By Doris Esa

The Federal Government has inaugurated the 6th Council of the Nigerian Institute of Animal Science (NIAS).

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that NIAS is the regulatory agency of the ministry of Agriculture and Food Security on Animal Husbandry.

The Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Aliyu Abdullahi, while inaugurating the council on Wednesday in Abuja, urged them to bring their experience and expertise to bear towards actualising food and nutrition security.

He expressed confidence that the institute through the guidance of the council would provide positive short and long term solutions to build resilience and sustainability across the livestock value chain.

The minister said that livestock in Nigeria had made tremendous progress and grown into an organised industry, which had contributed significantly to the country’s agricultural Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

He called on NIAS, as a critical stakeholder, to bring its regulatory prowess to forefront, while maintaining highest standards.

Abdullahi said the administration of President Bola Tinubu was committed to having programmes that would ensure that the livestock production sector played a critical role in the country’s development.

“Livestock production across all the value chains remains a significant tool for industrialisation of our economy and ensuring sustainable and nutrition security.

Also speaking, the President of NIAS, Prof. Baba Abubakar, said the inauguration of the council by the minister demonstrated his level of commitment to the activities of the institute.

Abubakar said that the institute had established 18 states and zonal offices across the country.

He appreciated the hard work, passion and dedication of the institute founding fathers and other members for their efforts to ensure that NIAS progressed.

Abubakar assured the minister of the council’s commitment in supporting the government towards achieving national food nutrition security.

The president also called for further amendment of the NIAS Act.

NAN reports that the council comprised of 29 statutory members who will serve for a tenure of three years in line with the NIAS Act. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

=========
Edited by Joseph Edeh

By EricJames Ochigbo

A coalition of foreign and Nigeria based agro companies led by Shine Bridge Incorporated has indicated interest to partner with the Federal Government on large scale commercial cassava processing and food manufacturing.

Shine Bridge is a U.S.-based agricultural policy think-tank and food technology transfer company.

Dr Tony Bello, Chairman, Shine Bridge, said at a roundtable with the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Aliyu Abdullahi, on Wednesday in Abuja.

Bello, who is also the Founder of Shine Bridge, said that cassava had the potential to provide food, forex, and transform  economy of the country.

He said there was a large international market for cassava products as the U.S. alone imported about 80,000 tonnes of processed cassava products.

According to him, most of the cassava import into the U.S. comes from Thailand, Costa Rica, Vietnam and China.

He said that Nigeria was the largest producer of cassava and there was no reason why Nigeria should not control the lion share of that market.

Bello said that the target of the coalition was to boost processing capacity of partner companies in Nigeria, and to export 50,000 tonnes of high-quality cassava flour and food grade cassava starch at 500 dollars per tonne.

The chairman said that working with small and medium enterprises, the coalition sought to export at least 3,000 tonnes of high cassava flour and starch by 2024, which would be increased to 5,000 tonnes by 2025 and 10,000 tonnes by 2026.

“However, we cannot create the export market or feed our people unless we transform the cassava into higher value products.

“So, what we have been able to do in the last five years is to use cassava to make savoury snacks like pringles, to make shawarma, pizza, salad dresses, instant tapioca flakes, fortified baby food, among others.

“We have critical mass of products to help Nigeria grow its cassava sector, let’s stick together and work together.

“Enough of the going round and around on cassava bread; it is time for us to work together as talented Nigerians, we have the brain power, the science and the food manufacturing solutions.

“We need the ministry to work with our operational partners in Nigeria,” he said.

Bello said the coalition would require government intervention on access to cassava, price stability, coordination of cassava producing states and to put in word for them before the African Development Bank.

A member of the delegation, Mr Bassey Ekpo, a food manufacturing executive, assured of the quality of products and their accessibility in the international market.

Ekpo said he would be going round the country to inspect and assess facilities on ground and to help bring them up to global standard where they were lacking.

He said that cassava could generate 20 to 30 dollars while retaining the aspect used in garri production.

“We need partners that will not get in the way of us proving how our country can do what Thailand, Malaysia and others have done,” he said.

Responding, the minister said there was no better time for such an investment than when Nigeria is trying to overcome food crisis.

He said that Nigeria produced 34 million tonnes of cassava for food use annually, consumed 28 million tonnes locally leaving a surplus of 5.7 million tonnes.

