The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Sugarcane

  • FMARD to empower 2m youths, women in 3 years

    FMARD to empower 2m youths, women in 3 years

    The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development ( FMARD ) says it will empower about two million Nigerian youths and women in the first three years of its new initiative, Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprise ( LIFE ).

    The LIFE Programme Coordinator, Ms Keke Bongos-Ikwue, disclosed this on Tuesday at the commencement of registration of LIFE cooperatives at Ojokoro LCDA in Ifako/Ijaye Local Government, Lagos state.

    Bongos-Ikwue said that the LIFE was an initiative of the Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, targeting unemployed or underemployed women and youths.

    “We have been planning this programme for over two years and this is our first outing.

    “The pilot phase of the outing is being replicated in 24 states plus the Federal Capital Territory ( FCT ) simultaneously by different groups as we speak.

    Read also: Lagos empowers 150 women

    “We want to empower women and youths along the agricultural value chain of high value commodities like ground nut, palm products, wheat, rice, cashew nuts.

    “Also included are commodities like cassava, honey, cocoa, sugarcane, tomato, sesame seed, livestock dairy and aquaculture.

    “The second phase of this programme will cover the whole country within two years.

    “Research has shown that the major cause of insurgency is poverty and idleness; it has led many of the nation’s youth to look outside the country, causing them to become vulnerable and easily manipulated, and eventually some lose their lives.”

    The coordinator said the programme intended to directly empower approximately three million rural youths and women within five years of implementation.

    She added that it would also produce about 14 million metric tons of food in the 9,975 council wards across the 774 local government areas.

    According to her, the programme starts with registration of youths and women as LIFE clusters at the council/ward level to develop LIFE cooperative database.

    The LIFE coordinator said that all geopolitical zones in Nigeria would be visited, adding that the ministry was working with the state governments and local government authorities to achieve its aims.

    Ms Bongos-Ikwue said that the ministry was partnering with state and local governments, Bank of Industry, Bank of Agriculture, international partners and other ministries and agencies on the programme.

    The Special Adviser on Media to the Minister, Dr Olukayode Oyeleye, said that the programme was a developmental intervention, targeting an often overlooked and ignored group in Nigeria.

    Oyeleye said that the programme was to deal only with family enterprises, which had potential to grow.

    “This initiative is to help those already into small agribusiness to grow, who are constrained by finance or technology.

    “The team from FMARD has been divided into 12 to cover 24 states.

    “We will register the would-be beneficiaries and on the basis of the questionnaire they fill, we will collate and analyse to determine the kind of specific intervention to be given to each intended beneficiary.

    “The support we will grant them include access to finance, affordable agricultural inputs for sustainable production, agro-processing and packaging.

    “A robust marketing system that connects rural food surplus to urban cities will also be put in place for efficient market linkage and access,’’ Oyeleye said.

    Also speaking to the LIFE group in his office, the Lagos State Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr Oluwatoyin Suarau commended the initiative but called for caution by the team.

    “We are in the time of politics and you cannot afford to give these would-be beneficiaries money as past experience shows that they can misuse it.

    “Also the age group you are concentrating on, which is 18 years to 35 years, are still majorly students, you have to ensure that your beneficiaries have tangible, visible existing farms or enterprise.

    “You also have to monitor these farmers very well to ensure success of the programme.

    “On our part in the state, we will work with you to verify and identify your beneficiaries.

    “Once again, I want to thank you for including Lagos in the pilot stage of this intervention,’’ the commissioner said.

    NAN

  • Nigeria’s first sugarcane bio-factory begins operations

    Nigeria’s first sugarcane bio-factory begins operations

    The Federal Government, yesterday, inaugurated Nigeria’s first Sugarcane Bio-factory in Zaria as part of efforts to achieve self-sufficiency in the sector.

    The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, said the inauguration of the one-million seedling per year capacity bio-factory was the first in the series of bio-factories to be established in the next five years, with combined capacity estimated at 12.5million cane seedlings per annum.

    He spoke while declaring open the bio-factory at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State.

    He said: “The provision of high grade and quality seedlings of sugarcane is essential for the attainment of the set goals of the National Sugar Master Plan (NSMP). A bio-factory is a facility where disease-free crop seedlings are rapidly micro-propagated under controlled laboratory environment for planting in the fields.

    “This facility is designed to address a critical constraint facing Nigeria’s sugar industry – timely provision of high quality and clean seeds to sugar estates and farmers across Nigeria. We expect that, in four years, five of this kind of facility would have been established across Nigeria with capacities of between two million and 2.5 million seedlings per annum each.”

