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Tag: rural

  • ARMTI launches village initiative to boost rural food production

    ARMTI launches village initiative to boost rural food production

    The Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute (ARMTI), Ilorin, Kwara State, has launched its Village Alive Development Initiative (VADI) to promote agriculture investments that have far-reaching impact on individuals and communities.

    At the launch  at  Omomere Oja in Ilorin South Local Government, and Amayo in Ifelodun Local Government Areas,  in Kwara State, ARMTI’s Acting Executive Director Mr Johnson Njoku said the initiative was part of  efforts to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aimed at increasing the capacities of rural dwellers to explore  available  agric resources and technologies to satisfy the demands of the growing population for food and other agricultural commodities.

    To this end, he said priority must be given to maintaining and improving the capacity of agricultural lands to support an expanding population.

    The main tools of VADI, he stated, are income diversification and improved management of inputs. Its success,  he added, would depend largely on the support and participation of rural people. Njoku said that under the VADI programme, loans given to each community would be repaid to their respective co-operatives. He expressed happiness that the intervention of the agency in turning around the fortunes of the local farmers had been yielding fruitful results.

    The Kwara State governor represented by his special assistant on agriculture, Mr Anu Ibiwoye, lauded the effort of the Federal Government through ARMTI, adding that the programme is in line with the effort of the state government to encourage local farmers in the state.

    A farmer, Idowu Magaji, was full of appreciation and described the training and loan provision as an impetus that would bring out the best in them and also make them self-reliant.

    He expressed hope that the initiative will improve farm production and farming systems through diversification of farm employment and infrastructure development.

    At the launch of the VADI in Kwara State, the people of Omomere Oja in Ilorin South Local Government and Amayo in Ifelodun Local Government Area were full of appreciation.

    Officials of ARMTI) handling the programme was welcomed with songs and dances.

    The scheme involves giving out N1 million  loan to each rural community to empower farmers to grow different crops and also teach them how to invest their profit judiciously.

  • Food security: Finance of rural agric to the rescue

    Food security: Finance of rural agric to the rescue

    Experts are seeking innovative ways of financing rural and subsistence agriculture to boost food production, develop agriculture and transform rural communities, DANIEL ESSIET reports.

    Farmers in the rural areas are responsible for up to 70 percent of food production in most states. In recognition of this, many programmes have been developed to enable them grow food and feed more people. While efforts have been made to enable farmers acquire skills and improve on farming skills to improve farm production, organisations involved in micro credit provision are supporting them to improve their livelihood through expansion of capital.

    Several farmers have borrowed money to expand their operations and the results are good returns to raise their families and had a good life.

    One of such organisations is  Farmers Development Union (FADU); an Ibadan-based agric micro credit cooperative. FADUis a pro-poor financial institution committed to the empowerment of farmers through access to  micro credit.

    Established in 1989, the organisation has been involved in projects aimed at building capacities for wealth creation among the enterprising poor and promoting sustainable livelihoods in marginal and vulnerable populations.

    The major thrust of the organisation’s activities involves financial assistance to farmers, technical training to boost their skills and improve their production.

    At the beginning, its major areas of concentration were Oyo, Ogun and Osun States, but it has now expanded to 29 states of the federation.

    With a loan portfolio put at N357 million, the union has recorded an encouraging repayment rate of 98 per cent.

    FADU has two groups of loans- one for individuals and the other for groups. But essentially the organisation accords more priority to group loans due to the ease of administration and repayment.

    The approach has been profitable, self-sustainable, and very successful. This has helped it in achieving its social mission by obtaining very good results in terms of the extent, depth and quality of reach. Its major growth in points of service has been in the rural areas.

    Its Programme Coordinator, Mr Victor Olowe said FADU has mobilised and financially assisted many rural groups. In addition, the organisation has built self-financed grassroots bodies. Indeed, FADU has shown that it is possible for an agric micro-credit cooperative union to provide credit services to a significant number of farmers and to mobilise a large amount of savings.

