The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Farmers

  • Taraba herdsmen, farmers agree to end hostilities

    Taraba herdsmen, farmers agree to end hostilities

    Herdsmen and crop farmers in Taraba State have agreed to end hostilities and embrace truce.

    This followed the intervention of the fact-finding committee, chaired by Ebonyi State Governor David Umahi.

    The Umahi-led committee, since arrival on Sunday, has met with Governor Darius Ishaku, leaders of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association (MCAN), All Farmers Association, chairmen of councils, commissioners and advisers, traditional rulers, leaders of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Muslim Council as well as security agents on a roundtable.

    Umahi, who addressed reporters in Jalingo yesterday, said “all parties want a ceasefire.”

    He added that Miyetti Allah has agreed to endorse the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law, but that certain sections of the law, particularly those  to do with penalties, should be amended.

    Umahi urged Ishaku to extend the period of transition -from open grazing to ranching.

    He said: “All legal cases concerning the anti-open grazing law should be withdrawn. There would be a census to identify all the herdsmen and their cattle and any herdsman travelling from another state must obtain a letter from his ardo and be accepted by the ardo in his place of destination.”

    The committee disagreed with Miyetti Allah on its allegation that Fulani were seen as second-class citizens and sidelined in the scheme of things in the state.

     

  • Cattle colony: Reps suggest cattle breeding settlement

    Cattle colony: Reps suggest cattle breeding settlement

    The House of Representatives has kicked against the proposed establishment of cattle colony by the Federal government as a solution to the open cattle grazing and its attendant consequences on communities across the country.

    Rather, the lawmakers advised the Federal government to work out modalities for the establishment of cattle breeding settlements as a lasting solution to incessant clashes between farmers and herdsmen.

    This followed the adoption of a motion by Mohammed Onawo (PDP, Nasarawa), who regretted that the incessant clashes between herdsmen and farmers have presented serious security challenges in the polity.

    He said: “It is noted that the Federal Government’s proposal to establish cattle colonies in every State in Nigeria to cater for the herdsmen and their cattle as a lasting solution to the continuous clashes which, in most cases, result in senseless and avoidable loss of lives and properties.

    “We are however concerned that the decision to establish cattle colonies in each State could be in violation of Section 42 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and the Land Use Act as those colonies will remain the exclusive reserve of the individual State governments and as such, would not guarantee total freedom to the herdsmen.

    “It must be said that cattle rearing is not an exclusive reserve of the Fulanis as other tribes also engage in the business and that is why we are determined to provide a lasting solution to the incessant conflicts between herdsmen and farm owners, hence modern breeding practices should be encouraged.

    “We are convinced that ranching will offer longer lasting solution to the recurring conflicts between herdsmen and farmers, if the herdsmen would be fully sensitized and educated about the benefits of the program, as it would enable them assume full ownership of those ranches”.

    In its resolution, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources has been urged to liaise with State Ministries of Agriculture to speedily educate  and encourage the herdsmen on the benefits of ranching.

  • Taraba herdsmen, farmers agree to sheathe swords 

    Taraba herdsmen, farmers agree to sheathe swords 

    Herdsmen and farmers in Taraba State have agreed to end hostilities and embrace truce. This followed the intervention of the facts-finding committee chaired by the Governor of Ebonyi State, David Nweze Umahi.

    The Umahi-led committee, since arrival on Sunday, has met with Governor Darius Ishaku, the leaders of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association and All Farmers Association, chairmen of local government councils, commissioners and advisers, traditional rulers, leaders of the Christian Association of Nigeria and Muslim Council as well as security agents on a round-table discussion.

    Umahi, who addressed reporters in Jalingo Tuesday, said “all the parties want ceasefire.”

    He disclosed that the Miyetti Allah has agreed to endorse the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law. But certain sections of the law, particularly those that have to do with penalties, will be amended.

    And that the Taraba governor should extend the period of transition -from open grazing to ranching.

