Al-Makura flags off graduate farmers project

Minister of Water Resources, Mr Suleiman Adamu (2nd L) inaugurates graduands of the 7th Graduate/Farmers’ Pilot Scheme at Lower Benue River Basin Development Authority in Doma, Nasarawa State on Wednesday (23/11/16). With him is Gov. Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa State.

From left: Minister of Water Resources, Mr Suleiman Adamu; Managing Director, Lower Benue River Basin Development Authority, Mr Ovey Angbazo; and Gov. Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa State, during inspection of Doma Dam in Nasarawa State on Wednesday.

7A cross-section of Traditional Leaders at the inauguration of graduands of the 7th Graduate/ Farmers’ Pilot Scheme at Lower Benue River Basin Development Authority in Doma,

. Gov. Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa State (R) and the Minister of Water Resources, Mr Suleiman Adamu’ during the latter’ visit to Lafia on Wednesday.

Traditional leaders on Wednesday joined Governor Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa state to inaugurate 7th Graduate/Farmers’ projects.

The Pilot Scheme was inaugurated at Lower Benue River Basin Development Authority in Doma, irrigation dam project that has not been into used for over three decades.

The scheme which is in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Lower Benue River Basin Development Authority is aimed at turning graduates into entrepreneurs so as to improve food production in the country.

Flagging off the scheme, the Minister of Water Resources,  Suleiman Adamu says the government will provide the graduates with finance and technological know how to get the Programme going.

Credit: NAN

Nigeria lacks agric research support, say nematologists

While the Federal Government is encouraging Nigerians to see the positives in agriculture, the president of Nigerian Society of Nematologists (NISON), Professor Dele Fawole, has said many corporate and private organisations are not showing interest in agricultural research in the country.

Fawole stated this at the just-concluded third biennial conference of NISON with the theme, ‘Nematodes and the Ecosystem,’ held at Augustine University, Ilara Epe, Lagos.

He said: “While the government is encouraging agriculture and tilting Nigerians towards it, many organizations are not showing support in agricultural research. If researches are conducted across the country, many farmers and even people coming into the agric business will be well enlightened, knowing what it takes to excel and be successful.”

On the threat nematodes pose on agricultural produce, Fawole stated: “They reduce farmers yields to different levels which result in low productivity, quality and low return on investment. Though not all nematodes have negative effects on the soil. There are some that help in revitalizing the soil by decomposing organic matter in the soil. The other is plant parasitic nematode which is harmful to agricultural produce. It is difficult to get total control, but what we are striving for, is keeping them (plant nematodes) at a population where they don’t have significant level of damage,” he stated.

Speaking on the enlightenment of Nigerian farmers on nematodes, the vice chancellor, who is also the vice president of NISON, Professor Steve Afolami, said: “We have done a lot of research, published papers but most of them are not being used for the purposes for which the research were meant. Every time Nigeria reaches a point where it (the research) is going to benefit scientifically (especially) from produce and the effort of the researcher, something always happen that prevent it (the research) from being implemented.

“In the case of weeds, we almost got to a point where farmers were to become routine users of herbicides to control weeds in such a manner that the intensive labour needed for managing weeds in farms would be reduced. Suddenly the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) came and there wasn’t money to manage that programme. That prevents agriculture from taking off in a commercial manner.

“Nematodes are not (really) visible, you need a very organized group for extension. First to train farmers and then to demonstrate the effect of controlling nematodes from the crops themselves, so that farmers can save themselves from loss managed by the scientist of the extension person. When these are done, other farmers who pass by are likely to ask question on what are you doing that we are not doing.”

He added: “Generally, the effect of nematodes are not known. Tree crops like cocoa are being affected by nematodes. Usually the effects are not felt immediately because farmers could think it’s a soil problem.

Credit; Guardian NG

How Kano Women Move From Kitchen to Agro-Business

By Ibrahim Musa Giginyu

Sixty-four-year-old Hajiya Hinde Maishinkafa has been a farmer for over two decades. When she decided to venture into agriculture business, particularly rice farming, people thought she was unserious. "They kept telling me I have no business in men's dominated trade and I shouldn't dare try, but I knew I could do it," she recalled.

