The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Dr. Akinwumi Adesina

  • SCPZs to grow national economy with N1.4tr

    SCPZs to grow national economy with N1.4tr

    • Govt eyes N24b from groundnut value chain

    The Staple Crop Processing Zones will add additional N1.4 trillion to the gross domestic product (GDP), the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina has said.

    It will also help to create 250,000 jobs across the country, with Cargill; the world’s number one food company investing N33 billion.

    Adesina said the government hoped to earn N24 billion from groundnut processing, adding that it will target 1.8 million farmers to produce 120, 000 metric tons of groundnut grains which will be supplied to small, medium and large scale processors.

    He said the project will be implemented in 15 states of Northeast, Northwest and North Central geopolitical zones in order to revive the groundnut value chain.

    The states are: Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Gombe, Kebbi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara. He spoke at the launch of the Groundnut Value Chain in Abuja. He said: “When Nigeria found oil, it abandoned agriculture in general and groundnut production suffered. Nigeria’s exports of shelled groundnuts plummeted from 502,000 MT in 1961 to 291,000 MT in 1970 and to zero by 1980; the groundnut pyramids disappeared.

    “Nigeria will succeed in reviving its lost glory in groundnut. The groundnut value chain will produce 120,000 metric tons of groundnut grains valued at N24 billion and supplied to small, medium and large processors.

    “We are trying to revive the groundnut pyramids we used to have in this country. This particular program will begin to revive those efforts. We expect to do over 200, 000 of metric tons shelled groundnut from this work. We expect that farmers will earn over N24 billion naira from this work. It will create a lot of businesses, a lot of jobs for those that are processing groundnut oil and groundnut cakes.

    “The project will be implemented directly in 15 states. All the states will play active roles in the groundnut revival strategy which is the groundnut value chain work that we have launched today. Our goal is to reach 1.8 million farmers.”

    Speaking during the inauguration of the Executive Leadership of the Nigerian Agri Business Group, the minister said food import bill, which has dropped from N2.3 trillion down to N1.8 trillion within the past two years will continue to decline through local production, processing and value addition, adding that agriculture will no longer be treated as a development programme, but as a business.

    He said: “We have been very clear from the beginning, that agriculture will not be treated any longer as a development programme, but as a business. We will no longer manage poverty with agriculture. We will use agriculture to create the future millionaires and billionaires of Nigeria. We are determined to change the fortunes of our farmers, for the poverty we see today must give way to wealth all across our rural areas, as we make agriculture a business that helps to lift millions of farmers out of poverty.

    “Four weeks ago, we launched the SCPZ in Alape, Kogi State. The Alape SCPZ is expected to become a centre of excellence in processing of cassava fresh roots into starch, sweeteners and sorbitol. Next week, we are launching the SCPZs in Niger and Kano states, to be followed by SCPZs in Enugu/Anambra, Lagos and River states.”

  • ‘Nigeria producing more paddy rice’

    ‘Nigeria producing more paddy rice’

    Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, said on Sunday that Nigeria was “producing more paddy rice than ever before“.

    Adesina, who made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, said owing to the enhanced production of paddy rice, the Federal Government planned to end rice importation by the year 2016.

    The minister said that Nigeria was the largest importer of Thailand rice and that by so doing Nigeria was making its local farmers jobless while creating jobs for farmers in the Asian country.

    “We have set a target that in 2016, we will come to zero in terms of import because we are producing more paddy, what we just need to do is to process more of that paddy in to finished rice.

    “That is why Government is working very hard to get new integrated rice mills from China to have in the country so that we can mill all that.

    “So the issue is I want to make sure we are increasing the share of the domestic paddy being milled over time; that means that imported rice will go down as that goes up; I want to ensure Nigerians that we are well on track to be rice self-sufficient.“

    Adesina said because Nigeria had the capacity to be self-sufficient in rice production, the ministry would not relent in its effort to ensure that local farmers were encouraged to produce and protected from unnecessary competition.

    “It is not just about what you eat; it is about your future; and whether you are willing to sacrifice that future just for the convenience of the present.

    “If we cannot  grow rice I can understand that; but we can grow rice – upland rice, lowland rice, fadama rice, irrigated rice, and mangrove rice in the Niger-Delta; everywhere in this country, we can grow rice.“

    Adesina said 1.1 million tons of paddy rice was produced last dry season, and that if all of it was milled, it would meet at least 30 per cent of the rice the country was importing.

