Fish importation policy review to benefit Nigeria’s youths

NaijaAgroNet

The on-going review of fish importation policy by the Federal Government would immensely benefit youths in the South Western part of the Nigeria, reports NaijaAgroNet.

According to NaijaAgroNet reports, Lagos and Ogun State are the key beneficiaries from the production capacity boost as Premium Aquaculture Limited (PAL) revealed its plans to generate over 500 jobs from two large fish farms already set up in Nigeria.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that the two large fish farms located in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital and Epe suburb in Lagos State are expected to produce 4,500 metric tonnes of catfish per annum with focus on breeding two species of fishes.

The development came as a result of the decision by the PAL to invest in local fish farming in support the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina in his efforts through the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to develop fish production in Nigeria and reduce the country's dependence on imported fish.

The Project Manager, Premium Aquaculture Limited, Sarvesh Pandey said the company will center on breeding only catfish and tilapia, explaining that the Epe fishpond is ready for production while Abeokuta farm will commence operations in April, 2015.

"A lot of research has been carried out on what area of fish to invest in and where to start the production. We will be committing an investment worth about $1 million on the production of tilapia fish to be produced in Abeokuta farm.

"Investment in catfish will be lesser than tilapia because catfish is like in-house (Nigerian owned fish), we are doing case culture on tilapia and case culture is more expensive. We are going to import from china and 1kg, will cost us around $4000 at the capacity of 5 metric tonnes per circle. If you do two circles in a year, you can get 10 metric tonnes in one cage."

 
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Agriculture boosts Nigeria Economy with N777 billion

NaijaAgroNet

Despite the austerity measures in Nigeria, the Federal Government has said the country’s economy has grown by N777bn, courtesy of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA), reports NaijaAgroNet.

Honourable Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, made this known at the inauguration of the African Development Bank-assisted Agricultural Transformation Agenda Support Programme Phase I, which held at the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture in Abuja.

The minister told NaijaAgroNet that the total agricultural GDP growth in a period of just three years within 2011-2013 surpass the total collective GDP for the eight-year period of 2000-2008.

“The Agricultural Transformation Agenda has added over N777bn in income to the economy. The agricultural GDP of Nigeria rose from N14tn in 2011 to N15.8tn in 2012 and N16.8tn in 2013. The total agricultural GDP in just three years (2011-2013) was N46.6tn, surpassing the total cumulative GDP for the eight-year period of 2000-2008 of N42tn,” he said.

According to Adesina, it was challenging for Africa to unlock all its capability to produce enough food to feed itself as well as feed the world even though the agriculture potential of Africa is vast.

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Africa’s future billionaires will emerge from agriculture

NaijaAgroNet

Nigerian Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has predicted that Africa’s future billionaires will emerge from the agriculture sector, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Adesina disclosed to NaijaAgroNet that at this time he wanted to help people become rich through farming

“My goal is to make as many millionaires, maybe even billionaires, from agriculture as possible,” he declared.

Adesina revealed to NaijaAgroNet that African Development Bank is financing $170 million, about N33,915,000,000 billion for a Nigerian project that aims to transform agriculture, stressing that the project aims to create agricultural entrepreneurs and producers by providing about 120,000 jobs along the value chain of priority commodities.

NaijaAgroNet reports that additional 20 million tonnes of key food crops including cassava, rice, and sorghum will be added to the domestic food supply each year, if all goes according to plan.

He explained that a significant part of the project is developing outreach models in agriculture with young entrepreneurs, aka youth agripreneurs, with the plan to promote agriculture among other youth in their regions through peer education, training and demonstration of agricultural best practices, and business skills in value-chain development.

Adesina urged youth to see agriculture as a business, not as a tool for development. As African governments roll out plans to unlock wealth from the soil,

Insisting on his prediction that a new, wealthy population made up largely of young people will create jobs and bring business opportunities to rural communities across the continent.