    The success of FADU  model has encouraged the growth of many more microfinance organisations and cooperative societies. Over the years, FADU and other cooperatives and micro-credit unions have demonstrated that farmers are viable financial-service customers.

    One of the early strategies was lending to individuals. This has gradually changed because the cost of monitoring loans and enforcing repayments was high and most loans are now made to groups because the costs are lower when they are spread among groups rather than individuals.

    Despite FADU’s achievements, its Programme Co-ordinator  noted that there was  still a long way to go to fill the demand-supply gap, especially in rural areas where delivering financial services presents particular challenges.

    At the grassroots level, microfi-nance institutions (MFIs) are not expanding their reach, while commercial banks and other formal financial institutions are not moving into rural areas to reach farmers.

    For experts, with the state of the economy, the need to improve investment in rural agriculture is increasing due to a rising population and changing dietary preferences of the growing middle class in the urban areas.

    According to estimates, demand for food will increase by 70 per cent by 2050. At least $80 billion annually in investments is needed to meet this demand, most of which is expected to come from the government.

    While groups, such as FADU have made efforts to improve the conditions of local farmers and groups, nationwide funding sources available to farmers are limited. Whereas financial institutions are making funds to other sectors of the economy, farmers still experience higher financial exclusion and are discriminated against when they apply for loans. Because of this, most farmers are trapped in a cycle of poverty and subsistence living.

    Olowe said many local rural Nigerians, who engaged in farming, live in abject poverty and remain vulnerable. Since some 70 per cent of those in rural areas, engage in small-scale farming, he was of the opinion that the government needs to empower them to become drivers of economic growth and food security.

    To achieve this, he said farmers require improved financing to help them transform their farms, their lives and their communities as well as boost the future of food security.

    The Project Director of CAVA II, Prof. Kola Adebayo agrees with this position.

    Though credit unions and some non-governmental organisations help farmers to obtain small loans, Adebayo observed that the funding level was still poor to spearhead agricultural transformation.

    He urged the government to give enough allocation in the budget for agriculture that will boost farm growth and appeal to the rural farmers.

    Such budgets, according to him, should consider irrigation projects, increasing investments in rural roads to help farmers get produce to market and ensure all the country’s villages had electricity.

    Kola Adebayo referred to the commitment made by the African Heads of State to allocate at least 10 per cent of their respective national budgets to agriculture (Maputo Declaration). Unfortunately, he observed that Nigeria has not respected the pledge as there has been reduction in budgetary commitments to the agricultural sector.

    While provision of affordable financial services to the rural population was critical in the development strategy, Adebayo counselled that government and the financial institutions partner with farmers’ organisations when disbursing money to them to  reduce risks and defaults in repayment.

    He urged funding agencies to commit to a concrete, measurable target for increasing agricultural productivity and to support a system of public score cards to maximise transparency for farmers organisations they support.

    He called for the establishment of local banks and institutions to provide agricultural credit at grass root level and to encourage the cooperative societies’ structure in the country.

    The Provost, Federal College of Agriculture, (FECA), Dr Samson Odedina urged the government, development agencies and other donors to develop a sound and sustainable agri/rural financial sector in the country.

    Odedina sought more investments in the rural areas to give farmers a sustainable means of livelihood and increase employment opportunities. The ultimate goal, he maintained, is to improve the farmers’ productivity, quality and security of their produce.

  • Nigeria gets USAID’s N20b rural agric cash

    Nigeria gets USAID’s N20b rural agric cash

    An agency funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) called Maximising Agricultural Revenue and Key Enterprises in Targeted Sites (MARKETS) said it has facilitated N20 billion as rural agricultural loans in Nigeria.

    The agency added that it had mobilised Nigerian farmers to achieve N78 billion value of sales for MARKETS II commodities.