    He added that in the 2013 wet season, not less than 960,000 tons of rice was produced.

    According to the minister, government plans to produce 1.6 million tons of paddy rice in the 2013/2014 dry season.

    He acknowledged the challenge of inadequate infrastructure for both farmers and the millers in the country and said government would help to establish rice aggregation centres to ease millers’ access to paddy rice.

    He said the rice aggregation centers would clean the rice, bag, and standardise it, so that millers could buy tons of it at subsidised price to compensate for certain infrastructure challenges, including transportation.

    Adesina said the tariff policy was being reviewed to encourage investors in the rice project and to deal with the issue of importers and smugglers who he said, were not creating jobs in the country.

    The minister promised that the Federal Government would not abandon farmers in the country, saying that if the governments of other countries supported their farmers, Nigeria had no reason not to do otherwise.

    He said the government would guarantee the price of farm produce for farmers.

  • Achieving sustainable food security

    Achieving sustainable food security

     

    Today marks the World Food Day. This is a day set aside for people all around the world who are involved in the many diverse elements of the food system to come together to reflect on the vital role that food plays in our lives and to consider how things can be done better.

    The theme for this year is: ‘Sustainable Food Systems for Food Security and Nutrition’. Every year, the world food day is celebrated to help increase understanding of problems and solutions in the drive to end hunger.

    It is said that food security takes place “when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.” In order words, food security can only be achieved when everyone is involved.

    According to research, food security in Nigeria is a major issue. Despite the increase of food production, there is yet to be equilibrium with demand.  Also the absence of top notch harvesting, processing and distributing techniques lead to loss of produce. Total on oil at the expense of agriculture is another major issue in this regards.

    How well has Nigeria utilised her land mass for farm produce?

    The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina was quoted to have said that N1.3 trillion was utilised for food imports this year.

    According to him, “our food imports are growing at an unsustainable rate of 11 per cent per annum thereby fuelling domestic inflation and increasing poverty.

    “We are importing products that we can either produce in abundance like N356 billion worth of rice, N217 billion worth of sugar and N97 billion worth of fish.”

    The minister also agrees to the fact Nigeria can locally produce what she imports: “we are also importing products that we can easily find local alternatives, which can equally reduce our import bill of almost N635 billion being spent on wheat production.”

    According to statements and figures, Nigeria can truly cut the disgraceful food import bill through empowering local farmers. This will definitely lead to achieving FAO’s vision of food security and nutrition.

    In his speech Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), José Graziano da Silva, states that a functioning food system is borne out of an equal demand and supply of food in the world.

    According to Silva, there are 840 million people who experience food shortages, 2 million people who suffer from nutrient deficiencies and 1.5million people suffering from overweight. He also identified the two greatest challenges causing a dreadful food situation in the world as:

    – Translating increase in food availability into better nutrition for all people and

    – How to make the necessary shift to environmentally and socially sustainable production and consumption systems.

    He therefore called on all to ensure their life styles are improved. This he says will help in solving the problems.

    In his words: “This year’s World Food Day theme “Sustainable Food Systems for Food Security and Nutrition” is an invitation to us to consider just how well the system is working and what can be done to improve it.

    “From a rather narrow demand and supply perspective we can claim that, since 1945, the food system has worked remarkably well. The world’s population has tripled in this period, and average food availability per person has risen by 40 per cent. This is an extraordinary achievement and many economists would cite it as proof of the effectiveness of “the market” in inducing an adequate supply response to the growth in demand from a fast rising and richer global population. If we look a bit deeper, however, we shall see that there are huge flaws in how the food system operates.

    “The biggest failure is that, in spite of plentiful food supplies, the health of more than half the world’s 7 billion population is affected by under- or over-consumption. Just 3 years ago, the threat of famine forced millions of Somalis to abandon their homes to search for food, and as many as 260,000 people, many of them children, are estimated to have died of starvation. This was a horrific reminder that the global food market works well for those that have money but fails to respond to the needs of the poor.

    “What is clear is that “the market” alone does not automatically translate food availability into better nutrition, health, productivity and happiness. The most glaring market failure stems from the fact that those with the greatest food needs are unable, because of their poverty, to translate these into demand. They are caught in a hunger trap which is self-perpetuating because they do not have the means to buy or produce the food their family requires for a healthy life. That hunger persists in a world of plenty food is truly scandalous.”