    The minister explained that the projection in the NSMP was that at least 250,000 hectares of sugarcane fields would be required for processing in about 28 mills of varying capacities to produce 1.79 metric tons of sugar in the first phase of the Master Plan.

    He said: “The event today marks another milestone in the implementation of the Nigeria Sugar Master Plan, which was approved by the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan in September 2012. The NSMP is one of the major sectoral policies under the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan, enunciated by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and launched by the President in February 2014. The ultimate goal is to make Nigeria’s manufacturing sector highly competitive and dynamic.

    “The production of sugar is an integrated process with field and factory processes that are inter-dependent and mutually inclusive. Thus, efficiency in the cultivation and supply of sugarcane is essential for efficient milling and production of sugar and associated by-products such as ethanol and electricity.”

    The minister noted that the vibrancy and efficiency of the Brazilian Sugar industry had been attributed to the investment and innovation services, which institutions like Brazil’s Cane Technology Centre(CTC) were providing to the sugar industry in Brazil.

    He said, “This is what the National Sugar Development Council seeks to replicate for the Nigerian sugar industry through the establishment of this bio-factory. Today, I feel fulfilled by the achievements that we have recorded under the programmes and policies that were executed under my charge as the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment.

  • ‘Soldiers hid in sugarcane farm to kill my men’

    ‘Soldiers hid in sugarcane farm to kill my men’

    The bodies were displayed on the floor, in wooden caskets. They were surrounded by men who two days earlier had no inkling that they could be dead.  Tears and sorrow enveloped the area. Nineteen of them were ready to be buried. About sixteen others are believed to still be in the custody of the soldiers who allegedly shot them on Friday during an Islamic procession.

    After the Eid prayer at the Hussainiyyah Baqiyyatullah, Zaria, their leader, Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, spoke on what he called the “indiscriminate shooting of peaceful protesters” during the Quds Day procession in Zaria.

    The Shi’te leader said the military targeted his sons.

    He said: “There is nothing like Boko Haram killing people; we cannot be fooled. Those in authority are the sole authors of the atrocities.”

    He argued that there was nothing like a religious group taking up arms against Nigeria “as they are trying to make us believe”.

    The Shiite leader said: “On our own part, they came in broad day light in their military uniforms, fully armed with military inscriptions on their vehicles and committed arson and murder. From this you will understand those killing innocent citizens either in Birnin Gwari forest or Zamfara and other places.

    “It is unbelievable that sporadic killings were going with a democratically elected government assuming ignorance of the issue and lacks control. There is nothing like Boko Haram killing people, we cannot be fooled. Those in authority are the sole authors of the atrocities.”

    As at yesterday, 16 of the shot members of the ‘Shiite’ Islamic sect had been buried. The rest is to be buried today.

    El-Zakzaky said the soldiers hid inside sugarcane farm to kill members of his sect, including three of his children.

    He said his members were harmless. He faulted the military’s claim on the incident.

    El-Zakzaky said: “The celebration of the Quds Day is a celebration that is observed all over the world. In the last 35 years in Nigeria, yesterday’s (Friday’s) event was the 32nd. It means that for the past 32 years we have been observing the day in solidarity with the Palestinian people, which comes up on the last Friday in every month of Ramadan.

    “This day is even observed in Washington, New York and Beijing. In Nigeria, we have been observing it, at least, in 22 cities, including Zaria, Kaduna, Kano, Maiduguri, Bauchi, Lagos, Port Harcourt, among others.

    “All of a sudden, soldiers appeared from nowhere and started shooting people. Some of them coming to or going out of the procession. They continued shooting until the fall of the night. They hid inside the sugarcane farm close to the Kubanni area. They were sporadically shooting anyone passing. It could be simply anyone.

    “During the shooting, they killed many people including women and children. It was during the shooting that one of my sons, Mahmood, a student of Al-Mustapha University, Beirut, who came home at the beginning of this Ramadan for holiday, was killed. He was shot at the abdomen and was brought here and we attempted to take him to the hospital but along the road he bled to death.

    “Also, they arrested some people and three of my children were among, Ahmad, Hameed and Ali. They were taken alive and well. But after liaison with some people, especially police, they told us that they were taken to military hospital in Basawa.

    “When we demanded that they should give them back to us, they said they would take them to Shika, ABUTH. Later on we came to realise that they had already killed Ahmad and Hameed, and that Ali was wounded on the leg.

    “When I demanded for the release of my sons through the GOC 1 Mechanised Division, Okuh said he would release them but not alive. By Allah’s infinite mercy, Ali is alive; he saw how his brothers were brutally murdered before his eyes.  He is presently receiving medical attention, as a result of compound fracture on his leg, from the several shooting on his leg.