    It was also resolved that: “All legal cases concerning the anti-open grazing law should be withdrawn.

    “They would be a census to identify all the herdsmen and all their cattle in the State.

    “Any herdsman traveling from one state to another must obtain a letter from his ardo and must equally be accepted by the ardo in his place of destination,” the Ebonyi governor said.

    The committee disagreed with Miyetti on its allegation that Fulani were seen as second-class citizens and sidelined in the scheming of affairs by the Taraba state government.

    Umahi notes that deputy governor of the State is Fulani, a council chairman is Fulani, Senior Assistant to the governor on Political Matters is also Fulani, among many other positions.

    The committee, which visited the IDP camps Tuesday, said over a hundred residents have been killed in clashes between pastoralists and crop farmers. Thousands have been displaced, as several homes were razed.

  • Rising transportation costs hurt farmers, food processors

    Rising transportation costs hurt farmers, food processors

     Agriculture, like other sectors of the economy, is dependent on transportation to move people and produce from one point to another.Transportation is also needed to receive supplies and materials for use on the farm. But, high freighting cost is having a significant impact on farmers, DANIEL ESSIET reports.

    Farmers and food producers are raising the alarm that the cost of moving produce is   getting higher.

    The increase in trucking costs is being blamed on some factors such as unavailability of trucks, bad roads  and  high  fuel costs.

    For instance, in Iseyin, Oyo State, a cassava production belt, the cost of moving 30 tons of cassava has moved to N15,000, from N10,000 two years ago.

    It was learnt the situation is of major concern for consumers and produce growers.

    This has pushed up operating costs for farmers, who would then pass the additional costs  to consumers.

    Expressing concern, the  country coordinator, African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) Cassava Mechanisation and Agro-processing Project (CAMAP), Mr. Ayodele Omowunmi, said farmers in Igunrin Village, Iseyin, are finding it costly to  move their  cassava to The Allied Atlantic Distilleries Ltd (AADL) at Igbesa in Ogun State where their  tubers can be processed to ethanol.

    AATF is an international  programme working with smallholder and commercial farmers from Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Kwara and Kogi states, to deploy machines to assist them in improving the cassava value chain.

    AADL is the first and largest cassava-based ethanol producing plant in Africa. It has an installed capacity of  10 million litres  of ethanol per year and requires 240 tons of cassava daily at an average of 10 tons per hour.

    He  said CAMAP facilitated the partnership between the farmers and the company to ensure steady daily supply of cassava to meet up with the requirement.

    He urged the government to assist farmers through the provision of adequate vehicles to transport cassava from the farm to promote the growth of the business.

    The Chief  Executive, Natural Nutrient Limited, Sola Adeniyi,  said  rising freight costs as a reason for lower profit margins with more pain as  vehicles break and higher diesel prices make it even more expensive to transport farm produce to the market .

    Adeniyi  said high transportation costs hurt profits, preventing them from taking advantage of lower commodity prices.

    According to him, the benefits that should trickle down to the farmers are locked down by high cost of transportation, which eats into their profits.

    The National Publicity Secretary, National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN),Anga Sotonye, said most of the agro commodities containers coming into the ports are not attended to in time thereby affecting timely shipments.

    According to him, it is one thing to aggregate agro exports for onward movement to the ports, but moving goods through the road to the port is the bigger challenge.

    He urged the government to tackle the situation on Apapa port access road, adding that its conditions are an obstacle.

    Sotonye complained that the ports have recorded slow turn around times.

    He said the road users were fed up with delays that have stretched for several  days.

    The  Group Managing Director,  Niji Group, Kola Adeniji, said there are  challenges facing food supply chain.

    According to him, things are becoming stretched across food supply chain and current logistics thinking is no longer fit for purpose.

    He explained that the transport infrastructure that are dilapidating is bringing challenges to food manufacturers and logistics companies.

