during pre-emergence or pre-planting.

    The participants were also given the sum of N10,000, each (N1million shared), as taxi fare when returning to their homes.

    Resource persons at the workshop included Mr. Adebayo, an Agronomist from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Abuja, Dr. Kamti, a Consultant from the Federal College of Horticulture, Gombe State and Engr. Angyu Samuel Istifanus of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Abuja.

    Istifanus told Northern Report that the workshop intended to add more value to okro production and make the vegetable crop more attractive to consumers, while Nigerian rural farmers, particularly widows and idle youths, are taught how to venture into okro production -as a cash

    crop, processing and marketing as a lucrative business.

    Okro is a warm-season vegetable, also popular as “ladies’ fingers.” Its scientific name is Hibiscus esculentus.

    The participants were taught that okro is considered as an important crop in many countries, because of its nutritional value.

    “It is an economically important vegetable crop of which its fresh leaves, buds, flowers, pods, stems and seeds can be used for their values. As a vegetable, it can be used in salads, soups and stews, fresh or dried, and fried or boiled.

    “It offers mucilaginous consistency after cooking. Often, the extract obtained from the fruit is added to different recipes like stews and sauces as a thickener because of its characteristic viscous juice.

    “Okro offers a wide range of health benefits,” Agronomist Adebayo said.

    It is a “powerhouse of nutritional value,” containing 1.5 grams protein, 5.8 grams carbohydrates, 37 micrograms folic acid, 13 milligrams vitamin C, 46 milligrams magnesium, 460 IU vitamin A, 2 grams dietary, 257 milligrams potassium, 50 milligrams calcium and 0.4 milligrams iron.

    Thus, the nutritional values of eating okro were given as: a source of calcium for healthy bones and muscles function, regulation of heart rhythms, blood pressure and cholesterol levels; improvement of eyesight through its vitamin A; good source of protein; lowers cholesterol; stabilises blood sugar; heart health and helps in digestion. Okro is also traditionally used to treat diabetes.

    Okro can be dried for later use, which produces much of the same results as the fresh product. When ripe, the seeds produce edible oil equal to other cooking oils. The ripe seeds of okro can be roasted and ground to serve as coffee.

    Speaking to The Nation, Mr. Istifanus said: “Many people do not eat okro because they do not know it value. With this workshop, even those that don’t eat it can be growing and processing it as a business.

    “The materials we gave the beneficiaries are to help them in the trade. But we are going to be supervising them from time to time, to see that they make judicious use of the materials.”

    Some of the benefiting participants, Mrs Rifkatu Peter, Mr. Merley Sylvester, Mr. Rehoboam Albert and Mrs. Tina Zakaria, among others, said the knowledge they acquired at the workshop and the materials given to them will, no doubt, help them to improve their living condition.

    “Definitely, I believe things are going to change for better, if I venture fully into the okro business,” Patrick Dauda Bandawa, another participant said.

  • Protest at Agric ministry

    Protest at Agric ministry

    The people of Ndi Oji Abam in Ohafia local government area of Abia state have protested against what they called years of marginalisation by those who have been managing the rubber estate situated on their land.

    They said that they have been short changed as those managing the estate have reneged on the agreement reached with the then Premier of the defunct Eastern Nigeria, late Dr Michael Okpara who set up the estate.

    They recalled that when the estate was established that there were agreements on how the place would be managed which includes employment of the indigenes of the area and royalties that should be accruable to them which have been abandoned by those in charge of the place.

    The people however reminded the present administration led by Governor Okezie Ikpeazu to implement his campaign promise to make agriculture the economic base of his government.

    Speaking during a peaceful demonstration at the premises of the state ministry of agriculture in Umuahia, the leader of the group Ezeogo Chika Oji said his people are worried that the governor has not been able the make agriculture his economic base as promised.

    Oji said that they were at the ministry to protest the wrong being done to them over the rubber estate which is located at their land, stressing that the rubber estate is a veritable source of fulfilling his promises.

    He alleged that those who had been managing the rubber estate have not been doing the plan with which the former premier of the defunct Eastern Nigeria, late Dr Michael Okpara when he established the estate.

    The leader of the group said that the estate which was established about fifty years ago by the Eastern Nigeria government was managed by a corporation which “Employed various cadre of workers and the donor communities had the privilege of having their children being engaged”.

    He said, “During that time the royalties accruable to the communities were defined and religiously sustained which the present administration is finding difficult to implement till date”.

    Oji recalled that the problem of the estate started in 1988 when it was leased out to a company which interest was to extract and transport the rubber latex for their own interest while they tell the host communities of low sales, failure to pay royalties and not able to pay workers.

    He noted that despite all odds that the people managing the estate has left it to grow into a thick forest, “This has made it possible for the communities to house over five thousand cows that graze within and outside the estate which is source of threat to our people”.

    Their leader said that the people of Ndi Oji Abam is using the occasion to appeal to the governor to intervene in the delay by the Ministry of Agriculture to release the outstanding sum of N 1.350 million being the part of the royalty accruable them for the year 2016.

