Agriculture with Jimoh

“Stunted children today will lead to stunted economies tomorrow” – Adesina African Union endorses African Leaders for Nutrition Initiative By Jimoh Babatunde The President of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, has said that stunted children today will lead to stunted economies tomorrow, adding that the impact of stunting is irreversible but preventable. He spoke yesterday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia as African leaders made a landmark commitment to remove nutrition-related barriers that prevent children and societies from realising their full potential. The leaders made the commitments at the launch of African Leaders for Nutrition (ALN) − an initiative championed by the African Development Bank and the African Union Commission – in Addis Ababa, where they agreed to jointly overcome malnutrition and elevate nutrition as the driver for economic growth and sustainable development. Adesina said poor nutrition is responsible for stunting children’s ...

Dr Adetunji Oredipe, ‎the World Bank Task Team Leader, says the Graduate Unemployment Youths Support Scheme (GUYSS) will enhance food production and create job opportunities in Nigeria. Oredipe told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Thursday that GUYSS was a new initiative of the World Bank-assisted FADAMA III Additional Financing (AF) programme. He said that the World Bank, through FADAMA III AF programme, created GUYSS to empower more than 200 youths from various parts of the country via the creation of employment opportunities. He said that the programme was conceptualised to engage the youths productively in different agricultural endeavours that would enhance their livelihoods. “We are collaborating with the Federal Government to ensure the success of the programme. “The programme is targeting job creation, building capacity of the youth and facilitating efforts to keep the foreign exchange rate of the nation’s currency low. “We want to eliminate im...

The World Bank says it has earmarked 200 million dollars or N7.2 billion for Fadama III Additional Financing of projects in Nigeria. The World Bank Consultant on the project, Dr Idris Badiru, made the disclosure on Thursday in Calabar at the opening of the Fadama III Additional Financing Mid-Term Review Mission to Cross River. “Cross River is moving in the right direction; we hope they will continue to improve. “We are happy with them; however, we are still in the planting season, until when it is time for harvest, we will then know the positive impact on the people. “The whole package is from the World Bank is 200 million dollars (N7.2 billion) for the project. “They should also know that the money is in the pool; if you perform better, you draw more,’’ he said. Also, the National Project Coordinator, Mr Tayo Adewumi, said they felt concerned about the success of Cross River in the project last year due to their late start. “But today, from what ...

The World Bank is to support six Nigerian states with $200 million to participate in the new agriculture programme. The participating states are Kano, Kaduna, Lagos, Cross River, Kogi and Enugu. The programme is tagged Agriculture Productivity Processing Enhancement and Livelihood Scheme Project (APPEALS). It will focus on food security, local production, job creation and economic diversification. Dr Sheu Salau, the bank’s Task Team Leader, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Kaduna on the side line of a two-day Wrap-up meeting on Commercial Agriculture Development Project (CADP). The team leader said 40 per cent of the amount would go to projects to support youth and women in the participating states. Salau said the successful implementation of the CADP programme informed the approval for the new project. The Bank in March, 2017 approved the $200 million credit to support the Federal Government in enhancing agricultural produ...

Washington, D.C. – The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) announced today the launch of the Ag-Incentives Consortium website, a user-friendly online database facilitated by IFPRI, that aggregates agricultural policy data into an interactive tool for guiding more informed policy. The Ag-Incentives Consortium brings together data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the World Bank. “Historically, global information and data on incentives for agricultural production have been widely scattered and not comparable,” said David Laborde, senior research fellow at IFPRI. “Ag-Incentives harmonizes fact-based analysis from several international organizations to provide policy makers a better understanding of the effects of their domestic policies on prices.” The interagency collaboration of the Consortium reduces duplication of efforts in ...

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...

