Opinion: Grazing Bill An Insult To Nigerians

NaijaAgroNet:

The National Assembly is about to pass a Bill that is set to kill whatever is left of our so-called over-centralised federal System. The bill if passed will be the greatest rape on our democracy and the biggest insult on our collective sensitivity as a people and as a country.

“The Fulani National Grazing Reserve” is presently before the National Assembly. The bill has successfully scaled through second reading in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. For it to become law it is to pass through the third reading.

The bill seeks to provide for the establishment of national grazing reserves and stock routes. It is sponsored by Senator Zainab Kure.

The Bill proposes to establish a National Grazing Reserve Commission (NGRC) for the country. The NGRC will be charged with the responsibility of using funds received from the Federal Government to forcefully acquire farmlands from Nigerians in all the 36 States of the country, develop same at government expense through the provision of bore holes, water reservoirs, etc; for the exclusive use of nomadic cattle rearers.

The issue here is very clear. Fulani herdsmen are cattle farmers. They could as well keep their cattle in ranches. They could devise whatever means like their counterparts in Argentina, Australiaand the rest of the civilised world to do their animal husbandry. The men and boys roaming the streets, roads and bushes driving cattle are not the owners of these animals. They are just employees, labourers, attendants or whatever name they are called.

The owners of these cows like Generals Obasanjo, Nyako, Abdulsalami Abubakar and our president Buhari are big time farmers. They are businessmen. It is immoral to ask tax payers to finance the operations of these businesses. Cattle owners must provide capital through bank loans or whatever means to create their grazing lands in their localities. The cows are not owned by the Federal Government.

Just as the Federal Government is not creating farm lands for cocoa and kolanut farmers in Sokoto or Katsina, or creating farm lands for Agatu yam farmers in Enugu or Maiduguri, or creating special areas for fish farming in Zungeru, it cannot for any reason ever consider creating special lands for herdsmen for grazing. Let the herdsmen run their business without encroaching on the lands of other people. Let the cattle owners buy into the Fodder technology and other modern methods of providing feeds for their animals without roaming the streets and plundering other people’s farms.

To ever dream of this perverted bill is to step on the toes of other Nigerians and step on sore foot, and by so doing create a dangerous precedent.

Nobody should play ethnic game here. This is not an issue directed against any ethnic nationality in Nigeria. The simple matter is to let those who trade in cattle fund their business like all other businesses, including farming, in Nigeria.

The bill must not see the light of the day. The sponsors want to create serious problem in the polity and their design must be nipped in the bud.

The Nigeria Bar Association, the Coalition of Civil Societies, and all those who care about the continued existence of this troubled country must rise up to strongly oppose and kill this obnoxious and self serving bill. It beats my imagination that members of the National Assembly did not see the serious danger posed by this corrosive Bill.

In a reaction to the threats posed by this obnoxious Bill, the National Co-ordinator of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Otunba Gani Adams, says: “Without any doubt, this is a very dangerous proposal for Nigeria. We all have seen how the Fulani herdsmen kill and maim members of the community where they graze their cattle without the backing of any law. I am sure that we can only imagine what their attitudes would be if the supposed grazing reserves are forcefully taken over by government and handed over to the herdsmen.”

Nigeria has enough problems on her hand right now; we should not provoke new and potentially more dangerous ones.

•Chief Tola Adeniyi, a former Managing Director, Daily Times of Nigeria, is Executive Chairman, TheKnowledge Plaza and Founder Global Intelligentsia for Buhari. (adetolaadeniyi@hotmail.com)

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Africa must collectively innovate to industrialise agriculture – CAADP CEO

NaijaAgroNet:

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NEPAD Agency, Dr Ibrahim Mayaki, has called on African stakeholders to collectively innovate so as to ensure necessary impacts are made in agriculture investment, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Speaking at the 12^th Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Partnership Platform (CAADP PP) meeting convened by the African Union Commission in collaboration with the NEPAD Agency in Ghana, Dr. Mayaki Africa can only make progress if the actors collectively innovate and agree to account for the resources injected, results and impact that may ensue.

“Indeed, as a continent, with a community of destiny, we cannot afford to invest into our agriculture the same way we have been doing thus far,” he said

The meeting brought together over 300 participants.  High level African leadership included the former President of Ghana John Kufour; former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Dr Agnes Kalibata, President of Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.  Also present were Regional Economic Communities, government ministries, farmers’ organisations, the private sector, civil society and development partners.  