    Its Director, External Relations and Capacity Building, Godson Ononiwu who spoke yesterday in Kpada, Patigi Local Government Area of Kwara State at the presentation of tractor to Anfani Kin Kpada Tifin Cooperative Farming Society Limited, said: “We are providing the tractor not only to support the cooperative society and its members in furthering their own production opportunities but also to allow them develop a commercial tractor business to service the other farmers in their communities.”

    The event was attended by local government chairman,  Alhaji Uthman Ndako-Kpada, officials of agro-allied institutions and outfits, other dignitaries and members of the cooperative society which is chaired by Alhaji Abdul-Gana Lukpada.

    Ononiwu said in Benue and Kwara states, MARKETS II had been providing agricultural and capacity building assistance to 70,139 aquaculture, rice and soybean farmers since April 2012.

  • Transforming rural lives through agriculture

    Young agro entrepreneurs in the rural areas are smiling to their banks. They are changing the age-long perception that agriculture is not a profitable venture. Their story is that of overcoming poverty, DANIEL ESSIET reports.

    For the  Chief Executive, Springboard Entrepreneurship Development Initiative, Lawrence Afere, based in Akure,  Ondo State, the rural areas are precious and deserve to be cherished. They are characterised by diverse landscapes and climate. This also means an advantage to organic agriculture.

    His farm projects create awareness to farmers of new possibilities in practices and techniques that support profitable organic farming.

    Besides this, Afere’s innovative drive and constant experimentation with various crops have resulted  to a rich harvest. He is a farmer who  trained as a business administrator at the Covenant University. He also trained as a social entrepreneur at the Northwestern University, Chicago, International Institute for Global Leadership, Ashville, United States  (online) and from Kanthari International Institute for Social Entrepreneurs in India.

    The mission of Springboard is to create an entrepreneurial and productive community of youths from various backgrounds, who work together to enhance their livelihood and community through sustainable agriculture.

    At the Springboard farms in Akure, they grow plantain, banana and maize. They also produce  chips from plantain. In future, he plans to grow cocoa and all kinds of vegetable.

    For him, successful farmers, irrespective of their locations, require skills to build enterprises. From his experience, learning financial, marketing and other business basics is as helpful as the investment in their projects.

    In addition, the work of farmers  is beyond their products – farmers need to defend the landscape, the soil fertility and the biodiversity.

    For this reason, he has established a training school for those interested in building agricultural businesses. In his training school, young people are exposed to diversified farming programmes.

    Besides this, he has an absentee farmers programme for those who don’t live in Ondo State. His team operates the farms on behalf of investors, saving them the pains of travelling long distances.

    Also, Chief Executive, Niji Group, Mr Kolawole Adeniyi, is setting up a rural farm estate in Oyo State.

    According to him, the project will consist of diversified activities, including facilities for individuals, groups and other visitors. Apart from creating jobs, he said his motive was to encourage farmers to become involved in local development.

    The project will bring an increased level of awareness among the farmers of the need for sustainable development and diversification. It will provide an experimenting zone for creating employment and self-employment opportunities.

    The Provost, Federal College of Agriculture, Akure, Ondo State, Dr Samson Odedina, said there was  the need to provide opportunities for young rural people to develop entrepreneurial skills in agriculture.

    He said the college’s programme  provides young people with the training and support they need to establish businesses. He highlighted the need to give young people opportunities to build their capacities, providing them with skills and technical information to enable them take the lead in agric development initiatives.

    A farmland realtor in Ogbomosho area of Oyo State, Debo Thomas, is looking for young people with serious interest in farming.

    Thomas believes the government cannot afford to continue to underutilise the young people as they are presently. For him, enough education, financing and guidance is necessary for those in the rural areas that want to start a farming project that can lead to greater opportunities in the future.

    Experts say emerging young agro entrepreneurs represent a huge potential resource to their communities. They say many rural communities are ageing because, in the absence of incentives to remain, young women and men leave rural areas to seek opportunities elsewhere.