    Meanwhile, the  Oyo State Executive Council said it has approved the rehabilitation of the 65km Moniya-Ojutaye-Iseyin Road for the sum  N6,952,565,074.97.It said the project is expected to be completed in 18 months.

    The Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Mr. Toye Arulogun, said the 65km road had been awarded to M/S Oladiran Engineering and Trade Nigeria Limited, explaining that the contractor was picked after careful evaluation of both technical and financial responsiveness by the state Consultants on Road Projects under the leadership of Reyog International Nigeria Limited.

    He pointed out that 30 per cent of the contract sum will be paid to the contractor as advance payment subject to the provision of an open-ended advance payment guarantee from a reputable bank.

    Arulogun maintained that the road will boost both intra and intercity transport links, improve trade, drastically reduce intercity transport connection, encourage trade and investment as well as to generally bring about better socio-economic development to the citizenry.

    He noted that this is in line with the Governor Abiola Ajimobi’s philosophy to decongest traffic at all entrances and exits to the state as part of the massive infrastructural development going on in the state.

  • CBN empowers 12m farmers with N55b loans

    CBN empowers 12m farmers with N55b loans

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has so far spent N55 billion on the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP), a top official said yesterday.

    Under a new arrangement for the programme, CBN credit facility to farmers would be digitalised, Special Assistant to the CBN governor Mr. Tunde Akande told the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) in Abuja.

    Following a drop in demand for foreign exchange to import rice and other foods now produced locally, the foreign reserve has hit $42.8billion, he said, adding that the CBN was partnering with RIFAN to empower 12.2 million farmers under the fully digitalised second phase of the ABP.

    Of the N55 billion provided by CBN to farmers under the ABP, 80% representing N44 billion was given to rice farmers alone. The ABP, which entered its second phase yesterday, will now be a collaboration between private sector (small holder farmers) and the CBN.

    To guarantee the ABP’s success, CBN said it would partner with other commodity associations as well as staple food farmers to provide employment, reduce food import, boost export and earn foreign exchange.

    According to Akande, the partnership with RIFAN would help digitalise loan processes for smallholder farmers.

    He said the bank estimated that an additional two million tonnes of rice would be added into national rice production using digitalised mechanism which would be made available to RIFAN members.

    The collaboration with smallholder farmers and the digitalisation of the ABP, he said, would help in monitoring farmers closely by ensuring they get inputs, extension services and other incentives needed to achieve bumper harvests.

    The government and CBN, he said, had decided to collaborate with RIFAN because “they have structures at all levels. We want to provide mentoring, extension services, etc to farmers through them. We can now provide tractorisation and all that.”

    “It’s about the loan being well utilised. There is a guaranteed market for farmers under this programmme. We have deployed seamless technologies to them. We have taken their biometrics and we have their contacts. Days of taking loans and inputs without accounting for them are over. In no distant time, we will attain food sufficiency and even export to earn foreign exchange”, he said.

    Akande said all loans given to farmers under the ABP were mandatorily insured by the Nigeria Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC).

    Each smallholder farmer gets N250,000 to cultivate one hectare of land for dry season farming and in multiples of land size.

    RIFAN president Alhaji Aminu Goronyo  said the new initiative would be private sector-driven unlike in the past when CBN and the states.

    He said under the ABP partnership between the CBN and RIFAN, 200,000 farmers would be given fresh funds to plant rice in dry farming season and another 500,000 farmers during wet farming season.

    Through the funding, Goronyo said, the farmers would employ a total of five million people to work on the rice production value chain during the period.

    “This collaboration is to put Nigeria on the right track in agribusiness. Before 2015, it was operating on an analogue model, thus making monitoring and compliance very challenging. So, all that was done in agriculture was not properly recorded. But with this, we have 500,000 farmers under this season’s farming. From this figure, we have 200,000 farmers for the dry season,” he said.

