FG inaugurates agric transformation for food security

President Goodluck Jonathan

Nigerian President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan recently launched the Agricultural Transformation Implementation Council (ATIC) so as to achieve food security.

The minister, Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, is to co-ordinate the council with the president, Goodluck Jonathan and the vice president, Namadi Sambo as Chairman and alternate chairman respectively.

The agenda of the council is to increase efficiency and profitability along the value-added chains of 12 selected agricultural commodities, namely cotton, cocoa, cassava, oil-palm, maize, soya bean, onion, rice, livestock, fisheries, tomato and sorghum.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that the Council would also provide an oversight functions for the entire Agricultural Transformation Agenda and the creation of 3.5 million new jobs from rice, cassava, sorghum, cocoa and cotton value chains.

Over N60 billion will also be injected into the economy from the substitution of 20 per cent of bread wheat flour with cassava flour, which was successfully launched recently by President Jonathan. 

Source: Vanguard

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Farmers call for involvement in cassava action plan

Pastor Segun Adewunmi

Nigerian farmers have call on the federal government to involved farmers in the cassava and other agricultural transformation agenda action plan for implementation purposes.

The national president of Nigeria Cassava Growers Association, Pastor Segun Adewunmi made the call recently at the ‘This Morning’ talk show on Television Continental.

The NCGAN president also commended the Lagos State government for its concern in the cassava sector with about 40 per cent subsidy on cassava input and 50 per cent off price of tractors used on cassava farms, stressing these are initiatives to encourage cassava producing in the state.

While applauding the federal government for the Cassava Transformation Agenda Action Plan which he said was organized in such a way that every farmer would be a beneficiary, asserting “The policy has to involve the farmers.”

The transformation agenda action plan during the Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s regime, he said gave room for more use to cassava products for industrial uses as against the usual garri and starch only.

Pastor Adewunmi further said his association is working towards the eradication of unemployment among youths in the nation, which includes the recruitment of about 5 youths from each local government to be trained on agriculture extension services.

Over 5,000 youths, he said, are also to be involved monitor cassava growing in the nation with about one million farmers to grow cassava.

Women taking part in processing Garri

NaijaAgroNet learnt that cassava production cost in Nigeria surpasses any other cost of producing cassava anywhere in the world; hence this necessitated the proposal by the federal government to establish 18 large scale processing cassava plants for flour.

N300bn, Pastor Adewunmi said has been saved from flour importation as a result of the Cassava Transformation Agenda Action Plan which sees to the production of cassava flour. And increase of agricultural loan from about 1.03 per cent to about 3 per cent.

Part of the strategies by the association to improve cassava production, NaijaAgroNet further gathered is to ensure that every local government authority has a minimum of five extension officers who will supply agricultural inputs for their respective local government authority.

Uzo, a caller from Lagos affirmed that funds do not get to the right farmers as they are not part of the action plan, hence they cannot monitor the implementation process of the action plan.

Speaking in the same vein, the publicity secretary of Agbekoya Farmers Association, Chief Olatunji Bamidele affirmed the greatest challenge facing farmers in the nation to be lack of funds. The Agbekoya Farmers Association, he said had requested for loan from the federal government for months back which they are yet to receive any response as regards the loan. 

Chief Bamidele said any agricultural transformation agenda that excludes the farmers in the process have a very little chance of seeing the light of the day.

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Leaders for Rio+20 urge to strengthen local control of natural resources

IIED, Director General, Camilla Toulmin

Government leaders attending the United Nations conference on Sustainable Development (RIO+20) have been urged to strengthen local control over natural resources.

The International Institute for Environment and Development  (IIED) made this call ahead of the Rio+20 scheduled for 20-22, June in Brazil where world leaders would meet to conclude on ways to tackle the environment and development challenges facing humanity.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that over 2,000 participants are expected at the forum tagged 'Innovation and Collaboration for the Future we want'

Director of IIED, Camilla Toulmin, was quoted as saying the application of realistic values to the environment and human wellbeing is in a bid to steer societies onto a more secure path.

She noted that expected attendance at the forum ranges from investors, governments, local authorities, civil society as well as United Nations entities.

The Forum’s main objective, she pointed out, is to bring greater scale and quality to corporate sustainability practices as a showcase for innovation and collaboration.

In a publication also made available to NaijaAgroNet, Toulmin revealed that local control of natural assets is the best way in ensuring strong investment in and sustainable use of forests, water, soils and other resources.

"Rio+20 should not be the place for wise leaders to design a global plan that cascades downwards through regional, national and local implementation. Rather, the summit must begin with the wellbeing of ordinary people and judge the effectiveness of actions taken by governments and corporations by the extent to which they provide tangible answers to the needs of the many, not the few," the publication reads in parts.

Pointing out that the world leaders need to discuss relevant issues at the event, Toulmin said that the environmental, social and financial crises that face us are interconnected, and so are their solutions.

Localizing development, investing in resilience and using metrics that provide a realistic valuation of scarce resources are the three clear policy identified by IIED to be realistic, achievable and effective ways to reshape our future and create a fair, greener and more secure world. 

IIED boss said the policy shift came after about four decades of research on the links between the environment and development.

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Agric, key to nation's survival- Tukur

Dr. Bamanga Tukur

Dr. Bamanga Tukur, the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party has asserted agriculture to hold the key to the survival of Nigeria.

This he said at a grand reception held in his honour by the party in his home town, Jada, Adamawa State recently.

NaijaAgroNet learnt that Dr. Tukur said agriculture has the potentials for creating millions of jobs, eradicating poverty and arresting youth's restiveness.

"It is by massively investing in agriculture that we can truly eradicate poverty, create millions of jobs and reduce insecurity," he said that Nigeria is blessed with vast land and water.

He called on state governments in the nation to develop a minimum of 50, 000 hectare of arable land for round-the-year farming. "If we do that, youth's restiveness shall be a thing of the past." 

Source: DailyTimes

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No other sector creates jobs faster than agric - Adeshina

Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, Agric & Rural Development Minister

Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development has described agriculture sector as the fastest in terms of employment generation.

The Minister, NaijaAgroNet learnt, said this in his remarks in Ekiti State at the Youth in Commercial Agribusiness Development Programme recently.

He also applauded the state governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi for involving the state's youth in agriculture.

"To unlock the potential of agriculture to create jobs, we must engage the energy, dynamism and entrepreneurship of the youth," Adesina said.

"We are no longer treating agriculture as a development programme," the Minister asserted, adding that the goal of the government is to treat agric as a business and to make the nation an agriculturally industrialised economy.

He also made known the goal of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda to add an additional 20 million tonnes of food to the domestic food supply with the creation of 3.5 millions jobs in all the agriculture value chains.

He remarked that subsistence farming is not viable to feed a nation, pointing out that there is the need to expand the level of use of tractors in the country, which could be done by small, medium and large scale farmers.

In a bid to raise the level of use of improved seeds, Adesina said that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development financed the entire seed supply for the country which amounts to N2.7 billion for the 2012 season.

The finance, he said is not from the government but the use of guarantees for banks to lend to seed companies. 

He also affirmed that the Federal Government was able to secure financing for the supply of fertilizers for 2012, at the level of N27 billion from commercial banks using guarantees from the Ministry of Finance.

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