    They argue that when young people begin to see that smallholder farms can be transformed into dynamic, innovative, modern businesses, they will be encouraged to choose agriculture as a career path. Their skills and talents will thus be harnessed in generating a vibrant rural economy that offers employment opportunities both in agriculture and off the farm.

  • Let’s develop rural communities, says Obasanjo

    Let’s develop rural communities, says Obasanjo

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has called on Nigerians in urban areas to develop  rural communities, instead of waiting for the government.

    Obasanjo recalled his childhood in his ancestral agrarian Ibogun village in Ifo Local Government Area of Ogun State, saying there was neither a toilet nor clinic.

    He urged the people to embark on “village renewal” projects.

    The ex – President made the call at the weekend in his message at the 2015 edition of the Ibogun-Olaogun Day.

    Obasanjo noted that government alone cannot be expected to satisfy all the infrastructural needs of rural folks.

    According to him, the physical, social and educational development of the rural dwellers largely depends on whatever contributions members in urban areas can facilitate to such communities.

    He said Ibogun can now boast of a primary health clinic, modern toilets, good roads as well as a modern primary school all of which were products of communal efforts.

    Obasanjo said: ”As responsible people, we should not wait for the government.

    “When I was growing up in this community, there were no latrine, bathroom and clinic.

    “Today, several people would have died if the clinic we built through communal efforts had not been in existence.

    “Each of us can encourage village renewal; we don’t need to wait for the government if we don’t want to tarry for too long.

    “The need to raise fund for our community secondary school is borne out of the need that we can not wait for government to do it for us.

    “We have to carry our load by ourselves before we say the government should come to our aid. That is the reality today.

    “We don’t need to wait for government before developing our communities, particularly some of us who were raised in the village.

    “We should not wait for any government ticket. Let us think of what we can do for ourselves and our communities; what can we do for ourselves to make the rural communities more habitable for us.”

    Also speaking at the event, former Oyo State Deputy Governor Taofeek Arapaja said developing the rural areas would curb rural-urban migration in search of the non-existence “white-collar” jobs.

    Arapaja urged the rich to fraternise with the rural communities and establish industries there.

    “If Baba Obasanjo could be championing the call for rural development, there is nothing stopping us the younger ones to heed his call and go back to our rural areas to bring in development,” he said.

  • Edo drums support for rural finance programme

    The Edo state government has restated its commitment to the Rural Finance Institution Building programme to ensure availability of funds for rural dwellers in the state.

    Mr Joe Okojie, the state Commissioner for Agriculture, made the promise in Benin when RUFIN’s Leader of 11th Supervision Mission, Mr Swandip Sihna, ýpaid a courtesy visit to the state.

    The commissioner said the government was mapping out strategies to take ownership of the programme when the project was over.

    While noting that the state is an agrarian society with more than 67 per cent of the residents involved in different form of agricultural activities, he however assured that the state government is putting in place measures that would boost agricultural production, especially in the rural areas.

    “RUFIN is a programme through which help and relief can be given to people at the grassroots,” he said, adding: “That is why when I took over office, I took interest in the project and I made itý my project.”

    “I am doing my best so that, we as a government will fulfill our own end of the project.

    “I promise you that we will do the needful and will do more to take ownership of the programme when RUFIN is gone.

    “My hope is that, going forward, we will have better synergy so that we are able to deliver on our promises.”

    Earlier, RUFIN’s Deputy National Project Coordinator, Mrs Unekwu Ufaruna, said the programme was targeted at building informal rural financial institutions, and linking them to formal micro finance institutions to access loans without collateral.

    She said RUFIN had formed 700 village savings and credit groups also known as ‘Esusu’ mainly made up of women.

    Ufaruna said the programme was working with seven Micro Finance Institutions in the state, through which N1.2ýbn had been disbursed as loans to rural farmers, since its inception.

    She said at the beginning of RUFIN Edo government was regular at paying counterpart financing, stressing that this should be sustained.

  • Ogun NYSC begins rural health care scheme

    Ogun NYSC begins rural health care scheme

    The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Ogun State has begun rural health care programme for rural communities.