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Africa must innovate to open up agriculture potentials – FARA

NaijaAgroNet

The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) and the German government ended a two-day forum in Nairobi by declaring that the continent must embrace agricultural innovations to become globally competitive in bio-economy, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture Felix Koskei, told participants that one of the key ingredients to growth in the agriculture sector is attributable to development of technology that fails to be aligned to the needs of the client and effectively fails to compliment national and institutional goals’ aspirations.

NaijaAgroNet reports that particularly, Koskei noted that innovations should be self-perpetuated or be taken up by commercial entities and business the innovations are expected to yield immense socioeconomic benefits and impact productivity income and sustainability of the environment for the small holders.

“Despite this huge resources and potential, this continent together with other developing countries are host to 852 million hungry residents who require constant support,” Koskei noted.

According to Rhoda Tumusiime, Commissioner for Agriculture at the Africa Union, “Africa must feed itself and in fact this initiative of scaling up innovation is very critical. One world no hunger Africa should have no hunger because we have the capability, the land the people but as you have also heard only 50 per cent of agriculture productivity is contributed to by innovation.”

The executive director, FARA, Yemi Akinbamijo,lamented that “Money is not everything; by the way because we have spent more than 150 billion US dollars, about N29,925 trillion, in the last three decades and we are still where we are and we are spending 50 billion US dollars to borrow foods.”

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FAO food price index declines by 1% in February’15

NaijaAgroNet:

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) based in Rome has released the Food Price Index (FPI) with a show of decline to a 55-month low in February, thus dropping 1.0 per cent from January and 14 per cent below its level a year earlier, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Also, FPI showed lower prices for cereals, meat and especially sugar more than offset an increase in milk and palm oil prices. 

The FPI, NaijaAgroNet reports, averaged 179.4 points in February, down from 181.2 points in January and 208.6 points in February 2014. 

“Its ongoing decline - to its lowest level since July 2010 - reflects robust supply conditions as well as ongoing weakness in many currencies versus the U.S. dollar, which appear set to continue,” said Michael Griffin, FAO's dairy and livestock market expert.

 He noted that the first thing to flag is the favorable outlook for production of a number of crops in 2015, stressing "Stocks are also very strong" for most cereals, Griffin said.

FAO's Food Price Index, NaijaAgroNet is a trade-weighted index that tracks prices of five major food commodity groups on international markets. It aggregates price sub-indices of cereals, meat, dairy products, vegetable oils and sugar. 

 +Remmy Nweke (ITRealms)  +Naija AgroNet +Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
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Double celebration for Africa: Environment and Wangari Maathai

NaijaAgroNet:

 

This year’s celebrations to mark the Africa Environment Day and Wangari Maathai Day commenced weekend with the burning of 15 tonnes of contraband ivory by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta at Nairobi National Park, NaijaAgroNet can report authoritatively.

With estimated 1,000 guests in attendance including the African Union Commissioner, Cabinet Secretaries, the United Nations and members of the international community. Information made available to NaijaAgroNet revealed that this year’s celebration highlighted the role of women in sustainable natural resource management and the fight against wildlife crime.

The festival, NaijaAgroNet learnt, is seen as an opportunity for more Kenyans to learn about wildlife through music, theatre, and debate—and the importance of ending a US$213 billion illicit trade that includes elephant poaching, great ape theft and the illegal transport of timber.

 In another development, in celebration of the life and work of Wangari Maathai, Africa's first female Nobel laureate, a champion of grassroots environmental activism and founder of the Green Belt Movement, special emphasis will this year be placed on the importance of empowering women in sustainable natural resource management, NaijaAgroNet gathered.

As a mark of honour, a one-day Regional Forum on Women and Environment will be held on the 4 March in honour of Wangari Maathai at The World Agroforestry Centre Headquarters in Nairobi, which will feature expert panel discussions on several gender-related themes, including: gender equality in Africa, and the impact of climate change and desertification on women and their response in addressing the challenges.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that Professor Maathai was the inspiration for the Billion Tree Campaign launched by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 2006, which inspired the planting of 12.5 billion trees worldwide, and is now run by the Plant for the Planet Foundation

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Pix: Prof. (Mrs) Wangari Maathai