The Nation Newspaper

Tag: agriculture

  • U.S. varsity, Delta govt partner on agriculture

    The Michigan State University in the U. S. has expressed its determination to partner with the Delta Government in efforts to develop agriculture in the state.

    Some officials of the university’s Department of International Development expressed the commitment in Asaba when they visited Governor Ifeanyi Okowa.

    The leader of the delegation, Dr Oyinkan Tasie, an Assistant Professor, International Development, said that the partnership would aid efforts to reposition agriculture as the mainstay of the state’s economy.

    He said the university was collaborating with some states in Nigeria, with a view to helping them to evolve sound and viable agriculture policies via training and development of models.

    ‘‘We have come to seek partnership with the Delta State Government to see ways we can work together to develop institutions and manpower in the agricultural sector.

    “Through the provision of training for efficient manpower development and improved best practices, we are optimistic that the programme, which will also run in six other states in Nigeria, would be a huge success.

    ‘‘Our partnership objective is to help formulate a viable agricultural policy for the state, through collaborative work with the state Ministry of Agriculture and Delta State University (DELSU), Abraka.

    ‘‘The partnership will involve training of students and academicians in the various fields of agriculture as well as the provision of technical logistics to improving agricultural programmes in the state,’’ he said.

    Tasie, a lecturer of the Department of Agriculture, Food and Resource Economy, Michigan State University, listed Benue, Ebonyi and Niger as some of the states that were selected for the partnership programme with the university.

    He said the American university was committed to providing the needed technical assistance to the states so as to actualise the main objectives of the agricultural development partnership.

    According to him, the partnership will help to provide a support base for the state government’s agricultural development programmes.

    Okowa expressed the state government’s readiness to collaborate with the institution to improve agricultural production in the state.

    The governor, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Mr Festus Agas, said the state government placed high premium on agriculture.

    He said that was why it was committed to entering partnerships that would facilitate the development of the agricultural sector so as to generate revenue for the state and employment opportunities for the citizens.

    ‘‘The state government’s policy thrust is anchored on the SMART agenda, and one of the ways of actualising this objective is through the vehicle of agriculture to provide gainful employment for our people.

    ‘‘Since the inception of the present administration in Delta, government has initiated various agricultural development programmes and investments in agriculture to empower our people,’’ he said.

    Okowa listed the state government’s investments in oil palm production, aqua-culture and rice production as well as its collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria in agriculture as some of its development initiatives.

    According to him, the government will remain committed to providing partnership support and the enabling environment for the success of initiatives that are geared toward improving the state’s economy.

    He expressed optimism that the partnership programme would be mutually beneficial to both the state government and the Michigan State University.

    He commended the university for selecting Delta as one of the states for the agricultural programme and conveyed his administration’s appreciation for the training of students in agriculture.

  • Inadequate shipping threatens agriculture export

    Inadequate shipping is threatening the agricultural export, the  National Publicity Secretary,National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN), Sotonye Anga, has said.

    He said though there was adequate shipping capacity to move other  goods out of the ports, it  was  not so for agricultural produce, especially cashew export.

    He reiterated that there was a misplaced belief that there is adequate shipping to meet the agriculture export.

    Out of the ports, he added that there were inadequate facilities for cashew to be stored and shipped  to avoid their contamination.

    According to him, if substandard logistics adversely affects an export product, for example, contamination by hazardous substances in the same shipment—it will likely be refused entry into abroad.

    He explained that cashew export must reach the customer in a good condition as required and it is mandatory that the produce reaches the buyer at the time needed.

    He explained that in most cases shipment out of Nigeria a does not meet those conditions.

    Despite this challenge, the  President, Cocoa Association of Nigeria(CAN), Sayina Rima, said  there have been strong performances in export  as  operators make efforts to meet shipping schedule to avoid rejection.

    He said cocoa exporters take three-month contracts to allow them enough time to ship the produce.

    He said there was  a need for more collaboration with agriculture to get more products for export.

  • Scientist wants FG to develop policies on food processing

    Scientist wants FG to develop policies on food processing

    Dr Sekinat Farinde, a food scientist at the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IAR&T), Ibadan, has urged the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to develop policies on food processing and production.

    Farinde said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Ibadan that the Ministry should also articulate broadbase policies on Agricultural food preservation and marketing in Nigeria.

    She suggested that the policy on agricultural food processing and preservation should specifically focus on quality control and maintenance of standards along the agricultural value chain in relation to global market competition.

    This, she said, would help ensure adequate food security in the country.

    Farinde noted that in developing countries, such as Nigeria, food got lost due to poor production planning, premature harvesting, poor storage facilities, packaging, lack of infrastructure and processing facilities.

