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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FG targets 3.5m jobs in agric sector

Nigerian President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan

President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has said the Federal Government has plans to create about 3.5million jobs in the agricultural sectors by 2015.

He revealed at a convocation ceremony of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, that an initiative would be put in place to enable existing Universities of Agriculture in the country to establish Departments of Transfer and Acquisition.

NaijaAgroNet learnt that the president was represented by the Minister of Education, Mrs. Rukkayatu Rufai, who said the initiative would facilitate the development of appropriate technologies for eventual transfer to the farming communities of the nation.

“The federal government is putting an initiative in place to enable the three existing Universities of Agriculture in the country establish Departments of Technology Transfer and Acquisition as part of the curricula in their respective institutions,” she said, stressing that her ministry expects the university management and faculties to embark on innovative and creative means of complementing government are funding efforts. 

Source: ThisDay.

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Food price index reveals price stability

The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations in its latest Food Outlook released early May 2012 revealed that food price seems to have stabilised at a relatively high level of 214 points.

Also, FAO revealed to NaijaAgroNet in a press statement that the Food Price Index fell by 1.4 per cent of 235 points in April 2012 to 214 points, a figure still well above the under 200 which preceded the 2008 food crisis.

The May edition of the FAO Food Outlook, a global market analysis released twice a year also indicated generally improved supplies and continuing strong demand in the second half of the year.

Cereal production for year set a new record of 2.371 billion tonnes to beat 2.344billion tonnes of 2011.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that the food import bill in 2012 could decline to $1.24 trillion, down slightly from last year’s record of $1.29 trillion.

According to the Food outlook, there is anticipation for a fall in wheat production to 675m tonnes, about 3.6 per cent decline, and countries that led the forecasted decline include Ukraine, Kazakhstan, China, Morocco and the European Union.

Also, world milk production in 2012 is forecasted to grow by 2.7 per cent to 750m tonnes with the expectation that Asia will account for most of the increase. 

World trade in dairy products is equally expected to continue expanding in 2012. Demand remains firm, with imports anticipated to reach 52.7 million tonnes of milk equivalent.

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Nutrition project to narrow variety of human diets

A new international project launched at the World Nutrition Rio Congress 2012, the Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition Project is to address growing global concerns over poor nutrition.

The project as revealed to NaijaAgroNet in a press statement aims to address the narrowing variety of people's diets, with nutritionally-poor processed foods dominating the world's dinner table.

Officials during the project launch asserted the renewed emphasis on sustaining the natural variety of crops and animals contributing to agri-business and the neglected nutritious traditional foods.

The project is necessary as the negative health effects of poor nutrition and the neglected traditional foods have led to a raft of global health issues.

The Director General of BioDiversity International, Emile Frison said the diversity of crops and their wild relatives, trees, animals, microbes and other species contribute to food production.

Also commenting on the new project, Braulio Dias, Executive Secretary, Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity affirmed the need to consider not only sustainably producing sufficient food, but also working towards diversified nutrition to combat the challenge of feeding the world population of around nine billion by 2050.

The Global Environment Facility (GEF), the world's largest public funder of international environmental projects, NaijaAgroNet gathered is supporting the multi-country project led by Brazil, Kenya, Sri Lanka and Turkey.

Bioversity International is coordinating the project with implementation support from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 

Monique Barbut, GEF Chairperson said GEF is making efforts to expand its engagement in the conservation and management of agricultural biodiversity which provides the mainstay for millions of people worldwide and food security to the world's most vulnerable populations.

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