Researchers working under the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture led Cassava Weed Management Project (IITA-CWMP) will this week share findings and recommendations on how to tackle weeds in cassava farming systems. The sharing of research findings is part of activities marked for a week-long annual review and planning meeting and Steering Committee meeting scheduled to hold 27-30 March 2017 at IITA in Ibadan. “ We are optimistic that the key findings from our research will help farmers to tackle the problem of weeds in cassava, with the view to having more yield,” says the Project Leader of IITA-CWMP, Dr Alfred Dixon, who is also a Director with IITA on Monday. Declaring the meeting open, Dr Kenton Dashiell, IITA Deputy Director General, Partnership for Delivery, said the goal of the project was to take off drudgery due to weeding in cassava farming systems. “ I am happy that this meeting will share findings that will impact positively on weed ...

The World Bank has approved a 200 million dollars credit facility to further support Nigeria, in its efforts to enhance agricultural productivity of small and medium scale farmers. In a statement made available to journalists on Friday in Abuja, The Word Bank Country Director, Mr Rachid Benmessaoud said the loan was in recognition of agriculture as the key to long-term economic growth and diversification. He said the credit was being financed from the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank Group’s grant and low-interest arm. He said it will be on standard IDA terms, with a maturity of 25 years, including a grace period of 5 years. Benmessaoud said the project will tackle the key constraints of the Nigeria agriculture sector, such as low productivity, lack of seed funds for establishing agro-processing plants and lack of access to supportive infrastructure. He said it will also solve the problems of low level of technology and limited a...

The Managing Director, Dangote Tomato Processing Company, Alhaji Abdulkarim Kaita, on Monday said the factory would resume production on Sunday, March 19. Kaita disclosed this in an interview with to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kano. He said the company, located in Kadawa, Kano State, was expecting a team of engineers from Italy on Friday as part of preparation to resume production. “As part of preparations to resume production on Sunday, we are expecting a team of engineers from Italy on Friday. “The machines are under guarantee and we are not able to operate last year due to the scarcity of fresh tomato in Kano and other neighboring states,” he said. Kaita said the engineers would assess the quality parameters as well as the installed capacity of the machines before they could finally hand them over to the company. “Our engineers are ready to begin work and as soon as the other team of engineers arrive, we hope to resume operation on Sunday.” ...

Empowerment of rural women is fundamental for achieving 2030 Agenda  Rome - Leaders from the three UN Rome-based agencies today marked International Women's Day by reinforcing their commitments to step up efforts to invest in the capacities of rural women as key agents of change in building a world without hunger. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) reminded the world that women and girls play a crucial role in achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular, the goal of eradicating hunger and extreme poverty. "Women play a critical role in agriculture and food systems - not just as farmers, but also as food producers, traders and managers," said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva on the occasion of the Day. "However, women still face major constraints in rural labour markets and in agricultural value chains. They are more...

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...

AfDB to inaugurate $850m agriculture transformation programme to reduce imports The African Development Bank (AfDB) will launch an 850 million dollars agriculture programme to transform the sector and reduce food imports in Africa, an official of the bank has said. Dr Chiji Ojukwu, the Director of Agriculture in the bank, said this on the sideline of the International Conference on Wheat in Abuja on Tuesday. The conference was organised by the Support to Agricultural Research for Development of Strategic Crops project of the AfDB. Ojukwu said the project, to be called Technology for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT), would ensure the generation, sustainable dissemination and adoption of agricultural technologies and innovations. According to him, this new programme will cost about 850 million dollars of which wheat alone is 20.8 million dollars. “ We are likely going to get the approval for the programme this year and after that, it will start,’’ Ojukwu said. ...

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 African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) in partnership with some organisations would soon release locally adapted Pod Borer Resistant (PBR) cowpea varieties in Sub Saharan Africa(SSA). The Executive Director of AATF, Dr Denis Kyetere, said this on Tuesday at the AATF Annual Review and Planning Meeting of PBR Cowpea Project at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan. He said the varieties were expected to reduce grain yield losses caused by the Pod Borer Maruca vitrata as well as reduce the need for insecticidal sprays. Kyetere emphasised that the expected yield improvement would impact on household national and global food security economic status. He pointed out that the deployment of a cowpea product capable of protecting itself from Maruca attack would make it easier and cheaper for farmers to produce cowpeas in areas where there was pest. “I am excited about the prospects that the project holds given ...