    According to her, good linkages and networking of stakeholders, adequate and appropriate processing technologies are important in reducing post harvest losses through food processing.

    She said that proper storage facilities, good packaging machines, were also very important for attaining high production quality and standard products for the international market.

    “Another good one is the use of modified atmospheric packaging: a way of extending the shelf life of fresh food products.

    “The technology substitutes the air inside a package with a protective gas mix; the gas in the package ensures that the product will stay fresh for as long as possible.

    “It is a modern method used for preservation of meat, sea foods, fruits and vegetables,” she said.

    The food scientist emphasised that “it is only through quality standard maintenance of our raw and processed food that we can have a safe and competitive market”.

    She added that quality standard maintenance of processed foods would provide enabling environment for wealth creation in the country.

  • Nasarawa Govt. to purchase over 240,000 bags of fertilizers

    Nasarawa Govt. to purchase over 240,000 bags of fertilizers

    Nasarawa State Government has concluded arrangements to purchase more than 240,000 bags of assorted fertilizers for distribution to farmers at subsidized rate.

    Mr Jameel Zakari, Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lafia.

    Zakari said that this would ensure that genuine farmers access adequate amount of the commodity as the rains set in, adding that government had signed an agreement with suppliers through the governors’ forum for the product.

    He pointed out that that the over 400 truckloads of the product expected from the agreement would last beyond the coming rainy season.

    Zakari pointed out that given the commitment of the state government to make fertilizer available early enough, it had worked out the necessary modalities for the prompt supply of the commodity.

    “We would soon begin to take delivery of the fertilizer in the state for distribution to farmers taking into cognizance of the fact that the earlier farmers got it, the more beneficial it would be towards improving crop yield,” he said.

    He explained that there was already a template for the equitable distribution of the commodity to genuine farmers to allay the fear of diversion of the commodity.

    The commissioner said that Gov. Tanko Al-Makura had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a Chinese firm, during his recent visit to China, for the establishment of four fertilizer-blending plants in the state.

    “As we speak, the Chinese partners are already in the state to put finishing touches to the MoU and start work on the plants,’’ he said.

    Zakari said that the persistent cases of scarcity of fertilizer would be over in the state when the plants start production.

  • Kwara gets N2b for commercial agriculture

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will supplement the investment of Valentine Chickens, a subsidiary of Shonga Farms Holdings Limited in Kwara State, with a loan of N2 billion from the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme.

    CBN’s Governor Godwin Emefiele stated this when he visited Shonga Farms in Edu Local Government.

    He noted that the loan is to support value chain in chicken production, with the potential of employing more youths.

    According to him, Kwara has a comparative advantage in poultry business, and will support Valentine Farms, which business has employed many youths.

    Emefiele, who was accompanied by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture, Abdullah Adam and Governor AbdulFatah Ahmed, expressed satisfaction that critical sectors in the farms are managed by Nigerians.

    He praised the government for the initiative, describing it as an example of a successful collaboration with foreign direct investors that created employment in the agro-allied sector.

    Saraki thanked Emefiele for supporting commercial agriculture in the state, and assured foreign investors that lawmakers will support agro-allied related businesses through appropriate laws to create more employment.

    Ahmed assured Emefiele the state is well positioned to champion commercial agriculture revolution in the country.

    He added that his administration has established an off-taker demand driven scheme based on lessons learnt from the Shonga model, to empower farmers, create jobs and establish Kwara State as a major agriculture hub in the country.

  • Kwara gets N2b for commercial agriculture

    Kwara gets N2b for commercial agriculture

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will supplement the investment of Valentine Chickens, a subsidiary of Shonga Farms Holdings Limited in Kwara State, with a loan of N2 billion from the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme.

    CBN’s Governor Godwin Emefiele stated this when he visited Shonga Farms in Edu Local Government.

    He noted that the loan is to support value chain in chicken production, with the potential of employing more youths.

    According to him, Kwara has a comparative advantage in poultry business, and will support Valentine Farms, which business has employed many youths.

    Emefiele, who was accompanied by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture, Abdullah Adam and Governor AbdulFatah Ahmed, expressed satisfaction that critical sectors in the farms are managed by Nigerians.

    He praised the government for the initiative, describing it as an example of a successful collaboration with foreign direct investors that created employment in the agro-allied sector.

    Saraki thanked Emefiele for supporting commercial agriculture in the state, and assured foreign investors that lawmakers will support agro-allied related businesses through appropriate laws to create more employment.

    Ahmed assured Emefiele the state is well positioned to champion commercial agriculture revolution in the country.

    He added that his administration has established an off-taker demand driven scheme based on lessons learnt from the Shonga model, to empower farmers, create jobs and establish Kwara State as a major agriculture hub in the country.

