Search NaijaAgroNet

Showing posts with label FMARD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FMARD. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

FMARD, IWMI launch ‘Wetin App’ for flood forecast, control

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) in collaboration with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) have launched a smart phone application tagged “Wetin App” for flood forecast and control, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The app, NaijaAgroNet gathered is available on Google App Store, and would be focusing on forecasting flood reports especially along the Niger and Benue rivers.

FMARD officials informed NaijaAgroNet that the application, would assist Nigeria in management of flood and its associated exigencies.

Speaking at the launch in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Shehu Ahmed, represented by the Director of Agricultural Businesses, Processing and Marketing, Alhaji Azeez M. Olumuyiwa said Nigeria sought the help of the IWMI to develop the application following the devastating flood of 2012, which led to huge destruction of farms, houses and human lives.

He also said the country had decided to turn that bitter experience into a blessing by looking at the various ways farmers and government could take advantage of technology.


In his remark, the Regional Director for Africa at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) Professor Timothy Olalekan Williams, said the application was developed using data from the Nigerian Hydrological Service Agency (NHSA), the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NMA) and the satellite.

... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

Friday, August 16, 2013

FMARD inaugurates Oversight Committee on Cassava Bread Fund

Adesina:-
NaijaAgroNet:

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) has inaugurated a 16-man Oversight Committee on Cassava Bread Fund, following an earlier presidential approval for the fund.

At the inaugural meeting, held at the ministry’s headquarters in Abuja, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, met with representatives of Master Bakers’ Association of Nigeria, Cassava Growers’ Association of Nigeria, National Cassava Processors and Millers Association of Nigeria, Dutch Agricultural Development and Trading Company (DADTCO), Bank of Industry, Bank of Agriculture, C:AVA, Budget Office of the Federation and officials of the ministry.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that in his remarks, Dr. Adesina noted that the approval of the fund will reduce the huge expenses incurred by the federal government on importation of wheat, estimated at N635 billion annually. He stressed that research by Lake Chad Research Institute has resulted in the release of three tropical high-yielding wheat varieties with yield record of 5.0 to 6.2 tons per hectare. 

The minister, stressed the need to be transparent and accountable in judicious use of the fund by the committee, which had the tasks of building robust fresh roots supply chains for cassava processing plants; supporting large/medium High Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF) mills, SMEs producing HQCF and masters bakers on 20 per cent HQCF cassava bread production; social marketing of 20 per cent cassavas bread and pre-emptive measures against cassava brown streak disease.

At the meeting, it was decided that a total of 5,000 bakers will be trained and supported at six bakers per local government area across the 774 LGAs.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that the inaugural meeting witnessed an agreement that Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi (FIIRO) and National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) be co-opted into the committee and that the initiative will operate as a revolving fund facility to support both cassava bread and local wheat production.


... Linking agrobiz, people & technology

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Tomato, PineApple: We’re largest producers in Africa –Odusote

NaijaAgroNet/Remmy Nweke:

THE Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) Mrs. Ibukun Odusote, has disclosed that Nigeria is the largest producer of Tomatoes and PineApples out of the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

She made this disclosure to NaijaAgroNet, during the 2013 international conference of the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) in Iloko, Osun State, citing the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) an arm of the United Nations as making this pronouncement.

FOA Statistics confirmed to NaijaAgroNet that Nigeria is the biggest tomato producer in Sub-Saharan Africa and the 14th largest tomato producer globally, while on PineApple, Nigeria was also ranked largest producer on the continent and the 8th globally.

Nigeria, she said, has these fruits, especially PineApples in several varieties which are grown in locally.
“The sweet cayenne variety is common in Nigeria and well suited,” she declared.

Dwelling on “Opportunities for Investments in Nigeria’s Agriculture” in her presentation, Mrs. Odusote said that there are new and attractive investment opportunities in Nigeria, especially in the juice processing industry.

“Nigeria has a comparative advantage in fruit production relative to other African nations” she asserted, pointing out that Nigeria is the largest producer of pineapples in Africa and the 8th largest producer in the world with different varieties.

Using the 2011 favourable production comparison, she said that Nigeria produces 920,000 tonnes in PineApple, 795,000 Mangoes and 139,223 Watermelon within the period under review. This was against Kenya and South Africa which ranked second and third with Kenya recording 371,310 in PineApple production, 636,585 mangoes and 66,196 watermelon, whereas South Africa recorded 108,636 of PineApple, 52,318 of Mangoes and 77,993 of Watermelon.

For Tomatoes, she revealed that Nigeria produced 1,500 tonnes within the period under review with Cameroon coming close with 880, South Africa 507, Kenya 407, Ghana 340, Tanzania 250 and Benin 180.

However, she underscored the fact that tomatoes are not processed locally, leading to increasing import dependency of tomato paste in Nigeria despite the ranking in production.

“In the tomato value chain, processing is where an investor can capture the greatest economic value,” she said, adding that economics of the Tomato value chain in Nigeria which cuts across production, aggregation and logistics, processing of both paste and concentrate and finally retail, noting that concentrate could be an intermediate product of tomato paste with less water content, concentrate is generally produced for industrial use while paste is for domestic use.

She cited Dansa Foods for instance, disclosing that the firm invested $30 million in Tomato farming and processing in Kano State.

