FG to complete South-South silo in Bayelsa


The Federal Government has pledged to complete the South-South Silo located in Yenagoa, Bayelsa.

The Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri, made the pledge after a tour of the project site in Igbogene area of Yenagoa on Saturday.

Lokpobiri said funds had been released to complete 100,000 ton capacity silo by August.

The silo projects initiated in 2009 is part of the Strategic Grains Reserve scheme to ensure food security by the federal government.

There are six grains storage facilities awarded for each of the six geo-political zones.

Lokpobiri noted that the silos in other zones had been completed, adding that the level of completion of the one in Bayelsa was not encouraging.

Lokpobiri, who said he was not happy with the level of job done so far, directed the contractors to come to Abuja for further briefings to work out strategy for the timely completion of the silo in Yenagoa.

Lokopobiri stated that the silo, when completed, would preserve grains including rice and maize from farmers in various states in the south-south to boost preservation and food security in the country.
The minister of state who is on tour of silos across the nation, said the completion of the projects would also support the agricultural revolution of the present administration.

The Director, Strategic Grains Reserve, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Mr Shehu Bello, said the project was slowed down because of some engineering challenges at the construction site.

An official of the contracting firm, Mr. Otun Abiodun, said the company had applied for the review of the contract sum to take care of the extra cost incurred due to the difficult terrain of the project site, which is largely swampy

Thousands of farmers in Ondo State benefit from FADAMA project – Association
June 2, 2017 3:21 pm by kudirat.ogunyemi - Nigeria -


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

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