  • Agriculture will help Nigeria tackle unemployment, says Wike

    Agriculture will help Nigeria tackle unemployment, says Wike

    Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has stated that investments in agriculture  will help the nation  tackle youth unemployment .

    Speaking during a courtesy  visit by the Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh and Minister of State for Agriculture, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri at the Government House Port Harcourt on Wednesday, Wike said agriculture is essential   to the revival of the nation’s  economy.

    He said: “If Nigeria must move to the next level, agriculture  is key. To reduce unemployment, we must focus on agriculture “.

    The governor  lauded the Minister of Agriculture  for displaying  maturity  by ensuring  that the issues  of  food production  are insulated  from politics.

    The governor  said his administration  was developing a public private partnership  model to enhance  the  development  of  agriculture.

    He said: “We are developing the cassava factory to improve  the commercial  farming  of the product.  We are also working  with a private  company to revive our rubber factory”.

    He informed  that his administration  is working  with  the Rivers State University to revive the College of Agriculture  at Onne for the training  of agricultural  professionals.

    Governor Wike said that the State Government  will  collaborate with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to improve  key aspects  of  the  State Agricultural Sector.

    In his remarks, Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh said unless the youth are reintroduced  to agriculture, the country will always  have security  challenges  as most urban youths are idle.

    He said issues  of agriculture  must be placed above politics in the overall interest of the country.

    The Minister  said that Rivers State  has the potentials to be a major  source of fish for the entire country.

    The Ministers of Agriculture and all the Commissioners of Agriculture are in Rivers State  for the National Council of Agriculture meeting.

  • Kaduna: CADP distributes input worth N811m to farmers

    The Kaduna State Commercial Agricultural Development Projects (CADP) has disbursed N811.6 million to 3,401 farmers’ groups to finance their agribusinesses.

    Aliyu Saidu, Communication Officer of the CADP disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Kaduna.

    Saidu explained that 2,960 male and 441 female farmers received the amount in commodity and farm inputs under the CADP Commodity Interest Groups (CIG) programme.

    Farmers are expected to use the farm inputs to enhance their value-chain in Maize, fruits and diary production in the state.

    NAN reports that the CADP is a World Bank assisted programme, implemented in five pilot states of the federation.

    The programme began in 2010 with 150 million U.S. dollar funding from the World Bank with seven years implementation timeline.

    The bank introduced the programme to expose farmers to modern skills in agribusinesses.

    It was implemented through value-chain scheme in different crops, livestock and aquaculture.

    It also provided infrastructure and services to ease farmers’ challenges of evacuating produce from their farms.

    NAN further reports that Kaduna, Kano, Enugu, Osun and Lagos states participated in the pilot programme according to their areas of comparative advantage.

    The programme also focused on skills acquisition, agribusiness development plans as well as technology-based farming methods.

    It aimed to expose farmers to application of modern technologies and skills in production processing and market of commodities that could compete in the global market.

    The programme was implemented in Kaduna state across five value-chain items including crops, livestock, Diary, Aqua/fishery and fruits production.

    Saidu said 85km paved and unpaved access roads were also provided to some 13 local government areas, where the value-chain programmes were executed.

    “CADP also established milk collection centres in three major grazing reserves in Kachia, Birnin Gwari and Kubau local areas in the state.

    “It equally provided skills to 1,176 women and youth groups in diary, Aqua/Fishery, poultry, maize and fruits production and processing,“ he said.

    According him, 76 youths and women groups benefitted in the first batch of training in the CADP five value-chain programmes in the state in 2014.

    He said N3 million funding had been provided to each of the beneficiaries, who had established poultry, Fish farms and fruit processing businesses.

    The training took place at the College of Agriculture and the National Animal Production Research Institute, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria.

    He said that some 1,100 women and youth groups also benefitted from poultry, fisheries and diary Value-chain training during the period of the programme.

    According to him, 250 investment plans had so far been approved by the World Bank, while procurement process for the finance is expected to commence next week.

    Saidu noted that, another batch of 200 beneficiaries under Diary development within and outside the grazing reserves would soon receive support after counterpart funding from the state government.

    The official said the State Government had already established three Maize Aggregation Centres that would serve as one-stop market for high-grade, germ-free maize.

    Saidu said that the pilot programme, which was successful, had brought lots of value addition the production, processing and marketing of the crops livestock and fruits in the state.

    “The programme had empowered thousands of women and youths with agribusiness skills.

    “Also, Under the Demonstration and technology adoption, the CADP project introduced the Artificial animal insemination (AI) and Afla-safe production of maize,“ Saidu said.

    The communication officer said Maize farmers are now linked to better market collaboration with their counterparts in other states.