Though, she was ill-equipped and had little knowledge of practical aspect of farming, she was determined to succeed, no matter the odds. And, today, with the assistance she got from an association, she is a proud successful farmer.

A visit to her village revealed that Hajiya Hinde Maishinkafa is among the biggest rice farmers in Bunkure. Employing more than 15 people, her farm produced over 120 bags of rice this year.

It was also discovered that, with the intervention of SAA, Hinde's farming practices got the push it needed as she was connected to where she can get hybrid seeds, trained on modern farming techniques and modern preservation process.

"I was operating on trial and error bases, but when Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA) came, they asked us to form associations of maximum number of 25 women each, which we did, and they linked us with seed companies and fertiliser dealers where we can obtain good seeds and fertiliser at affordable price."

Continuing, she said: "The interesting part of all this is when SAA gave us a complete milling machine as a form of loan. The good news here is that, the association paid half of the price of the milling machine. We now cultivate and mill our rice and also mill for others. We now mill 30 bags of rice, daily, at N1, 000 per bag. Poverty among women in our community is a thing of the past. Virtually all the women are engaged, one way or the other, no one wants to be left behind."

During an assessment visit of Sasakawa projects with a media team to Bunkure Local Government Area as part of activities to mark Sasakawa's 30th anniversary in Nigeria, Dr Esther Ibrahim of Sasakawa stated that the SG2000-Nigeria country programme began in March 1992, under an agreement signed with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources. The initiative targeted federal and state agencies to raise agricultural productivity and improve food crop marketing among Nigerian farmers.

She said that the project has recorded many successes in creating market for products produced by small-scale farmers and improved their knowledge on new agricultural techniques through which Hajiya Hinde's association benefited.

"We are promoting women engagement in agriculture in virtually all the northern states in Nigeria, and the good news here is that most of these women have formed groups and are presently fully engaged in full time agricultural practices," she said.

"This is a clear indication that, what our women need is just the motivational assistance to move from the kitchen to the field and become more productive and self-dependant," Dr Ibrahim said.

Credit: Daily Trust

Nigeria, Israel and Argentina to train Niger Delta ex-agitators on agriculture

By Grace Udofia 

The Federal Government on Wednesday said it was going into a partnership with the Israeli and Argentine governments to train Niger Delta ex-agitators in agriculture so as to boost food production and boost the nation’s economy. The special adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, General Paul Boroh, disclosed this in a meeting with representatives from the two foreign countries in Abuja. Boroh explained that the major objective of the partnership was to tap from the expertise of the two countries and enable the ex-agitators to earn a sustainable means of livelihood. According to Boroh, the two countries have what it takes to make agriculture in Nigeria a big business and provide food security for the nation. Boroh said, “I have been to Israel severally and seen the huge fortune recorded in farming there. 

There are a lot of big farms there and I want my people under this programme to maximise the window of opportunity in agriculture to earn a living. ‘’Currently as Nigeria shifts its dependence from oil to agriculture, it is important to key into it and train people to be able to catch up with the times’’. Also speaking, Argentina’s Ambassador to Nigeria, Gustavo Alejandro Dzugala, said the partnership with Nigeria would bring about a major benefit in agriculture given the vast knowledge and expertise of his country in the area. “Argentina has a long experience in the agricultural scheme and is also willing to map out strategies and approach which will give ex agitators the necessary tools for capacity development’’. ‘’We are here today because there is an interest by the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs to train ex-agitators on the expansion and diversification of the Nigerian economy through rugged drive of agriculture’’. 

‘’We are done with the first stage of approval as we evolve we hope that the project will get approval to be implemented, which will mean that we will commence next year in full scale, there are plans for it to be included in the 2017 budget’’. ‘’Our economy is based on agriculture and Nigeria economy can grow to be like that, we have involved experts from both sides for strategic planning, the process will determine the financial commitment of Argentina’’. In the same vein, Yaron Aharon from Israel said the essence of the collaboration was to address the authorities of PAP on how to use the knowledge and skills of Israeli farmers to better the lives of Nigerian youths and improve the economy of the country.

