Agri-Times: Wednesday, 8th December, 2021

In the recent turn of events, a lot has been happening in the Nigerian Agricultural Space, from the recent hike in prices of agricultural produce which was as a result of incessant hike in the prices of agricultural inputs which in turn is making these agricultural commodities pricey for consumers as we're gradually entering the festivity period, a lot is being expected from producers, importers and consumers. Here are some agricultural news making the rounds for the meantime:

US Firm To Establish Cashew, Cocoa Processing Industry In Ekiti Community:

A leading United States agricultural investor, Assess farms international, has concluded plans to establish a cashew and cocoa processing industry in Ilawe-Ekiti, Ekiti South-West local government area of Ekiti state. The foreign investors who disclosed this during a visit to the Alawe of Ilawe-Ekiti, Oba Ajibade Alabi, in his palace revealed that the company would establish a processing industry that could process Cocoa, Cashew, Kolanut among other agricultural products in the community. The media adviser to the traditional ruler, Chief Ajibade Olubunmi, in a statement, on Tuesday, added that the firm would also establish large cocoa and cashew plantations in the town to feed their processing plant. “Meanwhile the result of a laboratory soil test of a large area that would host the industry and the plantations has come out positive,” the statement added.

Oba Alabi commended the investors for picking his domain as the site of the company, which he said would help in creating employment opportunities for the teeming youths and boost the social-economic development of the community and the state in general. He assured the foreign firm that they would enjoy the cooperation and hospitality of his people. He lauded the present administration in the state under the leadership of Dr Kayode Fayemi for providing the enabling environment for investors, saying the over $300 million worth of investment attracted to the state in the last three years confirmed the deliberate efforts of the government.

Negligence Of Plant Health Undermines Food Security, Cripples Export ― Minister 

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Mohammad Abubakar has said that if plant health is not given priority, the quest for food security will be a mirage and farmers will be unable to export their products to the international market. The Minister who said this during a press conference to mark this year’s International Day of Plant Health, organised by the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS), said plant health is being accorded its rightful priority position in public policy and national planning. He said due to negligence of plant health, Nigeria loses 50 per cent of its annual farm gate values to pest infestation. “We must take plant health seriously because plants are in constant danger of attack by viruses, bacteria, nematodes, insects, aphids and fungi.

Kano Govt, NIAS Partner On Animal Feed Production:

The Kano State Agri-Pastoral Development Project (KSADP) has signed an agreement with the Nigerian Institute of Animal Science (NIAS) for pasture production in the state. A statement by the project communication specialist, Ameen Yassar, said the partnership was the aftermath of a meeting among officials of the two organisations on the sidelines of the just-concluded National Agricultural Show, held at Karu, Nasarawa State. The statement noted that the availability of pasture is very crucial in the development of Nigeria’s expanding livestock industry as the bulk of the animal protein such as milk and meat consumed in the country are derived from cattle and small ruminants.

Shortly after signing the agreement in Kano, the State Project Coordinator of KSADP Malam Ibrahim Garba Muhammad revealed that, as part of the agreement, the project has allocated four hectares of land to NIAS, at Kadawa, Garun Mallam Local Government Area, for pasture production.

“We have gotten approval from the state government, through the Ministry of Agriculture, to allot four hectares of land to NIAS, to enable the agency to develop a pasture demonstration plot, which will become a centre of excellence in the country. The more fodder we produce locally, the more pastoralists’ families we support. So, there will be no need for them to travel long distances to get pasture since the seasonal migration poses serious security risks and exposes them to economic loss,” he said.

‘Why I Recommended GIZ/IITA-Developed Cassava Seedling To My Co-Farmers’

A woman farmer, Mrs Dorcas Alamu, has said that the reason she recommended the GIZ/IITA-developed cassava seedlings to her co-farmers was because of the fact that the the variety is quite unique in terms of yield compared to the regular ones. Alamu, stated this during a field visit to her farm in Gbana, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, by officials of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the funder of the cassava project, Building An Economically Sustainable Integrated Cassava Seed system (BASICS-II), GIZ-GIAE Nigeria, recently.

