Agriculture with Jimoh

North East: IITA and AfDB to help Taraba transform cassava in the framework of TAAT …Trains 60 extension agents The international Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) says it plans to work closely with the Taraba State Government to transform cassava in the framework of the African Development Bank-funded Technologies for African Agriculture Transformation (TAAT) program. The decision is part of a two-day visit to Taraba state, which ended today and witnessed the inauguration of the Cassava Compact—a component of the TAAT,  training of extension agents, and sites selection and validation for the establishment of cassava demonstration plots. Dr Nteranya Sanginga, IITA Director General, said the inauguration of the Cassava Compact of the TAAT in Taraba would open the door for the scaling of new innovations to cassava growers to the state and north east region of Nigeria. Dr Sanginga, who was represented by Godwin Atser, IITA Communication & Knowledge Exchange ...

The Federal Government says it will assist cassava farmers and processors to create linkage markets to guarantee export and sale of cassava chips at the international market. The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, said this at an Agribusiness Supplier Development Programme (ASDP) meeting organised by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ibadan on Tuesday. Represented by Mr Auwal Maidabino, the Director, Planning and Policy Coordination in the ministry, Ogbeh said the linkage when actualised, would secure and inject more foreign exchange into the country. The minister, who said that in 2012 the country secured and supplied 2.2 million tonnes of cassava chips to China, which earned it over 534 million dollars, expressed regret that the business was not sustained. Ogbeh said the government would continue to provide improved yielding cassava stems, disease resistant varieties, access to finance and markets to improve the count...

 The Presidential Committee on Fertilizer Initiative (PCFI) has expressed satisfaction with the participation of Indorama Eleme Fertilizer & Chemicals Limited (IEFCL) (www.Indorama.com), Port Harcourt, in the programme aimed at supplying NPK fertilizer to farmers nationwide at cheaper cost. Chairman of the committee, Alhaji Mohammed Badaru Abubakar who is also the Governor of Jigawa State made this statement on Saturday, 4th February, 2017 when he visited the Indorama world-class fertilizer plant in the company of the President of the Fertilizer Producers & Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN), Mr. Thomas Etuh and the Managing Director of the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), Mr Uche Orji. Alhaji Abubakar said he was impressed that Indorama has fully keyed into the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative whose goal is to help the Federal Government to achieve higher food production and food security in the country. This is contained in a...

he Jigawa government on Wednesday said it paid N35 million as counterpart fund to development partners on Fadama projects in 2016. The Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Alhaji Kabiru Ali spoke while inaugurating the State Fadama Technical Committee of FADAMA III Financing Project in Dutse. Ali explained that the state government was now considering the settlement of arrears of counterpart fund of N70 million for 2014 and 2015. According to him, the state government had accorded a lot of priority to irrigation farming as it was prepared to cultivate AN additional 3,500 hectares of irrigated land in the 2017 dry season. Ali announced that the technical committee inaugurated had been urged to work out an annual plan and budget for funding and would be headed by the Acting Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Alhaji Adamu Abdullahi. The commissioner said that the committee was also expected to articulate sectoral policies and ensure compliance...

The Nigeria Cassava Growers Association (NCGA) has appealed to the Federal Government to encourage flexible agricultural policies to boost cassava production in the country by 2017. Mr Segun Adewumi, the National President of the association, made the appeal while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Monday. Adewumi said that such flexible policies should eradicate the non-acceptance of agricultural lands as collateral security for loans by Nigerian banks to encourage more farmers in the business. According to him, the refusal has denied both foreign and local investments in the cassava value chain. The national president emphasised that agricultural commodities, which required industrial use, needed to cost less for its products to be accepted at the international market, hence the need for the policies. “We need to devote five million of the 84 million hectares of the arable land in Nigeria to cassava development and that will yie...