 ‘’ It is essential to use the vast resources and human capacity Nigerians are blessed with to be self reliant. I choose Amnesty because they have shown their intention to tap from the great experience we have come with’’. ‘’We are not limited by numbers or time; it is a programme that can take months or even years and we are ready to ride you all the way as long as you give us the resources to carry that out, our major target now is to train the trainers then they in turn will train others which will give room for local expansion’’.

Credit: Vanguard NG

Abia farmers cooperative floats N500m share for subscription

Gov. Okozie Ikpeazu

Umuahia – The Abia State Farmers and Institution Micro-Finance Cooperative Union Limited (AFIMCUL ) on Tuesday floated a N500m share capital for public subscription.

Inaugurating the public offer in Umuahia, Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu    commended the initiative, describing it as supportive of government’s efforts to diversify the state economy.

“My joy is based on the fact that this union has taken up the challenge of the present administration for Abia citizens to join hands to boost the state economy through agriculture.”

Ikpeazu, represented by Deputy Gov. Ude Chukwu, described the low agricultural  financing as “the bane of food production in Nigeria.”

He said that farmers, although highly resourceful, were hardly able to finance production beyond subsistence farming.

He commended the union for pulling resources together to help its members to access the needed capital to boost their productive capacity.

“This will reduce the drudgery associated with farming activities through mechanisation and enable farming to acquire  business status and be able to generate wealth and employment,” he said.

In his speech, the Commissioner for Agriculture, Chief Uzo Azubuike, also commended the union for the initiative, saying that the ministry had supported the growth of cooperatives.

Azubuike said that the ministry had commenced the registration of farmers in the state, adding that Abia North and Central Senatorial Districts had already been covered.

In a goodwill message, a Director in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Mr Akinloye Akintola, assured the union of the support of the ministry through capacity building for its members.

Akintola described the cooperative sector as “a veritable tool for development”, saying that since Abia is an agrarian state, cooperatives would help farmers to achieve optimal success.

Alhaji Mohammed Yusuf, the Secretary-General of the Apex of Farmers Cooperative Societies Limited (AFCOSOL), described the initiative as laudable.

Yusuf, who challenged farmers in the state to expand their scope of product to include cereal, said that his state, Niger, would engage in exchange of agricultural products with Abia.

In his  welcome,  address, the state President of the union, Chief Uzoma Nwogwugwu, said that the union established AFIMCUL as part of its contribution to transform agriculture in Abia.

Nwogwugwu said that the initiative would help to address the challenges “associated with the delivery of credit to farmers and cooperatives in Abia and Nigeria as a whole.”

News Agency of Nigeria ( NAN ) reports that farmers from 17 local government areas of the state used the event to showcase their agricultural produce.

NUC accredits Sasakawa programme for varsities

NUC

The National Universities Commission (NUC) has approved the accreditation of Sasakawa Agricultural Extension Programme in Nigerian universities.

From empirical studies, one of the major challenges of agricultural development in most African countries, including Nigeria, has been found to be that of a weak agricultural extension system. This is exacerbated by lack of opportunities for in-service training for field extension staff; and the lack of relevant and appropriate training and orientation of the extension personnel, who even have the opportunity of in-service “qualification” training at tertiary institutions.

It was in recognition of these deficiencies and to boost field experience in the top echelon of extension service, that the Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), funded by the Nippon Foundation launched the Sasakawa Africa Fund for Extension Education (SAFE) programme in1993, with a special innovative curriculum, and its pilot programme was implemented in Ghana, in collaboration with Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Development, a United States-based non-profit NGO.The curriculum includes sufficient pragmatic and hands-on experiential methods.

With the NUC’s nod, the programme, initiated would now be mainstreamed into universities’ curricula to facilitate the production of graduates and postgraduates in science and agricultural extension.

Before the NUC endorsement, the SAFE extension programme had been running in five universities, including Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; Bayero University, Kano; University of Ilorin; Adamawa State University, Mubi, and Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto.

Sasakawa takes full responsibility of funding and providing logistic to universities to run the programme for the initial four years, after which the institutions take ownership of the programme.

Speaking at press conference in Kano, the Country director of SAA, Prof. Sani Miko, said with this development, Nigeria has now joined eight countries where the practical agricultural extension programme is being run in 20 universities.

