Agriculture with Jimoh

The Federal Government has procured no fewer than 500 rice harvesters and threshers to reduce post harvest losses and achieve self sufficiency in rice production by 2018. Chief Audu Ogbeh, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, made this known while speaking with newsmen in Abuja on Thursday. Ogbeh said that the government had only taken delivery of 80 of the harvesters, adding that the remaining 420 would be delivered before April. He said the harvesters that would cost about N1.7 million each, would be manned by trained personnel in states. Ogbeh also noted that the rice threshers which were produced locally would cost between N800, 000 and N900, 000 each. The minister, who said that Kebbi have procured some of the machines, noted that Ebonyi and Jigawa States have also indicated interest to acquire the machines. According to him, if we have these machines in rice and wheat farms, the cost and stress of rice farming will reduce by 80 per cent. ...

A lawmaker, Sen. Abubakar Yusuf, representing Taraba Central Senatorial District, said Nigeria had the capacity to meet the tea and coffee demands of the country if it had the right policies. The lawmaker said this at a news conference in Jalingo on Wednesday to mark his one year at the Senate. Yusuf said a bill to ensure tea and coffee policy for the country was in the pipeline. According to him, tea and coffee potential of the Mambilla plateau of Taraba will comfortably meet the national demand for the products and even earn the nation foreign exchange. He explained that the country’s current demand for tea was about 10 million tonnes per annum and it currently produced 1.2 million tonnes, which was a far cry from the requirement and huge potential. “The Mambilla plateau in Taraba has the best tea and coffee potential in the world, but as I speak, the country has not yet taken advantage of the opportunity to turn around its economy,” he said. Yusu...

Mr Raymos Guana,  the Chief Executive Officer of Raymos Guana Farms,  says the decision of the Federal Government to ban rice importation is too hasty. Guana, a former Commissioner for Lands in Delta, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Asaba on Thursday. According to him, the quantity of rice being produced in the country today will not be able to meet the demands of Nigerians. He said that government should have given farmers at least three to five years notice to work toward boosting rice production that could adequately feed the nation. “With such target, each state of the federation would be given specified quantity of rice to be produced within the stipulated time. “For example, Delta will produce one million tonnes of rice, Anambra two million, while Ebonyi will produce five million tonnes of rice. “With this target, I am very sure that each state would work toward achieving its goals and expectation,’’ he sai...

Farmers have urged relevant agriculture agencies to improve on the nation's produce storage facilities to achieve the Federal Government's objectives of boosting food production. The farmers were reacting to the inauguration of the Presidential Committee/Task Force on Rice and Wheat to facilitate its programme on self-sufficiency in food production. Chief Marcel Eleri, Chairman of Association of Registered Farmers in Afikpo North LGA disclosed that the government's initiative to boost the production of rice and wheat across the country was instructive. "The Federal Government should collaborate with the Ebonyi Government to rehabilitate the Silos at Ezillo, Ishiellu LGA of the state for improved grain and other seedlings preservation,’’ he said. Also a member of AFAN, Bayelsa chapter, who spoke on condition of anonymity, decried the abandonment of the Bayelsa silos project. The AFAN member told NAN that there were no doubt ab...

The Olam group has signed a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding, MOU, with Benue rice farmers and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD, to invest about N1billion in quality rice production and repurchase from farmers in the state.