She noted that what prompted her to recommend the cassava stems to other women farmers was that:”When we came to IITA for training, we were told that if we use the seed variety, we are going to make profit. And with the way things are in the farm as you can see shows that the harvest would be a bumper one. “One good thing about this cassava variety is that since it was planted in May, I have only weeded only once. If it were to be the regular ones, one would have weeded about three times. So I have not regretted venturing into this business of planting this cassava variety and I want to use this opportunity to call on fellow farmers who are yet to plant this cassava to please give it a try and I am very sure they won’t regret doing so.”

‘Cocoa Farmers Lose N55bn Annually’

The National President of Cocoa Farmers Association of Nigeria (CFAN) Comrade Adeola Adegoke has said that Nigerian Cocoa Farmers lose about N55 billion yearly. Comrade Adegoke who disclosed this at the National Cocoa Summit and Award held in Abuja said the loss was as a result of unregulated and total liberalisation of the cocoa industry. “The consequences of our nation unregulated or total liberalisation of the cocoa industry which has deprived Nigeria Smallholder cocoa farmers almost the sum of N55 billion yearly as a result of our the country not joining Ivory Coast and Ghana in the collection of $400 per tonne known as Living Income Deferential (LID) paid to cocoa farmers aside the cocoa floor price in those countries by the World cocoa buyers”, he said.

He lamented that cocoa which contributed the highest foreign exchange earnings in the 1950s to 1960s, has reduced its earnings due to myraid of challenges confronting the sub-sector. Adegoke said the advent of climate change has added another factor that is negatively affecting the production of cocoa. He called for the establishment of Cocoa Trust Fund. According to him, the establishment of the trust fund will address poor funding and  low investment in the cocoa sector, close infrastructure gaps and improve foreign exchange earnings for the country.

‘Agripreneurship Better Alternative To White-Collar Jobs’

Senator representing Oyo South Senatorial District in the upper chamber of the National Assembly, Senator Kola Balogun has called on youths across the country to embrace training skills in agriculture, noting that agripreneurship is the most viable alternative to dwindling and non-existing white-collar jobs. He made the call during the closing ceremony of a three-day agriculture training and empowerment programme for youths selected from the senatorial district. The programme, second of such facilitated by Senator Balogun within the year, was recently held at the Institute of Agriculture Research and Training (IAR&T), Moor Plantation, Ibadan. The senator noted that the white-jobs are no more available, and urged youths to embrace agriculture and its value chains as a means of earning a good living.

$25.5 Million Yam Seedling Project Records Progress At IITA:

The International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Yam Improvement for Income and Food Security in West Africa (YIIFSWA) has recorded significant progress in the rapid multiplication of yam seedlings. The project which is funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation received $13.5 million between 2011 and 2016 and after significant progress was made, the foundation released another $12 million for the project to run from January 2017 to December 2021.

IITA through the project developed and validated tools and technologies to produce yam for the establishment of market-oriented seed systems that ensure the sustainable supply of quality yam seed in Ghana and Nigeria. The leader of the Project, Dr Norbert Maroya said “we started the first phase in 2011 to 2016 with $13.5 million and in second phase based on achievement, the donor (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) was happy and said take these things out to the private people and they gave us $12m from 1st January 2017 to 31st December 2021 that is what we are finishing now.

French Govt Trains 300 Women In Oyo, Kaduna On Agro-Processing:

THE Head of the Capacity Development Office of Support Women Entrepreneurship in the Agrifood Sector in Nigeria (SWEAN) Sougrynoma Sore, is a French government implemented project, said 300 women in Oyo and Kaduna state have been trained on Agri-food processing in the project. She said the training was also targeted at enhancing the skills in business, marketing branding, food standard certification of the selected women.

During an interaction with journalists at the French Embassy in Abuja, Sore said there was a collaboration with National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi (FIIRO) and many others in the course of the training. “The SWEAN project has trained about 300 women in Kaduna and Oyo state relating to Agri-food processing in Nigeria based on the crops and commodities that they produce and how to improve their processing, and also enhance the skills in business, marketing branding, food standard certification and so on.

FAO, Experts Raise Concern Over Soil Salinisation As Threat To Global Food Security:

AS Nigeria joins the rest of the world to commemorate the 2021 World Soil Day, the Food and Agriculture of the United Nations (FAO), and experts in the agricultural sector have expressed concern over practices that salinate the soil which they observed poses a major risk to food security worldwide. This concern was raised, during the 2021 World Soil Day celebration in Abuja with the theme: “Halt Soil Salinisation, Boost Soil Productivity”. The Director-General of FAO, QU Dongyu, in a statement expressed worry over the unsustainable agricultural practices and the overexploitation of natural resources.

