The Nation Newspaper

Tag: food production

  • How wild bees on farms can boost food production

    A consultant on bee farming, Mr. Victor Obi, has advised farmers to invest in habitats that attract bees to farms, saying this can increase crop production.

    Obi, formerly of the National Root Crops Research Institute, Umudike, Umuahia, Abia State, said studies have shown that habitats that attract wild bees help to increase crop yields.

    Bees have a much greater economic value than is widely known. While people think of bees as a source of honey, beeswax and other health and nutritional products, Nigerians are yet to explore honey bees as crop pollinators, he said.

    Bees, he explained, are a vital part of industrial food farming; without them plants cannot develop and produce food.

    He said bees help to pollinate the plants, carrying pollen from one plant to another as they collect their own food.

    He warned of the effects of pesticides, adding that such chemicals are synonymous with the demise of honeybees.

    Obi called for the protection of bees, saying they are critical to food supplies.

    “Bees pollinate many important crops while pesticides protect those same crops from pest damage. Beekeepers also rely on pesticides in their hives to protect against various pests. As such, the plant science industry is committed to ensuring that both bees and pesticides can help agriculture thrive.

    Bees, birds, butterflies and other beneficial insects pollinate flowering plants. This means some crops used to produce foods and beverages are dependent on these wonderful creatures. Insecticide-treated seed evolved as a way to protect seeds and crops while minimising potential exposures of non-target insects, such as bees.

    “As the use of the pesticides has spread, so have questions about the long-term exposure on honeybees, bumblebees, monarch butterflies and other pollinators,he added.

    According to a 2011 report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), pollination by bees and other insects contributed about 153 billion euros ($204 billion) or 9.5 per cent of the total global value of food production.

  • ‘Bad roads, others affecting food production’

    ‘Bad roads, others affecting food production’

    Poor rail, road and port networks are impeding food production, the Director Africa Region, Cassava Adding Value to Africa, Dr Kola Adebayo has said.

    He said modernising infrastructure would boost agricultural production. Transportation infrastructure, he said, is an obstacle to agricultural business.

    The sector, he said, faces severe problems in moving food products from point and ports to processing or consumer selling points.

    He said lack of transport facilities leads to food input delivery delays for the food processing sector.

    According to him, the lack of trucking and refrigeration capacity also causes problems with the delivery of produce and that the transportation infrastructure are poorly managed.

    As a result of the poor quality of internal transportation systems and its inability to handle large volumes, Adebayo said, produce movement is very slow.

    The quality of the roads, he added, is poor, and are incapable of handling heavy truck traffic associated with agric produce.

    According to him, predictable logistics are important to improved food production, adding delays and unpredictability generally add to production cost.

    Delays, he said, were related to the performance of road, rail and port, adding that the lack of intermodal-connectivity and variable transit times cause delays and raise costs. These hamper the ability of firms to compete.

    He said improved spending on transportation infrastructure will have direct impact on the performance of the food sector.

    Much of the future progress of the sector, he noted, on transportation as the costs that are uncompetitive, making production costs too high.

    The food and farm sector, he noted, recognised the importance of improving access to market, adding that substantial investment in transportation infrastructure is important to agriculture’s continued prosperity.

    He said projects to get produce to more markets faster would enhance economic competitiveness in the future and help the sector create more job.

  • ‘Power vital to food production’

    The economy cannot grow without reliable and adequate power supply, Director, African Region, Cassava Adding Value to Africa (C:AVA) Dr Kola Adebayo has said.

    According to him, the rise in managing power supply costs was cutting into their profits of food production and adding to their losses.

    He said the nation is endowed with varied renewable energy resources.

    To improve food production, Adebayo said the government should support farmers to explore low cost electricity from sources.

    According to him, farmers need cost-effective and sustainable energy strategy to improve food production. Getting more renewable energy across the country, he noted, will give farmers more security and a greater degree of energy independence – helping to shield them from fuel price fluctuation.

    Farmers, hit by frequent and unscheduled power cuts, he advised, should show interest in alternative sources of energy to power their operations.

    Nigeria is an agrarian nation and produces vast amounts of farm waste every year. Most of that farm waste, he noted can be turned into technology of generating electricity from biomass, he added.