    He attributed other challenges of food availability to include unsustainability of the present food system. This he stressed has both environmental and human dimensions.

    “Much of the extraordinary growth in food output has placed great stresses on natural resources. It has degraded soils, polluted and exhausted fresh water supplies, encroached on forests, depleted wild fish stocks, and narrowed biodiversity, leaving these resources with a diminished capacity to meet the food needs of our children and future generations. Intensive farming systems, combined with food wastage on a massive scale, have also become a big source of the greenhouse gas emissions that help to drive the processes of climate change that, in turn, are expected to create new adaptation challenges for farmers. Even the richer food consumers do not yet pay for the cost of this damage to natural capital or for clearing it up,” he added.

    Silva advised that as the world marks the World’s Food Day people over the  world should share  thoughts and experiences on how best to address  to translate rising food availability into better nutrition for all people and how to make the necessary shift to environmentally and socially sustainable production and consumption systems.

     

     

  • ‘Nigerians consume 15-year old imported rice’

    ‘Nigerians consume 15-year old imported rice’

    • Fed Govt laments tomato paste import from China, Italy

    The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina has decried the consumption of 15 years old rice being imported into the country from Indonesia and other major rice producing countries.

    Adesina who pleaded for the consumption of local staple foods, especially rice, said the country had taken a step backward from being the largest rice importer, to replace China.

    He said Nigeria through the adoption of new technology and effective implementation of good policies, would be capable of being self sufficient in rice production by 2015.

    Adesina, who spoke at the inauguration of 13 Board Chairmen of the Ministry’s Institutes, Agencies and Parastatals, said that between 2012 and 2013, local farmers were able to produce over 1.7 million metric tons of paddy rice, which according to him, was about 50 percent of what the country needed to be independent in producing the commodity.

    He said: “Well-packaged, long grain parboiled local rice is now on the market. It is tastier and healthier than the 15 year-old imported rice dumped on the Nigerian market. We will soon be free from rice imports!”

    According to him, about 14 large-scale integrated rice mills have been established by private sectors within two years, where quality long-grained local parboiled rice was being produced.

    However, the Minister decried the country’s huge tomato paste import from China and Italy. He described the trend as unacceptable stressing that about 45 percent of tomato planted in Kano accounts for post harvest loses.

    He restated that the federal government Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) was not a ‘political slogan’ but a developmental approach to pull the nation out of poverty and food imports.

    “Nigeria has great people with great potential therefore we have no business importing foods. Potential is good but nobody eats potential, we need to make it work,” he added.

    Speaking on the inauguration, Adesina reminded the chairmen and their members of their duties to solely advise and ensure rancour free management of the institutes.

    He said it would not be business as usual, adding that it would not be the duty of the board to engage in daily administration of the research institutes but to support them and the present administration to achieve its development agenda on the agric sector.

  • Nigeria ready for global poverty alleviation

    Nigeria is prepared to contribute to global poverty alleviation programme.

    The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, disclosed this during his trip to the World Economic Forum in Cape Town.

    The minister, who attended the forum with President Goodluck Jonathan, assured that the nation will soon be a major contributor to global food and nutritional security.

    Adesina said: “Nigeria is set to become a major contributor to global food and nutrition security and poverty eradication through the creation of the right business conditions and government support to small holder and large scale farmers to significantly expand agricultural.”

    A statement yesterday by the Ag Director of Press and Public Relations of the Ministry stated that Adesina expressed government’s commitment to change the face of agriculture as well as restore the nation’s lost glory in global food production.

    Adesina enlightened the global policy makers and private sector representatives on government’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA).

    He stated that domestic food supply had increased by more than eight million metric tons, almost half of the target set for 2015.

    Speaking on dry season rice production, the minister stated that northern rice farmers had increased productions by more than a million metric tons.

    The output, according to the minister, was over one-third of what the country needed to replace tons of what the country currently imports.

    “This is the first time dry season rice production support has been done and it has unleashed massive job creation all across rural areas in ten states of northern Nigeria.”

  • UK advocates nutritional policy for Nigeria

    UK advocates nutritional policy for Nigeria

    The United Kingdom Under-Secretary for International Development, Ms Lynne Featherstone, has called on the Federal Government to design a decent nutritional policy for the people.