In her opening remarks at the CAADP PP meeting, H.E Ms Tumusiime Rhoda Peace, Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture of the African Union Commission said, the only way to sustainably deliver on African agricultural commitments is to mobilize our own continental human and financial resources. “We need to build strong partnerships for an accountable and efficient implementation of the CAADP Agenda since investment in agriculture makes good economic sense,” she said.

The Ghanaian Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr Ahmed Yakubu Alhassan declared that CAADP is the most ambitious agricultural reform agenda ever undertaken on the continent, as an African-led and owned development framework.  Innovative financing for agriculture in Africa is also critical for rural transformation.

In keeping with the theme of the meeting on Innovative Financing and Renewed Partnership to Accelerate Implementation of CAADP, Dr Mayaki reiterated that Africa must innovate because we need to design new and fit-for-purpose instruments that are able to help deal with the emerging trends, challenges and opportunities.

“The issue of Risk Management is a typical example of where we need to propose innovative instruments that meet the needs of the countries. The remedies and solutions of the past may not work with the ever more complex issues of today,” Dr Mayaki said.

Concurring with the fact that farmers are at the heart of transforming the agricultural sector, Philip Kiriro, President of the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation expressed satisfaction with the progress made in CAADP thus far.

Christoph Rauh, Deputy Director of BMZ, sub-Saharan Africa, stated that young people need to be involved, as agriculture needs to provide good business and employment for the youth.  “It is time to talk less and do more in order for results and impact to be achieved,” he said.

Agricultural transformation will be realised when industrialisation of the sector is finally achieved. This was the consensus from the different representatives.

It is expected that the 12^th CAADP PP meeting will generate a number of key actionable activities to speed up implementation through financial innovation and partnerships to deliver the Malabo Declaration and the Africa Union “Agenda 2063” - a strategic framework for the socio-economic transformation of the continent over the next 50 years. 

+Remmy Nweke +Naija AgroNet
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Opinion: No option but to innovate for business of agriculture

Opinion@NaijaAgroNet:

Of all the challenges that Africa faces, there is one that transcends and embraces all the others: I mean agriculture. Our continent today runs the risk of missing a unique opportunity to develop and offer its youth the jobs it has the obligation to provide if it wants to avoid social implosion.

Agriculture, which employs or provides livelihoods to 60% of the population while contributing 20-30% to Africa’s GDP, is the sector that could by itself enable to save the greatest number of Africans from extreme poverty while giving them their dignity back.

And yet, it typically attracts less than 5% of lending from financial institutions on the continent, leaving farmers and agricultural enterprises starved of the capital they need to operate and grow their businesses.

The scope for growth is all the more important that the situation is highly paradoxical: Africa imports the equivalent of $ 50 billion of food every year. Yet more than half of the arable land unexploited in the world are on the continent!

The 12th CAADP PP taking place in Ghana this week is organised around the theme “Accelerating Implementation of CAADP through Innovative Financing and Renewed Partnership”. The theme reflects the urgency being placed on implementation by the African Union and its members.

To solve the agricultural equation, we must join forces and continue our efforts to define a common agricultural policy. In 2003, in Maputo, we really started to turn the corner in laying the foundations for pan-African agricultural initiatives. The Heads of State and Government of the African Union then decided to devote 10% of their national budgets to agriculture. In 2014, in Malabo, they reiterated their commitment to further increase investment, both public and private, in agriculture.

Innovative financing will be key in unlocking Africa’s Green Revolution. Innovative financing is a means of mobilizing additional resources for investment in agriculture or solving long-running market failures that can unlock private investment. Now we should aim at a growth model that is public-sector enabled, and private sector scaled.

Because of the rural and dispersed nature of agricultural production, where banks and formal financial institutions often lack a presence, mobile technology provides a convenient and low-cost distribution channel to reach farmers and agro-enterprises with electronic payments and information products, as well as savings, credit, and insurance products, among others. It can also help to transfer targeted financial support for small farmers and agribusiness.

Investments in infrastructure will also help drive increased private investment and production in the agriculture sector. Often resulting in public goods that benefit a broad base of economic activity, investments in irrigation, transport and market infrastructure in particular are critical to improving economic returns and productivity in the agriculture sector.

The next step is to put in place a system that ensures the prices and the flow (or storage) of production, combined with a system of variable levies at the external borders of Africa (taxes on imports) protecting productions potential competition from products from outside. This will require innovative financial mechanisms and technologies as well.