    Its Coordinator, Mr. James Afolayan, said no fewer than 10,000 rural dwellers will benefit from the newly inaugurated Health Initiative for Rural Dwellers (HIRD) programme.

    Afolayan, who spoke with newsmen at the launch of the programme in Ilubere village, Odeda Local Government Area said bringing free health care delivery to people at the grassroots became necessary because of lack of quality medical facilities in rural communities across the country.

    He said the HIRD programme aims at mobilising corps medical volunteers in the provision of health intervention through diagnosis, treatment, referrals and proper prevention mechanism.

    Afolayan further said that in driving the health initiative scheme, the NYSC hopes to enhance the general well-being of rural dwellers across communities in Nigeria.

    Afolayan, who said the programme in Ilubere village would cater for about 1,500 residents from 11 communities, assured that the programme would be sustained by the NYSC scheme.

    “Our confidence in the success of this programme lay in the fact that we have been able to secure the support of stakeholders who are assisting our personnel with medical supplies and logistics.

    “The health outreach, which is taking place simultaneously in selected rural communities across the nation, has been designed to address our people’s health challenges.

    “The initiative is for the benefit of everyone; hence our people must take ownership and participate fully for everyone’s  benefit,” he said.

    The chairman, Odeda Local Government Area transition committee, Mr. Segun Adebowale, urged the people to take advantage of the programme for their health benefit.

    He discouraged the use of self-medication and local methods of treatment, even as he emphasised more on preventive medicine and the need to adopt healthy lifestyles.

    The community head of Ilubere, Mr. Rasheed Olaleye, thanked the NYSC for the HIRD programme, saying it would bring much succour to their lives.

  • NYSC’s health initiative excites rural dwellers

    Rural communities in Akwa-Ibom State have become lively. Residents of these rural areas are happy with the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) in the state for obvious reason. Their health and welfare have become priority through a programme initiated by the NYSC.

    A one-week medical outreach programme tagged “NYSC Health Initiative for Rural Dwellers (NYSC-HIRD)” which aims at ensuring that the residents are healthy has been inaugurated.

    Speaking while inaugurating the programme at Abama community, Obot Akara Local Government Area, the NYSC Director-General, Brig-Gen. Johnson Olawunmi, said HIRD, which was conceived over a year ago, has become not only a reality but also a programme that has gained national acceptance.

    The D-G further explained that the successes recorded in the two pilot states of Kwara and Lagos are now being replicated in all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    The goal of the HIRD programme, according to the D-G, was to mobilise Corps medical volunteers in the provision of health intervention through diagnosis, treatment, referrals and proper prevention mechanism, thereby enhancing the general well-being of rural dwellers across the nook and cranny of the country.

    His words: “Volunteer Corps medical personnel, who will form the core of the team, will work as health intervention agents in driving the wheel of the health initiative.  The one-week health outreach, which is taking place simultaneously in selected rural communities across Nigeria, has been designed to address health challenges of our people.

    “Our confidence in the success of this programme also lay in the fact that we have been able to secure the support of some stakeholders, who are either assisting us with their personnel or providing other material support in the areas of drugs, medical supplies and equipment.

    “Therefore, we shall continue to forge further collaboration with specific partners in the health sector. The partners include federal and state ministries of health, National Primary Health Development Agency (NPHDA), the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organisation (WHO), Society for Family Health (SFH), Family Health International (FHI) as well as non-governmental and international organisations. They include but not limited to Royal Heritage Health Foundation, Ilorin, Grace Project International, MTN Communication Nigeria and Guinness Nigeria Plc, among others.”

    In her remarks, the Coordinator of Akwa-Ibom State NYSC, Lady Ngozi Chukwuka, explained that unless mothers are enlightened on basic health issues such as family planning, proper nutrition and hygiene, not much could be done in the quest to prevent diseases.

