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Tag: fish importation

  • Fed Govt decries $984m spent on fish importation

    The Federal Government has decried a whopping $984million spent on importation of fish annually.

    It urged farmers, youths and women to take to fish farming and help in boosting domestic production of the product, to grow the economy.

    To realise this, the lawmaker representing Oyo North, Senator Fatai Buhari, in conjunction with the Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research (NIOMR), Lagos, has trained over 100 youths and women selected from Ogbomoso North and South local governments as well as Oriire and Olorunsogo local governments during a week-long training in Aquaculture Production and Fish Post Harvest Technology.

    The empowerment, Senator Buhari said, was aimed at giving the beneficiaries means of livelihood.

    The lawmaker recalled that during his recent empowerment programme, he distributed 36 cars, 300 motorcycles, 300 sewing machines, over 400 grinding machines, 40 deep freezers, generators, 13 transformers among others to the people of Oyo North.

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    Buhari, who is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Information Communication Technology (ICT) and Cybercrime, gave N20,000 each as bursaries to 200 students of tertiary institutions and N25,000 each to 200 widows.

    NIOMR Director Dr. Gbola Akande, who was represented by Dr. Oludare Adeogun, listed the socio-economic benefits of Aquaculture.

    He said it was a money spinning investment that could change their fortunes for good, if well practised.

    According to him, the demand for fish in Nigeria is about 2.66 million tonnes annually, whereas total domestic production hovers around 0.7 million tonnes.

    Akande said: “There is a deficit of 1.96 million tonnes partly augmented by importation of fish of about 1.01 million tonnes worth over US $984 million annually – a huge waste on scarce foreign exchange, hence the urgent need to increase domestic fish production.”

  • FG vows to end wheat importation

    FG vows to end wheat importation

    The Federal Government says it is ready to put an end to the continuous importation of wheat so as to boost local production and encourage farmers in the country.

    Chief Audu Ogbeh, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, said this at the International Conference on Wheat, organised by the Support to Agricultural Research for Development of Strategic Crops (SARD-SC) project of the AfDB.

    The minister, who was represented by Dr Muyiwa Azeez, the Director of Agribusiness and Marketing in the ministry, said that the country was currently producing high-quality wheat.

    “As a result of this, the Flour Milling Association of Nigeria submitted a written commitment to the ministry, stating that they will off-take all the wheat produced by Nigerian wheat farmers,’’ he said.

    Gov. Abubakar Bagudu of Kebbi State said that certain agronomic practices, which initially reduced wheat yield per hectare, had been addressed by research institutes across the country.

    He listed some of the states that had improved their wheat production as Kebbi, Kano, Kaduna, Jigawa, Sokoto, Bauchi, Zamfara, Gombe, Niger and Plateau, among others.

    Bagudu, however, noted that `trade wars’ was a major factor behind the inability of Nigeria and Africa to achieve sufficiency in wheat production.

    He called for proper research to enable policy makers to make informed decisions on how to boost wheat production in the country.

    “Last year, only about five states recorded a significant increase in wheat production but as a result of mobilisation, about 11 states have improved inputs and increased yields.

    “If we have no research that informs policy makers about the totality of support that is given in countries, with whom we are competing and from whom we are importing, we are likely to continue penalising our wheat value chain.

    “African wheat is competitive but farmers need support,’’ he said.

    Rep. Mohammed Monguno, the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture, assured farmers that the National Assembly would encourage policies that would boost the production of wheat and other agricultural produce in the country.

    Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, the President of African Development Bank (AfDB), said that wheat production had the capacity to inject 13.4 billion U.S. dollars into the Nigerian economy.

    Adesina, represented by Dr Chiji Ojukwu, the Director of Agriculture in the bank, said that AfDB, via with its agricultural programmes, was planning to increase the production of wheat from 2.5 tonnes to 7 tonnes per hectare.

    He noted that the SARD-SC project, which was a four-year programme, was funded by AfDB with 63 million U.S. dollars.

    Dr Solomon Assefa, the Coordinator of the SARD-SC wheat project, said that the project was aimed at enhancing food security and nutrition in Africa.

    He said that it also aimed at enhancing the economic growth of 12 African countries while contributing to their poverty reduction efforts.

    According to him, wheat consumption in Africa has increased significantly, with the cost of wheat importation rising close to 15 billion U.S. dollars.

    Assefa, however, said that some of the challenges facing wheat production included environmental conditions, technology, policies and marketing.

    He said that Nigeria had increased its wheat production from 70,000 tonnes in 2012 to 400,000 tonnes in 2016.

    However, Mr Salim Mohammed, the President, Wheat Farmers Association of Nigeria, said that farmers had no access to improved seeds and modern farming equipment to boost production.

    He called on the government at all levels to provide farming inputs that would encourage local production of wheat in the country.

  • ‘Fed Govt spends $500m yearly on fish importation’

    ‘Fed Govt spends $500m yearly on fish importation’

    The National Association of Nigerian Traders (NANTS) yesterday said  the Federal Government imports 1.96million  tons of fish valued at $500million annually to augument the shortfall of fish in the country.

    Its President,  Mr.  Ken Ukuoha, who spoke at a stakeholders’workshop on the Aquaculture sub-sector of the Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES) and Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA)  in Abuja, said the massive importation of frozen fish ranked it the largest fish importer in Africa.