    Goronyo added: “With this new digitalised programme, I can, from my phone, reach all the farmers. It’s a global innovation. Farmers are now accessible, verifiable and the entire process reliable. Anyone coming to do business with us can access us and work with reliable data”.

    He said RIFAN had national working committees and six zonal offices and heads at both local government and ward levels.

    The RIFAN chief said 32 states were currently onboard the ABP, noting that Benue, Nasarawa, Enugu and Cross River could not join this year’s farming season because they could not tidy up their applications and documentation before the deadline elapsed.

    “They could not meet the time for applications and all that. So, we have defered their participation till next wet season”, he added.

  • Herdsmen/farmers clashes: NSCDC trains 1,500 in arms

    Herdsmen/farmers clashes: NSCDC trains 1,500 in arms

    After a three-month training in arms-bearing, the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) has graduated about 1,500 officers who will be engaged as agro-rangers to check the herdsmen-farmers clashes in the country.

    The corps has also decorated about 3,953 promoted officers, two of whom now Assistant Comptrollers-General, and 45 Commandants.

    Speaking during the decoration ceremony in Abuja, Comptroller General of the Corps, Gana Muhammadu, said part of the newly trained officers were expected to be deployed to ensure the success of the agro-rangers programme.

    The CG said: “The staff welfare is my topmost priority which includes training. Just last week Friday, 1,500 of our men graduated from a three months arms training in preparation of the commencement of agro-rangers and solid minerals protection.

    “And part of which we also intend to deploy to Borno to join the earlier 3,700 of our men posted to liberated areas in the North-east,” he said.

    While urging the newly promoted officers to be dedicated to duties, the Gana said the federal government has given the corps additional tasks, “so you must not fail the federal government and the Board who ensured your promotion.”

    While congratulating the staff on behalf of the Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, Secretary of the Board who stood in for the Minister, Bassey Emmanuel tasked the promoted officers to live above expectations.

    According to him, “promotion is a privilege why because you may meet all the criteria but no vacancy for you. So, for those of you who are promoted it is recognition from the authority. So, you must not let the authority down. Your CG has recommended you.

    “This board which I am a member will ensure that highest standard is met. Now with your promotion you must continue to work harder except you are not aspiring to go higher. Again, you must be loyal to your organisation to the system, to the nation and all those that have been placed above you.”

     

  • ‘Why we started farmers’ registration in Ondo’

    The Ondo State government at the weekend said the current registration of farmers in its forest reserves is to ensure their proper documentation.

    The registration, he said, is meant to establish the level of depletion to preserve and regenerate the forest reserves.

    The Commissioner for Agriculture, Otunba Gboyega Adefarati, spoke in Akure, the state capital, while addressing community leaders and farmers in government forest reserves across the state.

    Adefarati said the Oluwarotimi Akeredolu administration is poised to encourage farmers as well as protect the flora and fauna of its forest reserves.

    The commissioner said only those farming in the forest reserves would be registered and issued identity cards while encroachers would not be allowed into the forest reserves.

    he said economic trees would be given to the farmers to enable them regenerate the areas that have been depleted.

    The Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the Governor on Agriculture, Akin Olotu, said the registration and documentation would give the farmers the peace to do their businesses without harassment from any individual or group.

    The governor’s aide said the decision would enable the government to coordinate the activities of encroachers in the forest reserves, generate income and provide security for the farmers and their crops.

    Community leaders and farmers expressed happiness about the initiative and pledged to cooperate with the government for the success of the registration.

  • Umahi moves to reconcile farmers, herdsmen

    Umahi moves to reconcile farmers, herdsmen

    Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi state Saturday moved against intermittent clashes between farmers in the state and Fulani herdsmen while insisting that no part of the state would be given for the purpose of cattle colony.

    In a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Emmanuel Uzor, the Governor initiated measures on how to maintain peace between farmers and herdsmen across the State by fully engaging the traditional rulers and leaders of Miyeti Allah in the area of sustaining the peace among the two groups.