Dangote Rice, a subsidiary of Dangote Group is set to launch a 25,000 hectares of rice outgrower scheme with a prospect of creating employment opportunities for rural communities in Sokoto. A statement issued by Mr Francis Awowole-Browne, the Head of Media, Dangote Rice, said President of the Group, Aliko Dangote would on Wednesday inaugurate the pilot project of 500 hectres at Gonroyo Dam, in Goronyo community. Awowole said that the inauguration which would be performed by Governor Aminu Tambuwa would witness seedlings being distributed to both primary local farmers. According to him, the company plans to purchase harvested rice from the farmers under the Outgrower’s programme for milling and final processing at Dangote Rice mills. The head of media noted that through the Dangote Rice Outgrower Scheme, the company would partner with smallholder rice farmers to cultivate and grow rice paddy. “ The company will provide inputs, technical assistance, extension services and...

ABUJA-THE Federal Government and development partners yesterday, disclosed that young farmers training on seed production will commence 26th March 2017, under the Agricultural Transformation Agenda Support Programme Phase 1, ATASP-1, of essential staple food crops. This was disclosed by the National Technical Adviser, ATASP-1, Dr Oyesola Oyebanji, who chaired the technical committee meeting for preparation of the training of beneficiaries, which was attended by officials of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, National Seed Council of Nigeria, NASC, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, IITA, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, and ATASP-1 National and zonal staff. According to Oyebanji would be trained on seed production technology has commenced and will cover three commodities- cassava, rice and sorghum, right from production, processing, marketing, linkages, registration of seed companies, s...

An agric strategist, Mr Richard Ogundele, has called urged government at all levels to provide farmers with affordable farm inputs and access to ready markets for their produce. Ogundele said in Lagos that such government intervention would create the environment conducive for efforts at ensuring food security. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, or FAO, identified the four pillars of food security as availability, access, utilization, and stability. The United Nations (UN) recognized the Right to Food in the Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, and has since noted that it is vital for the enjoyment of all other rights Ogundele is an intervention manager for Growth and Employment in States (GEMS), a project funded by the World Bank and the UK Department for International Development (DFID), in Nigeria. According to the intervention manager, government needs to evolve a systemic approach that will guarantee increased access to finan...

 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...

The FAO Food Price Index rose notably in January, led by sugar and cereals, even as global markets remain well supplied. The FAO Food Price Index averaged 173.8 percent in January, its highest value in almost two years, marking a 2.1 percent increase from its revised December value and 16.4 percent above its 2016 January level. The FAO Sugar Price Index surged 9.9 percent in the month, driven by expectations of protracted supply tightness in Brazil, India and Thailand. The FAO Cereal Price Index rose 3.4 percent from December to a six-month high, with wheat, maize and rice values all increasing. Wheat markets reacted to unfavourable weather conditions hampering this season's crops as well as reduced plantings in the United States of America, while higher maize prices mostly reflected strong demand and uncertain crop prospects across South America. International prices of rice also rose, in part due to India's ongoing state procurement programme, reducing the quantit...

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID)  launched two new agribusiness partnerships with Chi Farms and Niji Foods. The event highlighted USAID’s agricultural and private sector strategy using partnerships with government, local organizations and private industry to develop the Nigerian agriculture sector. Representatives from the federal government attended the event to highlight their commitment to this partnership that is helping to advance agriculture and trade in Nigeria. Through these partnerships, USAID aims to address development and business challenges to agricultural inputs and mechanization by providing quality technical advisory services and expanded market opportunities for smallholder farmers. These partnerships will also capitalize on the untapped potential of smallholder farmers and small processors to help grow agribusinesses, create secure jobs, and boost economic growth in Nigeria. Speaking at a press conference yesterday, in Lagos, ...