Agriculture with Jimoh

Rice millers in Kano State have attributed the high cost of locally-produced rice to the increasing cost of production of the commodity in the country. Mr Liman Muhammed, spokesperson, Medium and Small Scale Rice Millers Association in the state, said this during a visit to some rice mills in Kano on Wednesday. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the price of 50kg locally-produced rice ranges between N20,000 and N22,000 while that of imported rice is between N12,000 and N15,000. “For locally-produced rice, the cost of production is high. Our people are used to the imported rice but with government’s intervention, we are seeing good quality rice. “Most imported rice have spent more than 10 years in the storage and are not good enough but the local rice has more nutritional value. “The number of people consuming local rice is increasing and if everybody along the rice value chain is empowered, the cost of production will reduce,’’ he said. He ...

The interim Managing Director of Bank of Agriculture (BoA), Dr Kabiru Adamu, says his management will reposition the bank to stimulate Federal Government’s policy on economic diversification. Adamu made the promise when he took over leadership of the BoA’s management in Kaduna on Friday. According to him, the new management will evolve new skills and strategies aimed at optimal service delivery of credit facilities to farmers’ groups in the country. “The government of President Muhammadu Buhari, as you are aware, is focusing on agriculture and the simple reason is to diversify the economy. “Therefore, our team is coming in to continue with the good work the outgoing management has put in place. “I assure you that my team and I are eager, ready and committed to reposition the bank, “he said. Adamu, who expressed the readiness to operate open door policy, solicited the support of the bank’s union leaders and members of staff to enable the new management ...

Alhaji Abdulkarim Kaita, the Managing Director of Dangote Tomato Processing Company, Kadawa, Kano State, has commended the Federal Government for banning the importation of tomato paste into the country. The managing director said on Tuesdayin Kano that “I want to use this opportunity to commend the Federal Government for the singular act. “The information reaching us is that government has banned importation of tomato paste and the Central Bank of Nigeria will support tomato growers with loan under the Anchor Borrower programme,” he said. Kaita noted that enforcing total ban on importation of the commodity would enable local tomato processing factories to thrive, in addition to providing job opportunities to the teeming number of unemployed persons in the country. “The importation of tomato paste from China had adversely affected the local tomato processing companies as local product was not being patronized adequately.” According to him, his company plans...

Mr Godwin Emefiele, the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has assured farmers in Kebbi that 250,000 millionaire farmers will be created in the state by the end of 2017. Emefiele gave the assurance when he visited the WACOT Rice Factory in Argungu on Thursday. “I was told by a permanent secretary that 88,000 millionaires had been created through rice and agricultural revolution. “I am assuring you that by the end of this year, 200,000 to 250,000 farmer millionaires will be created through the revolution,” he said. He also assured farmers in the state that government would buy off whatever quantity of rice they were able to produce. Emefiele commended the Emir of Argungu, Alhaji Sama’ila Mere, for providing land for the company and for his desire to stimulate agricultural revolution in the country. He, however, called on other royal fathers to emulate the monarch’s desire to drive agricultural revolution in the country. Also speaking, the Minister of Agricultur...

NEWS ANALYSIS African Heads of States at the 23rd Ordinary Session of the African Union (AU) in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, in June 2014 adopted the “Malabo Declaration’’ to accelerate agricultural growth and transformation to lift Africa out of poverty. The 2014 declaration was a formal commitment by AU Heads of States and Governments to provide effective leadership for efforts to achieve some specific goals by the year 2025. The goals include ending hunger on the continent and tripling intra-African trade in agricultural goods, among others. The African Union Commission (AUC), in collaboration with other international stakeholders in agriculture, recently converged on Abuja to deliberate on the ways forward in domesticating and implementing the initiatives of the Malabo Declaration to boost Nigeria’s economy via agriculture. The efforts are particularly aimed at aligning Nigeria’s National Agriculture Investment Plan (NAIP) with the commitments of the 2014 Malabo Declarat...

The Nigerian Association of Women in Agriculture (NAWIA), has urged the Plateau government to increase the budgetary allocation to agriculture to boost activities in that sector. Mrs. Ngizan Chahul, National President of the association, made the call while on an advocacy visit to the State’s Agricultural Development Programme (ADP), on Tuesday in Jos. “It is only through strong budgetary allocations and adequate release of such funds that the agriculture sector can achieve the desired results of transforming the fortunes of the state. “It is only when it is well funded that the sector can be transformed into the hub of the nation’s economy. “Taking a cursory look at the budgets of Plateau over the years, the allocations to the agricultural sector have been very small and this development is worrisome” she said. She stated that successive governments had not worked out consistent and progressive policies for a robust agricultural sector, and wondered why su...

The African Union Commission agricultural stakeholders has assured the Federal Government of economic growth if Malabo declaration initiative is implemented in Nigeria. The stakeholders gave the assurance in Abuja at the workshop on the National Agricultural Investment Plan (NAIP) for Nigeria. Prof. Adeolu Ayanwale, a facilitator called for adoption of an inclusive process involving all relevant stakeholders to develop strategies and technologies to achieve NAIP objectives. According to him, provision of incentives for constructive engagement of private sectors, civil society groups and establishment of needed capacities will go a long way to achieve it. Ayanwale said that one of the cardinal objectives of the workshop was to establish a roadmap toward the domestication of the Malabo commitments. He said the workshop would also deliberate on ways of implementation of the AUC NAIP plan in Nigeria. According to him, there will be a definite working docu...

Delegates at the workshop, organised by AU Commission and New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) on Nigeria’s efforts to domesticate the commitments of the Malabo Declaration, have pledged support for the nation’s initiatives. They promised to facilitate the fulfilment of the country’s initiatives, while speaking at the sidelines of the workshop in Abuja. Last week . The delegates voiced their support for specific strategies that were aimed at accelerating Nigeria’s agricultural growth in order to improve the citizens’ living standards. AU Heads of State and Government in 2014 adopted the Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods. As part of the commitments, the African leaders committed to ending hunger by 2025 via designed efforts to halve the current levels of post-harvest losses by the year 2025. Dr Kehinde Makinde, the Nigeria Programme Officer, Alliance for Green Revolution...