Potential beneficiaries of Federal Government’s Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) in Bauchi State have decried the slow pace of processing of their accounts by some banks involved in the programme. They told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Bauchi on Monday that unnecessary delay by some of the banks in opening accounts for them, which is a pre-condition for participation in the programme, was frustrating and diminishing their enthusiasm to participate in the ABP. The interested participants, mostly farmers and civil servants, noted that the Project Management Team (PMT) set up by the state government, had done a lot to generate interest in the programme but the hiccup being experienced in some of the participating banks, was discouraging. According to them, the inbuilt incentives in the programme are so tempting that they initially doubted the possibility of actual implementation. “Apart from providing the capital for farming, all the inputs needed such as f...

The Bank of Agriculture (BOA) says 350,000 families in Kebbi State have benefitted from Anchor Borrower Agricultural Loan disbursed to farmers in the last one year. Alhaji Muhammad Adamu, the Executive Director of the bank`s Corporate Services made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Birnin Kebbi on Thursday. He said that 78,000 farmers directly benefitted from the loan, while 350,000 families were affected through job creation and income generation. He said that under the programme, the state had produced 700, 000 tonnes of rice, adding that the initial production target was one million tonnes. Adamu said that the loan was meant for every eligible farmer without special consideration such as religion, tribe or creed. He said that the Anchor Borrower Programme was aimed at promoting food security, economic sustainability and self reliance for the populace. He said that the bank would soon sign a memorandum of unders...

MAKURDI...........At least 5,000 cassava farmers in Benue state have been offered over 10,000 bags of free fertilizers, herbicides and other inputs valued at over N100million by International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD, Value Chain Development Programme, VCDP, to boost food production in the state. Flagging off the presentations at Ogbadibo, Okpokwu and Guma local government areas of the state, Benue IFAD-VCDP State Project Coordinator, Mr. Emmanuel Igbaukum said each of the benefitting farmer was to receive two liters of herbicides from the organization at no cost. He said aside the contribution of his organization to boost cassava cultivation in the state, each of the 2,500 benefiting farmers through their cluster groups would also receive same quantity of counterpart support from the state government. Igbaukum said, "with the arrangement, each farmer is expected to cultivate a hectare of farmland with four bags of fertilizer and four lit...

 Alhaji Ahmed Muhammed, President of Kaduna State Fadama Farmers' Co-operatives Federation, said on Wednesday that non release of counterpart funds for Fadama III, has slowed down the project. Muhammed said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna that participating states and local governments must release their contributions to allow the project run successfully. He noted that the successful implementation of the FADAMA III+ programme would boost food production and agriculture value chain in the country. Muhammed also appealed to the Federal and Kaduna State Governments to provide more fertilizer and other inputs to farmers participating in the Fadama programme, to optimise production. ``More than 600 cooperative societies in the state are in the programme and each farmer gets two to four bags of assorted fertilizers, which is far below their need.`` Muhammed advised that the programme be extended to cover all the 23 local government ar...

    Awka- RICE and cassava farmers in Anambra River Basin of Anambra State have showered praises on the International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD, for its assistance, which they said, had helped to increase their yield by over 70 percent since the intervention of the world body two year ago.   The farmers spoke when officials of IFAD Value Chain led by its senior technical adviser, Dr. Patrick Nugawela visited clusters of the farmers as part of its monitoring exercise in Anambra State, which is part of the selected states in the country for rice and cassava production.   Anambra is targeted to cultivate 3500 hectares of land for rice and cassava in the next few years under the IFAD value chain programme which would terminate in 2019 and is expected to cultivate 1000 hectares this year.   As part of efforts to meet the target, 300 youths from the state had been trained at the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture, IITA...

The Ogun Government says it will continue to participate actively in all national and international agricultural intervention programmes to ensure food security in the state. The State Commissioner for Agriculture, Mrs Ronke Sokefun, said this recently while inspecting the 185 hectares of rice and cassava intervention sites in the Yewa Local Government Area of the state. The commissioner was accompanied by a team from the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) Assisted Value Development Programme. The tour took the team to Otete, Joga- Orile and Eggua, all in Yewa Council Area of Ogun. Sokefun said that in order to achieve food sufficiency in the state, the state government had continued to train farmers on agronomy and land preparation. She said that the government had brokered meetings between farmers and the private sector as major players in rice and cassava production. She commended the Federal Government and IFAD for its value-chain intervention programme in c...