Don calls for re-establishment of Marketing Board


Dr Awotein George, a don, has advised the Federal Government to re-establish agricultural produce Marketing Board in the country.
George, the Head of Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Environment, Rivers University of Science and Technology (RSUST), Port Harcourt, gave the advice
in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Port Harcourt on Tuesday.
He said that the board would be beneficial to farmers as prices of farm produce were stable in the 1960’s when the board was operational.
He recalled that the Board was saddled with the responsibility of buying up agricultural produce from farmers and sale in local and international markets.
He added that the board fixed prices and grades of farm produce, bought and paid farmers according to the grades of their produce.
George explained that the operations of the Board did not only stabilise the prices of farm produce but put paid to market glut, especially perishable items.
The university lecturer said that the country’s economy was stronger in the the early 60’s when the nation’s foreign earning depended on agriculture.
He noted that all parts of the country had the advantage of producing one crop or the other, adding that the country was blessed.
He said groundnut and cotton were produced in large quantity in the North, palm oil in the East, cocoa in West and rubber in defunct Mid West.
The re-establishment of the Marketing Board would save farmers in the country a lot of troubles, he stressed.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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 Agricultural Re
Read more

NEGPRO project can create more jobs with inclusion of meat production— Badmus

•Tuns Farm leads food safety, quality system audit The Chairman , Tuns Farms Nigeria, Asiwaju Olatunde Badmus, has disclosed that the proposed one million jobs expected to be created through the National Egg Production Scheme (NEGPRO) can be doubled if extended to meat production. He made this known when a team from the office of the Vice President, Federal Ministries of Agriculture, Health and Education at the company’s headquarters in Osogbo, the Osun state capital recently. Olatunde Badmus, while sharing the company’s experience on chicken inclusion in the Osun state’s school meal program which the company has been handling since the introduction of the school feeding program four years ago, said they can achieve so much more in terms of job creation through meat production “As we speak, six state governors among who are Kebbi and Borno, have signalled their government’s preparedness to look into this and have invited TUNS farm to their states to discuss modalities for
Read more