Cassava helps fight poverty in Nigeria – Ogbeh


The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, said on Tuesday that cassava is a crop that helps fight poverty in Nigeria.
Ogbeh said this while speaking at the Annual Planning Meeting of NextGen Cassava Breeding Project at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan.
The minister was represented at the occasion by the ministry’s Director of Root and Tubers, Dr Olusegun Ayeni.
He said that traditionally, cassava was processed into garri, fufu, etc but that recently, the country experienced increase investments in cassava processing such as cassava flour, ethanol and starch.
He said that the entrance of the cassava processing companies was increasing the demand for cassava in Nigeria and that it was good news for farmers.
Ogbeh said although Nigeria was a major producer of cassava with over 54 million metric tonnes per hectare, the yield per hectare of the crop in the country has not been impressive.
He stressed the need for researchers to address the issue, emphasising that science is critical for a transformation change of the cassava sector.
The minister identified the issues contending with cassava productivity to include climate change, pests, diseases, etc, adding that tackling them would require new breeding options that are quick to address the limitation.
He further remarked that the Federal Government had made a commitment to re-position agriculture for economic and inclusive growth.
“We have launched the Agricultural Promotion Policy, 2016 to 2019, tagged: ‘The Green Alternative.’
“The Green Alternative Policy has five major strategic thrusts: achievement of self-sufficiency and sustainable food security, reduction in import dependence and economic loses through value addition.
“Stimulation of agro-exports for enhanced foreign exchange earnings, enhancement of job and wealth creation and achievement of economic diversification to make it less crude oil-dependent,” he said.
Also speaking, the NextGen Cassava Breeding Project Manager, Dr Chiedozie Egesi, said disease pathogens and climate change threaten cassava production and jeopardise the income and food security of smallholder farmers.
Egesi said since 2012, scientists on the NextGen Cassava project have been working to significantly increase the rate of genetic improvement in cassava breeding and unlock cassava’s full potential.
“Cassava is a clonal propagated crop and seed set is difficult. New varieties with enhanced productivity and nutritional traits typically take up to 10 years to develop.
“Cassava is predicted to be one of the few crops that will benefit from climate change because it requires few inputs and can withstand drought, marginal soils and long-term underground storage.

“Through the project, we have been able to raise the status of cassava yield from where it was, we are addressing the issue of global changes of population and the climate,” he said.  

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