    He lamented that this is causing serious depletion of the nation’s resources while about six million employment from the sector is lost.

    He said: “Nigeria has all it takes in terms of water, human capital and other resources not only to bridge importation but also to become a fish exporting nation while also filling the regional fish market gap and opportunities.

    “At the regional level,  one of the key components of the (Economic Community of West African States) ECOWAS Agricultural Policy (ECOWAP) is the improvement of the aquaculture sector as a means of job creation and food security.  At present ECOWAS is collaborating with the World Bank on a West African Aquaculture Production Programme WAAPP where 13 countries are participating.

    “This presents another opportunity for Nigeria to excel and improve impacts on tge sector using the GES. NANTS isvworking with the ECOWAS Commission in a 5 years project.  (2013-2017) targetted at the implementation of the ECOWAP.

    “We are also implementing the USAID Market project on aquaculture targeted at the agronomic training and management of 1000 fish farmers in the FCT and Niger State.

    “This collaboration will pull the various projects together using the GES as a toner  to fertilisers increased agricultural productivity in Nigeria’s fish sector.  The sensitisation is to expose and create investment opportunities for small scale farmers,especially youths to consider fish farming as alternative business option with GES as a motivation.”

     

  • Nigeria spends N80bn on fish importation annually

    Nigeria spends N80bn on fish importation annually

    A huge industry has been built around fish importation with Nigerians expending over N80billion annually on its consumption.

    This is even as Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Akin Adesina, said Nigeria imports at least two million tonnes of fish annually to meet the country’s growing fish demand.

    Speaking at the commissioning of an ultra-modern floating fish plant in Lagos, Adesina, who spoke through the President, Nigerian Institute of Animal Science, Prof Patrick Njoku, said despite the increasing fish demand estimated at 2.7 million metric tons per annum, the local production capacity is about 700,000 metric tonnes, thereby requiring the importation of two million tonnes to augment the shortfall.

    He said the floating fish feed plant established by Akin-Sateru Farms Nigeria Limited will improve the livelihood of farmers and consumers through increased aquaculture productivity.

    Also speaking on the occasion, Oba Tijani Akinloye observed that Nigeria spends over N80billion on the importation of fish in annually.

    According to Sateru II Ojomu of Ajiranland, the high volume of importation constituted a huge drain in the nation’s foreign exchange reserve while the pressure of demand on the limited supply translates to high prices of fish and its products in the country as a whole.

    He said the nation imports 700, 000tonnes of feeds, while 400,000 tonnes is produced locally.

    He expressed regret that the shortfall of feed supply has led to high cost of production for fish farmers across the country.

    He noted that the high cost of fish resulting from the scarcity could only be reversed if more people went into fish production through aquaculture, which he maintained was the major avenue for increasing domestic fish production in the country.

    According to him, the ultra modern floating fish plant at Lekki will help boost the aquaculture sector because it applies the technology of producing floating extruded fish feed, adding that the new floating feed, he reiterated, would boost declining fish stocks and export earnings.

     

  • ‘Nigeria spends $500m on fish importation yearly’

    Nigeria spends about $500 million annually on fish importation, the Federal Director of Agriculture in Abia State, Ebere Oziri, has said.

    This amount, he said, should have been channelled into other areas of the economy, such as the fish industry.

    Speaking in Umuahia, the state capital, during the inauguration of the leadership of Catfish Framers Association of Nigeria (CAFAN), Oziri said there was need to boost fish production.

    He said the government was ready to support local fish production, but that the operators need to belong to registered associations to attract help from the government.

    Oziri said when farmers come together, the cost of feeds will be reduced as the government will be ready and willing to sell at a subsidised rate, pointing out that the Federal Government is desirous to reduce the importation of fish.

    He called on fish farmers to register with the association, stressing that only registered ones will benefit from the subsidized fish feeds. “We are determined to make fish available for all which do not have any health hazard.”

    In his speech, the state Commissioner for Agriculture, Prof Ike Onyeweaku, said the state government has keyed into the agricultural transformation agenda of the Federal Government, by actively participating in both livestock and produce farming.

    Onyeweaku said the state would provide the aquaculture action plan baseline data for farmers, train them along the value chains in aquaculture and also provide them with fish seeds and other needed inputs.

    The commissioner said the state government is willing to provide land and infrastructure for the establishment of fish market/processing centres in all the 17 local government areas of the state as an avenue for them to evacuate their products.

    Onyeweaku regretted that the country spends billions of naira yearly on the importation of fish and fish products, adding that local fish production will not only preserve the country’s foreign earnings, “but also provide employment for jobless Nigerians and raise the protein content of local food.”

    The Abia State Chairman of CAFAN, Prince George Akomas, said the inauguration of the state chapter of the association will be a bridge that will convey government intentions to the people.

    Akomas said fish farmers in the state were poised to make fish importation a thing of the past, adding that given the right environment, fish farmers have the potential to do well and help to provide protein at a cheaper rate for Nigerians.

    Performing the inauguration, the National President of CAFAN, TayoAkingbolagun, said by the inauguration of the association the Abia farmers stand the chance of benefiting like their counterparts in other parts of the country.