A proactive agricultural policy should be common because it requires us to share not only our resources, but also our minds and our wills. It should be common because it cannot be implemented without regional infrastructure, energy and logistics in particular, that will allow our farmers to compete and enter into a process of value creation. We should harness the latest innovations and technologies because Africa has no other option but to leapfrog if it wants to realize its tremendous potential.

*A contribution by Ibrahim Assane Mayaki is CEO of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).

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Olam invests $159m on animal feed, poultry breeding in Nigeria

NaijaAgroNet:

Olam International, a leading agri-business operating across the value chain in 70 countries, has revealed it invested estimated US$150.0 million, about N30 billion to set up two state-of-the-art animal feed mills, poultry breeding farms and a hatchery for day-old-chicks in Nigeria, reports NaijaAgroNet.

This was disclosed at the commencement of works on the project site in Kaduna State by Olam’s CEO for Africa, Mr Venkataramani Srivathsan, of the US$150.0 million in total investments, approximately US$100.0 million has been committed to building and operating the facilities in Kaduna State, while US$50.0 million is for a second phase of the investment in integrated poultry and fish feed mill located in Kwara State.

"This is the latest investment by Olam in Nigeria’s domestic food and agricultural production sector after our recent investments in wheat milling assets and the ongoing development of our 10,000-hectare rice farm and mill in Nasarawa State," he said.

The event which was co-hosted in Kaduna State by Olamide Group Nigeria and Governor of Kaduna State, H.E. Malam Nasir el-Rufai, played host to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Innocent Ogbeh who represented President Muhammadu Buhari. 

The Olam boss also said that the new venture into animal feed is a win-win for his company and Nigeria. 

"Domestically produced meat is being hampered by a lack of good quality feed, support for farmers and availability of young stock, but consumption is set to increase. By investing in poultry and fish feed, we can utilize the wheat bran from our wheat milling operations, as well as maximize our sourcing networks to buy corn and soy from local farmers.  Our investment in the hatchery will help boost poultry production and, in the long run, help reduce the country’s reliance on imports. This development underlines the continued confidence we share in Nigeria’s ambition for self-sufficiency," he said.

A press statement made available to NaijaAgroNet by the Head Corporate and Government Relations at OLAM Nigeria, Ade Adefeko, noted that with full capacity, both feed mills are expected to produce in excess of 600,000 tonnes per annum of high-quality poultry and fish feed, with the Kaduna facility supplying mainly to the Northern markets and the Kwara facility to the South-west region. 

"The poultry breeding farm in Kaduna is expected to produce over one million hatching eggs every week for the hatchery," he said, even as the feed mills will procure most of their corn and soybean requirements locally, spurring growth of these domestic crops.

For this, Olam will create over 100,000 metric tonnes of in-house storage capacity, which will also help support food security.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

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PIX: Governor, Kaduna State, Malam Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai discussing a point of interest with MD/CEO, Africa and Middle East Olam International,  Venkataramani Srivathsan, after performing the groundbreaking ceremony of Nigeria’s largest N20billion integrated  Animal feed mill Poultry breeding farms and hatchery held at Chikpiri Gabas Village Chikun LGA, in Kaduna State Friday 8th April, 2016 while the Deputy Governor, Kaduna State Architect Barnabas Bala Bantex looks on

UN General Assembly proclaims Decade of Action on Nutrition

NaijaAgroNet:

The United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed a UN Decade of Action on Nutrition that will run from 2016 to 2025, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Welcoming the decision, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) described it as a major step towards mobilising action around reducing hunger and improving nutrition around the world.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that nearly 800 million people remain chronically undernourished and over two billion people suffer from micronutrient deficiencies.

Meanwhile FAO noted that some 159 million children under 5 years of age are stunted - meaning they are too short for their age. While approximately 50 million children in the same age bracket are wasted - meaning they have low weight for their height. Even as another 1.9 billion people are overweight -- 600 million of these are obese, as well as prevalence of people who are overweight or obese is increasing in nearly all countries.

FAO also said that this resolution recognises the need to eradicate hunger and prevent all forms of malnutrition worldwide. The Decade of Action on Nutrition will provide an umbrella for a wide group of actors to work together to address these and other pressing nutrition issues.