  • Rural inaccessibility to slow down telecoms sector in Africa

    Africa’s fast-growing mobile phone subscription rate is expected to slow sharply in the next five years, a development that has surprised some stakeholders closest to the industry, Reuters reports in eNCA.

    African mobile subscriptions grew 13 per cent from 2010 to 2015, and they’ll continue to grow, but slower — at an expected rate of six per cent from 2015 to 2020 — according to a new report by global industry body Global System for Mobile communications Association (GSMA). That six-per cent growth will likely add 135 million subscribers, ITNewsAfrica reports.

    The report says the slowdown will be partly due to lack of commercial logic in setting up network coverage in some rural areas, where more than half the population lives, Reuters reports.

    The slowing subscriber growth underscores the existence of significant barriers to the take-up of mobile services, according to ITNewsAfrica. In addition to a lack of business confidence in rural areas, these include cost, coverage, income levels and technical literacy.

    Sub-Saharan Africa bypassed Latin America for unique subscribers in 2014, becoming the world’s third-largest growth region after Asia Pacific and Europe. It now accounts for 10 percent of the global subscriber base, ITNewsAfrica reports.

    It’s not economically viable for mobile phone companies to deploy their networks in some areas — especially remote, rural communities — because of low spending power of people living there, said Mortimer Hope, GSMA’s Africa director.

    “I am bit surprised by this development,” Hope told Reuters. “I expected strong growth to continue because the penetration rate in Africa is still well below 100 percent.”

    Expect more mergers and acquisitions as competition heats up and subscription rates go down in African mobile markets, Hope said.

    “Smaller players don’t have the economies of scale to drive their prices down and compete for long periods, so you’ll probably see some consolidation in the market,” he said.

    Recent M&A activities include United Arab Emirates’ Etisalat selling Zantel, its struggling Tanzanian mobile phone business, to Sweden’s Millicom in June.

    South Africa’s Vodacom bought fixed-line operator Neotel, which struggled to compete against larger rival Telkom.

    By 2020, more than 500 million people — about half the African population — will have subscribed to a mobile service compared with the global average of almost 60 percent, according to the GSMA report.

    Mobile regulators and operators must act to reduce barriers to mobile uptake so the unconnected can get the benefits of mobile.

     

    Between now and 2020, 40 per cent of the new subscribers are expected to come from Ethiopia and Nigeria, two of the most populous countries in the region. Mobile penetration is now 23 per cent in Ethiopia and 31 per cent in Nigeria.

    Other countries expected to have strong subscriber growth include Cameroon, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda.

  • Ambode gives 49 transformers to rural communities

    Ambode gives 49 transformers to rural communities

    Governor Akinwunmi Ambode has given over 49 new transformers to rural communities in Lagos State as part of his administration’s policy to light up those places.

    The transformers, he said, would reduce the challenge of unsteady power supply which is crippling businesses and making life unbearable for inhabitants of those areas.

    “In my inaugural speech, I pledged my total commitment to run a government that will implement programmes that will make life more meaningful, easier, and happier for our people, Today, we are handing over these transformers as a demonstration of that pledge,” he said.

    The governor, represented by Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Local Government and Community Affairs, Jafar Sanuth at the ceremony, said his administration would begin the connection of the transformers to the national grid in two weeks under the first phase, adding that the second phase would involve the procurement and installation of over 50 transformers to be distributed to rural communities in Epe, Badagry, Ibeju Lekki and Ikorodu.

    The transformers connection to the national grid would improve power supply, create an enabling environment for job creation and reduce migration from the rural to urban areas – Ambode said, adding: “This will also create employment for our unemployed youths in these areas as small scale businesses can now function properly with the installation of the transformers. With the provision of the transformers to these communities, it will improve the economy of the communities, especially those (residents) who are in one way or the other depending on power supply as the only means of their livelihood.”

    Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Community Affairs Alhaji Tajudeen Quadri said the transformers would improve the standard of living in rural communities.

    Quadri, immediate past chair of the Community Development Committee, promised that the transformers would be used judiciously and protected from vandals.