Senator advocates farmers' access to crop protection products


 Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture has called on the Croplife International, an NGO, and other stakeholders to assist Nigerian farmers with access to crop protection products to boost productivity.
Adamu made the call at the Croplife West and Central Africa Hub and Regulations Workshop in Abuja on Tuesday.
The Chairman, who was represented by Sen. Sabi Abdullahi (APC Niger North), described crop protection as a measure taken to protect cultivated plants against diseases, pests as well as competing weeds and grasses.
He stated that without crop protection products, cultivated crops were defenceless against pests and diseases, adding that the problem should not be ignored or waved aside.
"I want to call on all the agricultural experts to expand their relationships with stakeholders across the agriculture and food value chain to ensure that farmers have access to crop protection products.
"It is very true that all our farmers must deal with the threat to pests, weeds and diseases and the health of our crops, without crop protection, food production will be decimated," he said.
Adamu said that it would be suicidal to relegate the critical role and importance of crop protection services to food production system to the background.
According to him, this becomes imperative considering that the country's population, which is more than 160 million now, was expected to rise to 340 million by 2030.
"It is, therefore, a must that we equip our farmers with the right tools to guarantee us the food needed to feed this huge population and the time to act is now," Adamu said.
He commended Croplife Nigeria for working for the promulgation of the pesticide legislation, to mitigate the misuse and address importation of pesticides.
The chairman, also a farmer, assured that he and his colleagues in the Senate would support the legislation.
According to Adamu, the Senate is committed to support and promote the passage of laws that would support the diversification and growth of the country's economy.
Also speaking, the Minister of Environment, Mrs Amina Mohammed, said that it was important that stakeholders discuss on quality of pesticides, safe and responsible use of them to improve agricultural productivity.
The minister was represented at the occasion by Mr Rufus Ebegba, a Director-General, National Bio-safety Management Agency.
She said that the ministry had collaborated with Croplife on Cleanfarms Project, adding that the ministry was in the process of joint work on the disposal of obsolete pesticide stocks with the company.
The minister promised that the ministry would continue to collaborate with Croplife on the safety of pesticides on the environment, farmers and their crops.
In his keynote address, the Commissioner for Agriculture, Environment and Water Resource, ECOWAS Commission, Mr Tchambakou Ayassor, commended Croplife for organising such an important workshop.
"This workshop will be advocating for and strengthening knowledge on the risk and benefit assessment approach for decision-making process on pesticides in the country.
"The need to raise the importance of pesticides in contributing toward the improvement of production and productivity cannot be over-emphasised.
"In as much as it is beneficial, when used with other product inputs, it is also pertinent to raise awareness about the wrongful use of the pesticides in productive activities.
"The wrong application of pesticides on crops poses danger to food security, human health, environment sustainability and international trade,” he said.
Ayassor called on stakeholders to agree on a common approach to maximise the benefit of pesticides, to minimise the potential danger ahead.
Mr Mahmood Tauhid, the President of Croplife Nigeria, a non-profit organisation, said that the organisation had been a key player in the country's agricultural sector over the years.
According to him, Croplife Nigeria has collaborated with relevant ministries, agencies and international organisations to ensure responsible and sustainable use of crops.

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