NaijaAgroNet equally reports that the resolution calls upon FAO and World Health Organisation (WHO) to lead the implementation of the Decade of Action on Nutrition in collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and involving coordination mechanisms such as the United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition (UNSCN) and multi-stakeholder platforms such as the Committee on World Food Security (CFS).

It also invites national governments and other stakeholders, including international and regional organizations, civil society, the private sector and academia to actively participate.

Reacting, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said "This resolution places nutrition at the heart of sustainable development and recognizes improving food security and nutrition are essential to achieving the entire 2030 Agenda.

"Children can't fully reap the benefits of schooling if they don't get the nutrients they need; and emerging economies won't reach their full potential if their workers are chronically tired because their diets are unbalanced. That's why we welcome the Decade of Action on Nutrition and look forward to helping make it a success," he said.

Introducing the resolution, which was co-sponsored by 30 Members, Ambassador Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, Brazil's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said they considered the United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition a great opportunity to bring together initiatives and efforts to eradicate hunger and prevent all forms of malnutrition, crucial elements of the 2030 Agenda.

“We encourage UN agencies, Member States, civil society and private sector to join in this collective effort. We look forward to engage in this process, sharing information on our national policies and learning from other experiences," he said.

NaijaAgroNet further reports that the resolution also endorsed the Rome Declaration on Nutrition and the Framework for Action adopted during the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) co-hosted by FAO and WHO in November 2014.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

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Cuba joins forces with global anti-rogue fishing effort

NaijaAgroNet:

 The Cuban Ambassador to the United Nations agencies in Rome, Alba Soto Pimentel, has formally presented FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva with Cuba's instrument of accession to the Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Ambassador Soto Pimentel said Cuba's accession to this international treaty is a sign of the political will of the Government of Cuba to contribute in an effective and concrete way in support of measures for the protection and sustainability of ecosystems and the preservation of marine biodiversity.

For his part, the FAO Director-General, Graziano da Silva, strongly welcomed Cuba's accession, saying "I am sure it is an example which will be followed by many other countries in the Caribbean region."

The Agreement, NaijaAgroNet gathered will create binding obligations, comes into force when 25 countries or regional economic blocs have deposited their instrument of adherence with the FAO Director-General. With Cuba's adherence 23 countries and the European Union, on behalf of its members, have deposited 24 instruments of adherence. Among the latest are Barbados, Guyana, Republic of Korea, South Africa and the United States.

Graziano da Silva has expressed confidence that the target of 25 could be reached by July this year.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that Illicit fishing, which includes operating without authorization, harvesting protected species, using outlawed fishing gear and violating quota limits, may account for up to 26 million tonnes a year, or more than 15 percent, of the world's total annual capture fisheries output.

Besides economic damage, such practices can threaten local biodiversity and food security in many countries.

Port State measures set standards for inspection of foreign vessels that seek to enter the port of another State. Importantly, the measures allow a country to block ships it suspects of having engaged in illicit fishing and thereby prevent illegal catches from entering local and international markets.

To assist countries in building their capacity to implement the Agreement, FAO has convened a series of regional workshops around the world, with participation from over 100 countries.

By becoming party to and implementing the Agreement, States will be in a position to better achieve the objectives of the voluntary 1995 FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, which seeks to promote the long-term sustainability of the sector.

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Pix: (r) Cuban Ambassador to the United Nations agencies in Rome, Alba Soto Pimentel, presenting FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva with Cuba's instrument of accession to the Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing, recently.

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Graziano da Silva emphasizes fight against hunger, boosts resilient rural livelihoods

NaijaAgroNet:

The Director-General of Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Dr.José Graziano da Silva has empahised the agency fight against hunger, just as they plan to boost resilient  of rural livelihoods, NaijaAgroNet reports.

Speaking to members of the United Nations Security Council, Jose Graziano da Silva stressed that actions to promote food security could help prevent a crisis, mitigate its impacts and promote post-crisis recovery and healing.

He pointed out that conflicts are a key driver of protracted crises, where hunger is three times more likely than in the rest of the developing world, while the countries with the highest levels of food insecurity are also those most affected by conflict.

According to him, that is borne out in cases ranging from Syria and Yemen to South Sudan and Somalia.

He also cited post-conflict Angola and Nicaragua, post-genocide Rwanda and post-independence Timor-Leste as cases where peace and food security were mutually reinforcing.

The opposite, he said, could equally prove true, leading to a relapse into violence. 

@naijaagronet

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