    “Sunchin Farms in Enugu and Lagos State Poultry Farmers’ Association now patronise maize from Kaduna farmers for their feed production because of its quality.

    To him, the programme had exposed farmers to global best practices in terms of maintaining farm record books and the establishment of farmers’ cooperative groups for easy financing by commercial banks.

  • ‘Agriculture, transport, others will grow leasing, insurance’

    Agriculture, transportation, education and health sectors have huge opportunities for insurance and leasing products, Managing Director, Law Union & Rock Insurance Plc, Mr. Jide Orimolade, has said.

    He stated this in a paper entitled: “Building Synergy between Insurance and Leasing Industry: Opportunities, Product Development and Key Success Factors”, delivered at Equipment Leasing Association of Nigeria, (ELAN) First Quarter Business Forum, which held in Lagos.

    Orimolade stated that the leasing and insurance companies are presently not doing very well in the agricultural, education, healthcare, and transportation sectors compared to the potential that exist in those sectors.

    He noted that based on the businesses done between the two sectors in the past five years, over 90 per cent are transactional in nature and are generated in the normal course of business and not through deliberate solution work-out or new thinking.

    He believed that there could be a closer and deeper business relationship between the insurance sector and the leasing companies, making them  to collaborate on what he described as “lease- insure model” for business synergy.

    The Law Union & Rock chief said the volume of insurance transactions from leasing companies was far below the market potentials, therefore, there is need to move away from transaction approach and focus on long term, formidable partnerships to  create the needed synergy, cut cost, and improve operational efficiency in order to move their companies forward.

    He said: “There are lots of opportunities for the two businesses if they create and maintain seamless handshake between the insurance industry and leasing companies. There are three key sectors we are not doing very well in compared to the potentials. These are agricultural, education, healthcare, and transportation sectors.

    “Nigeria has the largest population in Africa and one of the largest globally, presenting a huge potential market for our business. Despite the large population, insurance penetration still remains low. With the current Market Development Restructuring Initiative (MDRI) efforts of the industry players and the regulator, insurance penetration in Nigeria is expected to reach a penetration level of 10 per cent in 2025. This will translate into insurance premiums, running into trillions of naira. This growth will largely be driven by growth of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), supported by expanding credits, which leasing companies will play a key role,” he added.

  • Prof Unah to FG : revolutionise agriculture to create jobs

    The President of Nigerian Philosophical Association (NPA), Prof. Jim Unah, has advised the Federal Government to revolutionise agriculture to create jobs and  stem the rising rate of suicide  in Nigeria.

    Unah told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos that several Nigerians were depressed and desperate due to the current economic crisis in the nation.

    NAN reports that a medical doctor,   Dr Allwell Orji, on March 19, jumped into the Lagos Lagoon from the top of the 3rd Mainland Bridge and died.

    Some others who had attempted to commit suicide after him were saved by the public at various locations across the country.

    He said that several youths were leaving the country and dying inside migrant boats on the Mediterranean Sea while trying to cross to Europe from North Africa in search of the greener pastures.

    Unah, a professor of Philosophy at the University of Lagos said that the harsh economic environment had led some to commit suicide, other involved in social vices and other criminal activities.

    Unah advised the government to revolutionise agriculture and run it as a business with different composite units and clusters to create jobs for several unemployed youths.

    “Conditions that can cause idle minds to commit suicide are building up in Nigeria. Government should seriously invest in agriculture to encourage people to practice it.

    “Giving loans will not solve the problem; government should also create agricultural extension programmes.

    “Government should open up our forests, may be a 300- kilometre radius for example, and open it up.

    “Put necessary infrastructure like electricity and roads there  and then map it out land and encourage graduates from tertiary institutions  to apply to cultivate them.

    “Before long, they will produce more than enough produce for consumption and those governments can buy for storage in its silos for sale during scarcity,” he said.

    He explained that apart from providing infrastructure which was a major constraint to farmers, government should set up processing plants which would increase shelf life of produce and create jobs for the agro-allied industries.

    “Why exporting raw cocoa and cashew nuts when we can set up processing plants within  the country and create jobs for our unemployed youths and at the same time process locally for export at higher rates,” he said.

    He called for the restructuring of the nation by introducing healthy competition that would encourage growth among the regions to ensure speedy economic recovery.

    He appealed to Nigerians to, in the midst of the current recession; watch out for each other’s welfare to reduce the possibilities of suicide.

    The NPA boss lamented the rising cost of food stuff and inflation rates without any increase in wages, which he noted only a revolution in agriculture would reverse.

    “I am in the academia and I have encountered people who have done odd jobs and are not paid,” he said.
    NAN reports that the NPA is a body of teachers of philosophy and Unah was elected its current president in October 2016