“Recently our agricultural extension programme scaled through NUC accreditation to run officially in the universities. Our agitation and consistent efforts to get the programme mainstream into regular university programme finally yielded positive result. We hope with this approval the programme will be properly sustained and adequately funded by the university because we realised funding and other logistics for running the programme are becoming difficult. That was after the provision of Sasakawa Africa Funds for Extension Education (SAFE) ended.

“We envisaged this situation right from the beginning and that was why we approached Federal Ministry of Education; we visited the minister to see the need to mainstream the programme so as to sustain it. Today we are pleased to inform you that the programme has been accredited,” he said.

Miko posited that the mainstreaming of the programme, henceforth will compel universities to take full responsibility of funding and sustaining the programme.

The country director who regretted that the challenges of funding and insufficient resources were frustrating the sustainability of the programme noted that the mainstreaming it into regular programmes in the universities would strengthen and enhance the quality of the products.

At the briefing, which was part of activities marking the 30th anniversary of Sasakawa in Nigeria, Miko restated the organisation’s commitment to strengthen the agricultural extension system.

This he said would be achieve by building the capacity of extension professionals and small-holder farmers to accelerate agricultural productivity and competitive value chain in the country.

“The training has not only equipped students with modern technical knowledge on agricultural extension but also accelerate promotion of many who could not cross the bar due to lack of qualification in extension training,” Miko stated

Source: Guardian
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The alarm over famine

Since the news broke of a possible nationwide famine next year, Audu Ogbeh, the Agriculture Minister, has reportedly denied it. Government’s equivocation on the possibility of a famine is completely unnecessary. Given our long history of government tardiness and lack of proper planning, chances are that this prediction will come to pass,  if things are not done differently to avert it.

For a country in recession, the looming food crisis compounds the problem of hunger and poverty which is already hitting the people  very hard. The  fact is that our country should have no business  with this unfortunate prediction, given our huge endowments in agriculture.

Long convoys of trucks  are said to leave the country almost daily for neighbouring countries,  bearing food items. Our farmers  sell their products to anyone and anywhere, whereever  they get the best prices.
That should not be the reason for a shortage of food to feed our citizens. What the looming food crisis simply means is that we are not producing enough food. Government should be more proactive in its food security policies and programmes. Food production efforts should be intensified and expanded. The present administration has rightly prioritised agriculture as a means of diversifying the economy. What the country needs to see  is the  result of the food production efforts. Crops like cereals and grains which are in high demand, for example, can be planted and harvested in a matter of months.
With good harvests, government should ensure that enough food products  are bought from the farmers at competitive prices and stored in our numerous silos for the rainy day. Natural disasters and other unforeseen occurrences could  happen when least expected, but a nation that  has put its house in order would be shielded from the adverse effects of famine.
Whatever measure we take to avert next year’s predicted famine would only be  short-term. Going forward, government needs to put an  accent  on agriculture. This can be done when we stop paying lip-service to agriculture. We cannot have a better incentive now than the present economic challenge facing the nation.
The budgets of successive administrations in the country have not indicated  the importance of agriculture as a vehicle for food security and  national development. The Muhammadu Buhari administration has to do more on agriculture. After security, agriculture should come next on the priority list of our national budgets.  Unfortunately, given the poor current federal earnings, that would not amount to much. That is why all stakeholders, including state and local governments,  need to move aggressively now on the food production front.
Farmers would be encouraged to produce more if they get good returns on their investments. This is not the case now, and government needs to note this sore point. In nations where agriculture is taken seriously, subsidies and incentives are given to farmers to  motivate them and ensure optimal productivity. The farm-gate price for agricultural products is largely competitive and uniform.
Extension workers and other support agencies are on the field with the farmers from day to day, to ensure the best yields. The farmers know from day one what price government will pay for their products, and when they have a surplus, they know government will be there to mop it up.
These are important and practical assurances that farmers need to embark on the task of food production. Our government should emulate good agricultural practices in other countries. While the recent revised policy document on agriculture by government is good, collaborative efforts like the on-going one between the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and rice farmers in different states of the country should be sustained and intensified to avoid the impending famine. The country is too endowed in agricultural resources to envisage a food crisis next year or at  any time in the future.

Credit: Nigeria Today