Also, she highlighted Beef processing as another investable option within the domestic market, saying opportunity for beef is large and growing and has today, about 310 metric tonnes of overall demands for consumption per capita and is expected to grow to 650 tonnes by 2020.

Some of the existing resource endowment, currently, she said, involves 19 million heads of cattle, adding that there are 15 states with about 500,000 heads of cattle each.

About 85 million hectares of uncultivated arable land with grassland resources was placed at 54 per cent of total land area under pasture, yet, there is supplementary feed available in forest areas

He emphasised that existing cattle production knowledge and capabilities are inherent Nigeria with the traditional Fulani livelihood, informal industry players from cattle rearers, traders to transporters and butchers.
In particular, she noted that the market for premium segments is rapidly developing including the growing quality conscious segment for the middle class segment which demands more high quality beef in hygienic conditions.

She highlighted type of beef demanded moving from unsophisticated raw cuts; types in open-air markets to prime cuts and mince to name a few. While the market has estimated size of $300million, increasing in the number of formal retail outlets and rapid expansion of outlets by supermarkets serving the middleclass over past 5 years with plans underway to at least double number of outlets by 2020.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government (FG) has added a total of 1,070,364 metric tonnes of food in 2013, says the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD).

Odusote disclosed to NaijaAgroNet, noting that this figure is one-third of the total paddy needed to be self-sufficient by 2015.

She attributed this to the Agriculture Transformation Agenda (ATA)-based Dry Season Rice Transformation supported 268,000 farmers on 264,000 hectares in 10 northern states.

Also, she said the Dry Season farming added a total of 1 million metric tonnes (MT) to the domestic production.

She explained that this year alone, and for first time ever, Nigeria launched Dry Season farming of rice to take advantage of irrigation capacity in the North of Nigeria, stressing that Federal Government provided massive support for dry season rice cultivation in 10 states.

A total of 267,491 farmers, she said, received 50 kilogrammes (kg) of seeds, two bags of 15-15 NPK and one bag Urea.


“This has added an additional 1,070,364 MT of food in 2013. This is one-third of total paddy needed to be self-sufficient by 2015,” she declared.

... Linking agrobiz, people & technology

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Nigeria, USAID sign MoU, offers huge lending potentials in agric sector



The Federal Government of Nigeria and United States Agency for International Development (USAID), today, Thursday in Abuja, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Nigerian Incentives-based Risk Sharing system for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL).

Confirming this to NaijaAgroNet, the Special Assistant on Media and Strategy to the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Olukayode Oyeleye, said that the MoU involved Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and USAID.

In his remarks at the ceremony, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, was quoted as saying the MoU will play a significant role in reformation going on in the sector, which is in line with President Jonathan’s transformation agenda and in order to make the agric sector attractive to lending.

Dr. Adesina, also said that the implementation of the MoU would address the issue of low lending rate to the agriculture sector, stressing that the effort would further get the banks to lend to the farmers as it would reduce the risk of lending.

“NIRSAL can unlock about N300 billion into the sector but we have to embark on significant reforms that can make the sector attractive to lending,” he was quoted as saying in a press statement endorsed by Dr. Oyeleye and made available to NaijaAgroNet.

Additionally, he said the MoU provides risk mitigation, financing, trading, and other strategic assistance to agribusiness, a programme which was launched in July 2011 in Abuja.

In his part, the CBN Governor, Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, said the MoU was a landmark achievement of the apex bank in its effort to ensure enhanced agricultural sector in the country.

Sanusi noted that commercial banks, with the recent development, would lend to farmers without much losses as the incentive would go a long way to reduce the risk in business.

NIRSAL,: he said, will help the banks to diversify; and the banking industry cannot develop on a sustainable basis unless it locks itself into production.

“So, we say let’s go to agriculture, manufacturing, SMEs and also into financial inclusion and development which is central to financial stability,” the CBN governor said.

Sanusi further said that the apex bank would meet with the managing directors of banks and the minister of agriculture to evaluate the implementation and the progress so far made. Pointing out that the sector had made progress as it accounts for four  per cent of banks portfolio as against one per cent in the last four years.

“We save more money with what the ministry is doing with staple crop process zones, reforms of fertiliser regime, research and development of high yielding varieties (of crops), the whole process of standardisation and commodity exchanges:  these are  critical and necessary steps to take  and pursuits to execute before banks can lend to agriculture,” Sanusi said.

He was optimistic that in the next one year, there would be revolution in the sector with the introduction of NIRSAL.

USAID Administrator, Dr Rajiv Shah, observed that the agreement would equally make agriculture a source of wealth creation in Nigeria, adding that 70 per cent of farmers in the country lack access to credit facility.

He expressed hope, however, that the MoU would provide credit guarantee of about 100 million dollars of agricultural credit to Nigerian farmers.

“We will guarantee that the agricultural sector will pay that loan back to banks. So they will have the courage and conviction to lend the loan to the farmers,” Shah said, emphasizing that the government of the United States was aware of some of the works the Nigerian ministry was doing in the agricultural sector.

As said by Shah, USAID has the markets initiative on rice, cocoa, sorghum and maize, adding the agreement could help develop their value chain programmes.

NIRSAL, NaijaAgroNet recalls, was established to spur additional financing for agriculture lending based on its experience with various guarantee programmes, including USAID’s development credit authority.

Remmy Nweke 
... Linking agrobiz, people & technology