    “Ahmad and Hameed were both students. Ahmad was reading Chemical Engineering in Shenyang University and Hameed was studying Neurological Engineering in Xian University, all in China. Ahmad is about to graduate in April and Hameed has just started.

    “Ahmad only came last Saturday. These two, I believe, were murdered in cold blood because they were taken alive. And we also seem to believe that they killed them because some confirmed seeing Ahmad alive in their hospital with wound in his leg.

    “Yesterday, we had a total of 16 bodies and learnt that they have taken nine to the ABUTH, with my two children, it makes 11.

    “This morning, as they were passing-by the Husainiyya, the soldiers also decided to shoot. They killed three more people and injured many. We also learnt they have taken two more bodies this morning. So far, 35 people were killed”.

    He also lamented that the army refused to release the bodies of his members.

    “Of the 35, we have 19 bodies and they have the rest. We wanted to have the funeral of all of them today, but because they have mounted a roadblock, it is not possible to collect the remaining corpses from the ABUTH.

    “The police that have been helping us, yesterday called to say that it was advisable for us we leave the bodies until the soldiers are not there.

    “Even today, having some patients with wounds, we went to the police to escort us to the hospital, but the Area Commander said he had been warned to take off his hands from this matter. We made some observations. This demonstration took place in different cities, but they decided to attack only Zaria. Even in Kaduna, soldiers and police escorted the procession. Therefore, these soldiers were brought from Abuja, to kill people,” he said.

    The Shiite leader stressed that the incident was not a clash between his members and soldiers, saying: “Let me disabuse your mind that, it is not the question of Shiite; it is people. Solidarity with Palestinian is not a question of belief. You don’t have to be Shiite or even Muslim to show the solidarity. It cannot be a better time than now when for 19 consecutive days Gaza has been under siege. If this solidarity is taking place all over the world, why Nigeria and Zaria, particularly, that people would be attacked?”

    Sheik El-Zakzaky also alleged that the mastermind of the killings planted plain clothes soldiers in his members’ procession.

    He said: “We had noticed that they had assigned their men to join the processing in civilian cloth. These people, whenever they saw soldiers, they started shouting, and that’s what they have been doing to us during our previous demonstrations. People who are among us obey instructions. But these soldiers in civilian uniform chased the ones in uniform to their barracks.

    “They came with the gimmicks that they were our people. They used that as pretext to attack us. This morning, in the Husainiyya, when they were passing and people were shouting, and it was their people, they killed innocent people.

    “Perhaps, if there is any clash, it is among them. But, as far as we know, it was the soldiers who opened fire on people passing-by in a peaceful demonstration, and that was what happened.”

    However, when asked about the sect’s next line of action, El-Zakzaky said: “We can’t say that everything is okay, because they have blocked the road to Shika. So, we cannot bring back our bodies and the injured. I have not seen the bodies of my two sons. Mahmood is with us, but the rest we have not seen them. Similarly, Ali who has fracture on his leg, we have not seen him.”

    Also reacting to the allegation that his members prevented a senior army officer from passing, the Sheik said: “Even if it is true that an Army officer was denied access to pass, is that enough justification to kill innocent people? We have record of good organisation but they used to infiltrate our procession to have justification of attacking us.”

  • Sugarcane business booms in Kano

    Sugarcane traders in Kano are recording sales boom since the beginning of the season, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

    Some dealers confirmed the development to a NAN correspondent, who visited one of the sugarcane markets at Bachirawa, Ungogo Local Government Area.

    According to the traders, some customers come from the neighbouring states of Jigawa, Kaduna and Bauchi to purchase sugarcane in large quantities.

    Malam Muhammad Sani, the secretary of the sugarcane dealers in the area, said the market, one of the biggest in the state, was providing means of livelihood to hundreds of unemployed youths.

    “Though it is a seasonal business, the business is indeed a profitable venture because I make a living out of it,” Sani said.

    MrAminuBala, a dealer along Katsina Road, said he was selling between 10 and 20 bundles of sugarcane daily and that most of his customers came from within and outside the state.

    Malam Mansur Ali, another dealer in Kumbotso Local Government Area of the state, said between 15 and 20 trucks of sugarcane were offloaded in the market daily.

    According to him, a bundle of sugarcane of 50 pieces costs between N1,200 and N1,300, while a bundle of 35 pieces goes for N900.

    Ali said he made an average of N9,000 from sugarcane sales daily.

    “I was able to pay my children’s school fees and carter for my family from the proceeds of this seasonal venture,” he said