    Orji said, “There was an agreement between the ministry and the host communities except Ndi Oji that the sum of N4.8 million be held in trust by the ministry for the host communities pending when an election into Amaeke Development Union is conducted”.

    “Part of the money has been paid and efforts made towards recovering the remaining sum of N1.350 million has proved abortive, hence this appeal for intervention for the payment of the money which is part of the royalty the ministry held in trust for us”.

    “We reject the companies that are said to be awarded the management of the rubber estate, our interaction with them shows that they do not have any knowledge of how a rubber estate is managed”.

    The commissioner for agriculture Rt Hon Uzor Azubuike later called some of the leaders and elders of the Ndi Oji into his office for interaction and a source at the meeting told The Nation that the commissioner insisted on the community working with the current investor.

    The source said, “After we had laid our grievances before the commissioner, he insisted that we must accept to work with the investor who had already signed an MoU with the state government, which we refused”.

    “Our refusal is based on the fact that the investors like those before them will only exploit the estate and we insisted on an investor like INNOSON group which has the capacity to rehabilitate and develop the rubber plantation”.

    Part of the placards they people of Ndi Oji carried read, ‘We have been fooled for the past 50 years today, we say no more’, ‘This looting is not late Dr Michael Okpara’s plan, he was full of passion and ideas for the people’, ‘If you say no to our request, please take your rubber while we take our land’ among others.

  • Agric ministry, firm partner for food security, dairy devt

    Agric ministry, firm partner for food security, dairy devt

    Dairy  giant  Royal  FrieslandCampina  of  the  Netherlands  and  the  Federal  Ministry  of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) have signed pacts to roll out new dairy programmes designed to safeguard food and nutrient security in Nigeria.

    Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Chief Audu Ogbeh and the CEO, FrieslandCampina, Mr. Roelof Joosten, signed a Farmer2Farmer agreement during the minister’s two-day working tour of the Dutch company’s facilities that ended May 27.

    According to Ore Famurewa, Corporate Affairs Director, FrieslandCampina WAMCO, “with the Farmer2Farmer programme, FrieslandCampina aims to deploy member dairy farmers to train and advise local dairy farmers on feeding and watering of cattle, calf-rearing, milking hygiene and practice, milking machine maintenance, hoof care, housing and barn design.”

    To ensure training for undergraduates in tertiary Institutions for FC WAMCO’s ongoing Dairy Development Programme (DDP) in Nigeria, the Managing Director of FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria, Mr. Rahul Colaco and Dr. Martin C. Th. Scholten, member, Board of Directors of Wageningen University and Research Centre, signed an expression of interest for academic and technical support.

    During the minister’s visit, FrieslandCampina announced its decision to invest N3 billion in its dairy development small holder dairy farmer programme in Nigeria. To step up its current activities, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and FrieslandCampina WAMCO also agreed to renew their MoU on the company’s dairy development programme in June 2016. FrieslandCampina WAMCO intends to provide support to a FMARD subsidiary, Milcopal in Kaduna, under the terms of the revised MoU.

    While in the Netherlands, the minister and his team visited FrieslandCampina and the Dairy Campus in Leeuwarden, FrieslandCampina Innovation and Research Centre in Wageningen and the Vollering Family Farm.

    Ogbeh hailed Friesland Campina for taking the lead in dairy development in Nigeria.

    “We will support pasture development; building of Paddocks as we intend to ensure the Fulani cattle herders settle down.  Over 60,000 hectares of land are already available in 8 States and more are still coming.  It is key to tie up with what FrieslandCampina is doing in Oyo and ensure cattle breeding improvement as well as training and developing skills for artificial insemination of local breeds with the best breed fit to cross breed.  We need the support of FrieslandCampina WAMCO, Wageningen University in the training of trainers in dairy farm management.”

     

  • FG, BOA, sign pact with cassava farmers

    FG, BOA, sign pact with cassava farmers

    The Federal Government and the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) on Thursday signed a N4.1 billion credit facility to support cassava farmers in the country.

    The facility is of eight percent interest rate expected to be repaid within 24 months.

    The Managing Director of the BOA, Dr. Mohammed Santuraki , who disclosed this, said the gesture was part of the bank’s contribution to development of agriculture.

    He explained that the loan would make available N205, 000 per hectare of land for 20,000 farmers nationwide.

    “Approximately, each farmer will be getting over N205, 000 multiplied by 20 farmers. This is just the beginning because cassava is a crop which is beneficial and can be grown anywhere in the country,” he said.

    However, Santuraki who was represented by Executive Director, Wholesale and Finance, Mallam Waziri Ahmadu noted that the benefitting farmers must meet up with the requirement and must have paid outstanding loans.

    “We have both agreed on modalities for members of NCGA to access the facilities in the Bank of Agriculture through mutually benefitting partnership and collaborations,” he added.