Agriculture with Jimoh

The President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki, said that the government of the All Progressives Congress (APC) had recorded tremendous achievements in agriculture. He disclosed in Abuja that the feats of the party in agriculture were, however, not adequately reported. He berated some media houses for always making headlines with negative stories while ignoring such success stories. The President of the Senate noted that in the area of rice farming and processing, Nigeria under the APC government, had risen to a point where it would soon be completely self sufficient. “You can see what the APC government is doing in agriculture but this is something we don’t talk about, the success that the APC government has made is tremendous. “Am sure in a few years time we will be self sufficient in rice and that is a major achievement for a country that is always importing rice to now get to the stage where we no longer have to import rice. “But how often do y...

 Mr. Damisa Enahoro, Commercial Manager Tractor & Implements; Mr. Antti Ritvonen, Country Manager/CEO; Mrs. Mirian Deinde, Company Secretary, Head Legal & Compliance/HR and Mr. Humphrey Otalor, Marketing Communications Manager, all of Dizengoff Nigeria, during a press conference to announce Dizengoff as the exclusive distributor of CASE tractors in Nigeria. Dizengoff  Nigeria, Number one agricultural solution provider, has announced an international partnership with CASE IH, a global leader in agricultural equipment manufacturer during a press conference in Lagos. The announcement was made by the CEO/Country Manager of  Dizengoff  Nigeria, Mr. Antti Ritvonen.  Speaking at the announcement ceremony, Antti Ritvonen said “We are very excited to be partnering with Case IH in the area of providing quality tractors to the Nigerian farmers, as we intend to improve farming substantially as well as revolutionize the Nigerian agricultural sector thr...

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, has described as embarrassing the downgrade of Nigeria in the global cocoa business. To revive the industry, however, the Minister has disclosed that a re-launch will be done early this year as part of activities to bring cocoa back to public consciousness. Moreover, he has said that millions of cocoa trees will have to be planted, beginning this year.   “This year’s activity,” Chief Ogbeh noted, will start with “the relaunch of cocoa.” In his words: “It is an embarrassment that Nigeria fell to the seventh place. We are re-launching cocoa. We are targeting 15 to 20 million trees a year and we are rehabilitating the existing ones and improving upon agronomic practices, and processing and all the value chains that need to take us to number one.” Despite hurdles, agric fared well in 2016, kept faith on rice – Ogbeh -            As he inaugurates co...

The Kano State Government has earmarked over N200 million in the recently approved 2017 budget to boost rice farming in the state. Mohammed Garba, the Commissioner of Information, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Kano. He said this was part of the state government’s efforts to boost the agricultural sector in the state to complement President Muhammadu Buhari’s efforts to reduce over dependence on crude oil. “Rice and wheat farmers were given N150 million loan in 2016 to boost production in the Sector, while in 2017 we are planning to increase the loan. “All necessary measures will be taken to ensure that the ordinary farmers in the state benefit more from the gesture,” the commissioner said. Garba said that in 2016, the state government contributed to the production of 1.3 million tonnes of rice, saying that it hopes to increase it to over 2 million tonnes in 2017. He said, “the state government has c...

Bird flu claims 3.5 million birds in 26 states, FCT- FG ... Summons State agric commissioners ABUJA- THE Federal Government yesterday, disclosed that bird flu has claimed 3.5 million birds in 26 states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, so far. The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, made the disclosure in his address of welcome during a consultative meeting with commissioners of Agriculture/Livestock, state directors of veterinary services and major stakeholders in the poultry industry in Abuja. Ogbeh who described the situation as threat to the poultry industry and said losses in the industry unacceptable as he personally feels the pain of affected farmers. He said: “Our meeting today is necessary in order to restore the poultry industry to its past glory as a major source of livelihood of our people, diversify the economy and avert food security crisis and possible spill over to humans. “You may recall that the first outbreak of bir...

The Federal Government has launched the African Water Facility/African Development Bank (AWF/AfDB) supported project for effective water resources management of the Hadejia Jama’are Komadugu Yobe Basin. The Minister of Water Resources, Mr Suleiman Adamu, made this known on Monday in Abuja. Adamu said that the partnership was to encourage efforts in delivering services for 15 million people who derive their livelihood from the basin. “ The ministry has encouraged and supported the Trust Fund to seek for a grant from the African Water Facility under African Development Bank for the implementation of the project to restore livelihoods in the basin,” he said. Adamu said that the fund would enable several interventions to reduce conflicts, douse tensions and restore lost livelihoods in the area. The minister appealed to the benefiting states and other agencies to make best use of the grant by supporting the implementation of the basin’s water resources projec...

Farmers in Ikwo Local Government Area of Ebonyi have called on the Federal Government and FADAMA to provide power tiller machine to help boost rice production in the state. Mr Ukpai Patrick, the Local Government Chairman, made the appeal when FADAMA team paid them a visit on Wednesday in Ndiagu Echara. Patrick stated that rice farmers in his locality have many challenges among which were power tiller for clearing farmland to increase rice production. "Farmers are still using the manual way of land clearing and planting, which is too stressful and delaying the farming processes. We need this modern technology. "Power tiller is a versatile machine primarily used for the preparation of land for farming operations. The machine can be used for tilling, ploughing, weeding, pumping, leveling, ridging and so on. "One of the advantages of this machine is that, it can be operated hands free with a remote. Farmers can operate it at their comfort of not stepping ...