Agricbusiness Summit 2017 will address hunger, unemployment-Convener


The planned Agric summit, tagged, ‘’Agribusiness Summit 2017,’’ scheduled for April 7, and April 8 in Abuja is aimed at addressing hunger and unemployment in Nigeria.

Mr Tope Runsewe, appointed to Convene the summit stated this on Monday in Abuja during a news conference.

He further said the summit would serve as a platform to discuss the potential and viability of the agriculture business, using the resources available in achieving food security in the country.

According to him, the country is faced with hunger and unemployment adding that the only solution to these challenges is agriculture.

‘‘The summit has become imperative at this time for the nation, now that the country is faced with some challenges.

‘‘We are convinced that agriculture business is a viable means of getting people out of hunger and unemployment.

‘‘That is why we are convening this meeting, focusing on young people, retirees, civil servants, soon to be retired or anybody who is interested in agriculture.

‘‘Agriculture is a business you can do regardless of what you do at the moment, because it will help to multiply your strength of income and at the same time, eliminate some challenges.

‘‘That is why we are hosting it on April 7 and 8, 2017 in Abuja in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Central Bank of Nigeria, Bank of Agriculture and so on.’’

He urged the stakeholders in agriculture sector to take advantage of the opportunity to participate, assuring that wide range of agro allied activities would be discussed

Some of the agricultural activities he said were livestock, animal, feeds, seed and agro- processing.

Contributing, Dr Tunde Arosanyin, National Coordinator, Zero Hunger Nigeria Commodities, said Nigeria could create jobs for its youths and achieve food security through agriculture.

‘’Agriculture is the only business enterprise that is permitted by Nigerian law for civil servants without running contrary to the law of the country.


‘‘We want to encourage them as primary, secondary or tertiary producers in this regard.’’  

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 Agricultura...
Read more

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