Ogbeh solicits full participation of Nigerians in agric development

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, on Wednesday enjoined Nigerians, particularly the elites, to engage in agriculture to boost food production.
The minister made this call while speaking at the Sectoral Debate on strategies for diversification of the Nigerian economy organised by the House of Representatives.
Ogbeh said there was need for the country to adhere to the 10 per cent budgetary allocation to agriculture in line with Maputo Declaration.
``If Agriculture is to be restored to its days of glory in Nigeria, ‎people from all strata of the society including the elite must be involved in line with the Maputo Declaration,’’ the minister said.
According to Ogbeh, if the policies being enunciated by the Ministry of Agriculture was‎ anything to go by then in the next two years the GDP contribution from agriculture would rise to 20 per cent.
He, however, pointed out that since agriculture was on the concurrent list, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture limits its role to policy formulation, implementation and supervision rather than direct involvement in farm establishment.
He said that the ministry was committed toward intervention in the areas of sorghum, soyabean, wheat, fish and poultry, which has placed the products on potential export-list.
On export standardisation, the minister said the ministry was consulting with ‎experts and other stakeholders on the possibility of reviving marketing boards and commodity boards as means of standardising produce export.

Ogbeh appealed to the legislature for improved budgetary allocations to the agricultural sector in subsequent budgets.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Monsanto Nigeria Launches 3 Conventional Maize Hybrids

Maize farmers across Nigeria now have 3 high yielding conventional maize hybrids to choose from the DEKALB ® brand as Monsanto Agriculture Nigeria Limited launches 3 conventional maize hybrids. The launch held in Abuja on Tuesday May 17 2016 had in attendance farmers, development partners, government regulatory bodies and other stakeholders from both the private and public sectors of the economy. The launch of these hybrid seeds follows their registration by the National Committee on Naming, Registration and Release of Crop Varieties, Livestock Breeds and Fisheries in February 2016. The white maize hybrid, DK234 alongside the 2 yellow maize hybrids, DK920 and DK818 obtained registration approval for use in Nigeria after testing across various agro ecological zones on multi-location farms. The white maize hybrid DK234 with yield potential of 13 tonnes per hectare is well adapted for the Southern and Northern Guinea Savanna ecologies and shows tolerance to Maize Streak Virus, ...
Read more

Tomato disease outbreak: Institute appeals for research funding

The National Horticultural Research Institute, Ibadan, has appealed for funding to carry out research and create awareness on the tuta absoluta pest on tomatoes. The Institute’s Head of Vegetable Programme, Dr Olagorite Adetula, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan on Friday that there was an urgent need to tackle the problem to save the economy. Adetula said the institute needed money to do surveillance survey of the pest/damage, ascertain the impact of the damage and proffer solution for eradicating the pest. She appealed to the Federal Government to help the institute get pheromones to lure and trap the pests and distribute to farmers. ``Spraying insecticides is not the best, the pest has high production rate, some of them can escape while spraying it and they will be resistant to the insecticide thereby causing us more cost. ``The pheromones can be used for six to eight weeks before changing it, it is very effective, the pest has short life cycle, wit...
Read more

10,000 women farmers to be engaged in ECOWAS rice project – official

Image
 Mr Richard Olafare, the President, Seed Entrepreneurs Association of Nigeria (SEEDAN) says 10,000 women will be engaged in the recently inaugurated Rice Seed Up-Scaling Project. This is contained in a presentation on the project made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday. Olafare said 8,000 youths would also be engaged in the scaling project. According to him, the number of women and youths represented 50 per cent and 40 per cent respectively of the 20,000 farmers that will participate in the project. NAN reports that the project is an initiative of the West Africa Seed Programme (WASP) in support of the ECOWAS Rice Offensive Programme that was inaugurated in 2014. Among other objectives, it is targeting the production of 60,000 metric tonnes of paddy rice for Nigeria by December 2017, using 1,200 certified seeds. The project is being implemented by SEEDAN in collaboration with the West and Central Africa Council for Agricultura...
Read more