He stressed that the growing population is putting increased pressure on soils and causing alarming rates of soil degradation globally. Dongyu said “over 833 million hectares of soils worldwide are already salt-affected, as shown on the Global salt-affected soils map launched by FAO in October.” He noted that the estimates indicate that more than 10 percent of cropland is salt-affected, which poses a major risk to food security worldwide.

Firm Tasks Farmers To Embrace Use Of Combined Harvesters To Avert Food Losses:

Wheat and rice farmers in Nigeria have been urged to embrace the use of combined harvesters to avoid in-harvest food losses amid insufficient production. Combined harvesters are able to cut and thresh both rice and wheat instantaneously, and capable of harvesting one acre in less than one hour.

In its efforts to boost grain farmers’ productivity, an agricultural technology firm, RiceAfrika, has resolved the age-long harvest challenge of small-scale rice and wheat farmers in the country through shared infrastructure. The motivation for the solution, the firm said, was driven by the passion to reduce the drudgery and harvest-time losses associated with manual harvesting, saying, “It is a wasteful, time-consuming, expensive and tedious activity to harvest rice or wheat manually.”

Nasarawa governor flags off sales of fertilizer for 2022 dry season farming:

As part of a commitment to boost Agriculture production in the state, Abdullahi Sule, the Governor of Nasarawa State on Wednesday flagged off the sales of fertilizer for 2022 dry season farming in the state. Speaking during the flagged off ceremony in Lafia the state capital the governor said the government procured the fertilizer in the market at the rate of N9,300 but would be sold to Farmers at a rate of seven thousand N7,000. The governor informed that Nasarawa State is the highest cassava producing and the second yam producing state in the country. He said this year the state government procured and distribute the fertilizer to Farmers in the State at the subsidized rate in order to boost the production of Agriculture in the state.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nigerian Air Force destroys houses, farms in poor Benue community despite court order:

Bashi Atoo and members of his household woke up in August to heavy jackboot steps at their home in Tse-Poor, a rural community in Makurdi, the Benue State capital. They immediately realised their home was under attack by men of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF). Mr Atoo, 50, and his two teenage sons would later be taken to the base of the Tactical Air Command of the NAF in Makurdi.

“Men of the Nigerian Air Force stormed my house on August 25. I was in shorts and they ordered me and my two sons to put on our clothes. Thereafter, they cuffed and blindfolded us before whisking us away to their base in Makurdi. The next moment, we found ourselves in Abuja,” Mr Atoo said. The NAF authorities accused Mr Atoo and his children of “breaching the NAF perimeter fence,” an allegation he denied. He said they spent two weeks in NAF’s custody in Abuja without being charged with any offence at any court. Mr Atoo’s experience is connected to an old dispute between the Nigerian Air Force and the Tse-Poor community in the Ugondo District of Makurdi, the capital of the largely agrarian Benue State in North-central Nigeria.

The Oyo State-IITA Youth Agribusiness Incubation Park Centre: Turning a moribund facility into a thriving centre for agribusiness:

Baskets upon baskets of luscious-looking tomato seeds gathered from the farms. 70 youths who were part of the Oyo Hub of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Agrihub Nigeria, launched in August 2021, were excited as they harvested their crops. “We are almost finished with this cycle of harvest,” a delighted Waheed Oni, Agrihub Manager of the Oyo State-IITA Youth Agribusiness Incubation Park Centre, Awe stated, “but we are planting another set immediately.”  There was a good reason for excitement. A few years ago, this harvest and the entire ongoing operations at what has come to be known as the Oyo State-IITA Youth Agribusiness Incubation Park Centre would have been impossible.

Before 2019, this 210-hectare facility then known as the Rural Community Development Centre (RCDC), Awe lay moribund. The Oyo State Government saw the strategic benefits of reviving the centre. And so in June 2020, the rehabilitation of the centre was flagged off after the authorities signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). According to the Lead Management Person, IITA at the Oyo State-IITA Youth Agribusiness Incubation Park Centre, Dr Chris Akem, this was the first time any government in Nigeria had signed an MOU with the IITA clearly outlining the terms of engagement and responsibilities of the organisation and the Oyo State Government. 

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