    Uzor said the governor while addressing traditional rulers,  presidents of town union and other stakeholders at the Akanu Ibiam International Conference Centre,  Abakaliki used the occasion to reiterate his administration’s resolve to sustaining peace in all parts of the state which he believes is a panecea to achieving development.

    “Part of the statement read “the traditional rulers are not just custodians of culture and tradition but also part of peace building. They must ensure peace in their localities by first of all identifying the people living in their communities especially the herdsmen. No herdsman is allowed to graze their cattle in our lands and in an event of that,  the herdsmen pay the double value of crops damaged and  on repeat of such,  the herdsmen will be forced to leave the community.”

    “The cows are dear to the herdsmen same way the crops are dear to the our  farmers most especially our belief in sanctity of human life which has been wasted on some areas in the country”

    Umahi also made it clear that Ebonyi  State Government has no resources to embark on any ranching or Colony being an aggrerian state whose main stead is agriculture.

    “To ensure security and safety of our people and herdsmen who have lived peacefully with us all these years without problem and to ensure there is no infliteration of killer herdsmen from neighboring states and countries, traditional rulers are  to collate data on herdsmen operating in their communities across the state for easy identification and maintenance of peace. The data should  include herdsmen’s names,  location  and contact phone numbers of their leaders.”

    “Traditional rulers should hold constant meetings with the herdsmen so that they can Identify those from Niger Republic and other areas that foment trouble”

    The Governor further maintained that Ebonyi State being an aggrerian state with agriculture as its main stead,  the state will not welcome any cattle colony of any sort but shall in constant collaboration with relevant stakeholders and leaders of the herdsmen, renew efforts to maintain peace and security.

    “Governor Umahi is a member of the Presidential Committe headed by the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo to reconcile and ensure peace between the farmers and herdsmen across the country and he is doing everything within the armbit of the law to ensure peace in his own state as charity begins at home”

  • Farmers in court for allegedly stealing tubers of yam

    The police yesterday arraigned four farmers at a Gudu Upper Area Court in Abuja for allegedly stealing tubers of yam.

    The defendants are Philip Tekaa, Joseph Sabe, Demenege Sabe and Nyiyong Gabriel.

    The defendants, residents of Iddo Sarki, Airport road, Abuja, are standing trial on a three-count charge of criminal trespass, joint act and theft.

    The prosecutor, Mr. Adeniyi Oyeyemi, told the court that Colonel Solomon Ngbede (retd) reported the matter at Garki Police Station on December 20, 2016.

    He said the complainant alleged that on December 19, 2016, the four defendants trespassed into his farm land and stole tubers of yam.

    Oyeyemi alleged that the defendants were apprehended with the loot and they confessed that Sunday Peters of the same address sent them to commit the crime.

    According to the prosecutor, “the total value of yam and products stolen and damaged was worth N470,000.’’

    He said the offences contravened sections 348, 79 and 288 of the Penal Code.

    The defendants pleaded not guilty.

    The judge, Mr. Sidi Bello, granted each of them bail at N100,000  and  a surety in like sum.

    He adjourned the matter till April 10 for hearing.

  • 3.8million farmers to get Fed Govt’s insurance cover

    The Federal Government has increased insurance cover for agric primary producers from 500,000 to 3.8 million.

    To make this happen, local and international partners will train insurance experts that will midwife the index based agricultural insurance introduced by the government.

    The MD/CEO, Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), Mr. Aliyu A. Abdulhameed, said the organisation is currently in talks with Royal Exchange Assurance, NIMET and CELLULANT for the development of a technology-driven Hybrid Index Insurance product that will include the Area Yield Index, Weather Index, and Price Index Insurance.

    The organisation is also exploring innovative insurance products for livestock to help stem the tide of herdsmen and farmer clashes. Acre Africa of Kenya is a major partner in this initiative, he added.