    Featherstone, who decried poor nutritional rate in some northern states of the country made the call during her visit to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina.

    She said her visit to the country was to draft a tentative agenda for the G8 Roundtable and the New Alliance meetings billed for June 8 in London with the theme “Nutrition for Growth.”

    According to the UK official, her visit to some states in the north revealed that many children there are undernourished.

    However, she commended the Federal Government’s progress and plans on the New Alliance and Nutrition.

    Featherstone also lauded the Federal Government on its idea for a Land Partnership to help roll out land titling for Staple Crop Processing Zones (SCPZ).

    She noted that the meeting in London would be used to announce new partner countries joining the New Alliance and new mutual commitments in existing and new cooperation frameworks.

    “It will also serve as an avenue to increase the impact of the New Alliance on women’s economic empowerment and nutrition,” she said.

    In his remarks, Adesina observed that Nigeria was a core partner in the “Nutrition for Growth’’ initiative.

    He said that the country was keen on setting up high energy food plants in some parts of the country.

     

  • Phones for 10 million farmers take public policy to a new low

    The Minister of Agriculture, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, has denied that the federal government planned to spend N40bn or N60bn to buy phones for 10 million farmers. Thank God for the denial. But that is not all, and that certainly is not the whole truth. When the permanent secretary in the Agriculture ministry, Mrs Ibukun Odusote, spoke about the decision to buy the phones in Ogun State a few days ago, she spoke persuasively. Hear her: “We are talking about 10 million handsets; each handset would be costing, maybe N6000 or N4000 because it is in large number. We are not going to buy in pieces like that. We will buy directly from the manufacturing companies. We have agreement with some organisations in China and some in the United States; they are going to provide all these handsets for us because they are also interested in investing in the agricultural sector in Nigeria. So you have the idea and estimate of the cost. And I tell you that the money is available; it’s on ground. We are looking at the first quarter of this year to roll-out the phones, and by the end of the first quarter, we are done, and they will start hearing about the out roll-out.”

    The minister, however, justifies the decision to buy phones for farmers, but denies the sum involved. Perhaps it will be cheaper than what the permanent secretary mentioned. But whether cheap or not, the decision is still a bad one. In any case, what of the “agreement” the permanent secretary spoke about, and the “money on ground” she alluded to? Indeed, the minister’s denial could be an afterthought prompted by the outrage that has greeted the announcement. It is doubtful whether there is a farmer who can’t afford a N4000 phone, that is, assuming we have 10 million of them. Does the ministry have a register of farmers in the country, and has he confirmed their needs to the extent of willing to spend a huge sum on communicating with them? Can’t the ministry communicate with their cooperatives?

    Sometimes, it is hard to resist the temptation to think that too much money is chasing too much folly in Nigeria, often in the pursuit of one newfangled agenda or the other. From the Aviation ministry where their fecundity is costing us so dearly, and we take the pain in our strides, to the Finance ministry where obduracy and experimentalism are mixing in lethal quantities, and to the Petroleum ministry where arcanum has become the watchword, it is not clear how much policy malfeasance would be enough to bankrupt us or irreparably damage the republic.

  • Minister urges adherence to budget estimates

    THE Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has warned agencies in the ministry not to cut budget deals with committees of the National Assembly.

    He said the practice is generating friction between him and members of the House of Representatives.

    In a letter dated November 20, 2012, with a reference number FMA/DFA/3415/1/117 and sent to 39 agencies, Adesina warned the agencies against lobbying for an increase of the budget envelop as reflected in the proposed budget estimates sent to the National Assembly by the Executive. He threatened sanctions against any erring agency.

    However, the Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, Tahir Mohammed Monguno (Borno-ANPP), expressed surprise that such a letter could be written by a Minister, adding that the National Assembly has constitutional powers to add or remove from proposed budgets from the executive.

    He enjoined the agencies to ignore the letter from the Minister.

    The Minister’s directive which was signed by one Mr Idris Mamman, reads: “I am directed to request you (agencies) to submit to the Office of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development soft and hard copies of documents prepared for 2013 Budget defence with the National Assembly for his information and record purposes.

    “You are also to ensure that your programmes /projects and capital ceilings are at par with what was approved in the Executive Bill, as any deviation from the 2013 Executive Bill will be viewed as serious misconduct. Please ensure compliance,”theletter added.