The minister said that Nigeria imported 5.8 million tonnes of wheat, stressing that the proposed cassava initiative would substitute importation, create jobs and have multiplier effect on the economy.

Abdullahi said that sustainable processing technologies that would add value to the product and develop the value chain was the only thing lacking.

He asked the coalition to undertake more feasibility study and prepare against unforeseen circumstances that might hinder implementation of the initiative.

“There is a lot of incentives; it is the right discussion, we have all that is needed to do this, it will create jobs in addition to the multiplier effects, it is huge.

“We need a powerful consensus around the subject matter so that when the train moves, it can crush whatever wants to stop it.

“So let us all put hands together, gather the required momentum and let this train take off, that is what I want to see,” he said. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Chioma Ugboma/Chijioke Okoronkwo

By Doris Esa

The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari, says climate change poses significant risks to food security by reducing crop yields and increasing food prices.

Kyari stated this at a joint news conference on Tuesday in Abuja, on Agricultural production utilisation of seasonal climate prediction by Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET).

He also said that climate change had disrupted supply chains, particularly in vulnerable regions with limited adaptive capacity.

Kyari said the importance of the Seasonal Prediction was highlighted by the vagaries of climate change world-wide.

”It is clearly the case now that the native knowledge and wisdom on which small-holder farmers often relied to cultivate their fields, are inadequate under the relentless impact of climate change.

”Accordingly, managing climate risks in the agriculture sector through climate information and early warning services are important tools.

”In other words, integrating meteorological information as part of support services to agricultural production helps reduce losses to extreme weather events,” he said.

The minister said that small-holder farmers were primary and significant players in Nigeria’s agricultural space, with rain-fed being the predominant practice.

“But rain-fed agriculture is susceptible to elements of climate change, such as flood and drought, if no concrete action is taken to adapt to erratic weather conditions,” he said.

He said that the Ministry and NIMET in 2023 commenced the implementation of cascading climate information to Cross River, Ebonyi, Kano, Oyo, Rivers, and Yobe, as well as the FCT.

Also speaking, the Director -General , NIMET, Prof. Charles Anosike, said the event would further strengthen the relationship between NIMET and the ministry.

He said that the agency would like to build on the ministry’s database of farmers to disseminate weather and climate predictions to the smallholders farmers.

Anosike said NIMET is right now using platforms like radio, National Television, social media, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC ) and different languages to integrate meteorological information to farmers.

 ”We have Ibo, Yoruba, Hausa and pidgin, now we are trying to explore SMS.

”So, building on the database of farmers is the critical elements that we want to explore moving forward,” he said.

He said food security required a consistent and deliberate efforts from all stakeholders to not just to cooperate, but to empower and equip farmers.

In a presentation, NIMET said crops were sensitive to climate change, including changes in temperature and precipitation.(NAN (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Joseph Edeh

By Nefishetu Yakubu

Edo Government has flagged-off the distribution of inputs to small-holder farmers in Edo Central Senatorial District ahead of the 2024 farming season.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that a total number of 471 farmers across the five local government areas (LGAs) in Edo central senatorial district benefited from the input distribution.

The flag-off which took place at Irrua, the administrative headquarters of Esan LGA had farmers from Esan North-East, Esan South-East, Esan West and Igueben LGAs in attendance.

NAN also reports that agricultural inputs and Assets were distributed under Edo FADAMA CARES Result Area two programme.

Inputs distributed included 9,900 bundles of cassava stem cuttings, 2,115kg of maize seeds, 1,506 litres of pre- and post-emergence herbicides, 801 bags of NPK fertilizers, 141 bags of urea, 25 multipurpose grinding machines and two tricycle carts.

Gov. Godwin Obaseki, while flagging off the exercise, said the state agricultural policies have impacted positively on farmers in Edo .

Represented by the state Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Stephen Idehenre, Obaseki noted that the initiative was aimed at supporting over 12,000 small-holder farmers across the state.

He noted that farmers in the state have been empowered with inputs, essential farm kits, vaccines and poultry feeds to weather the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In this programme, our target is to empower 4,179 farmers with farm inputs and services such as crops seeds, cassava cuttings, fertilizers, agro chemicals, fingerlings, day-old chicks, among others.

“Another 3,441 farmers are to be empowered with irrigation facilities to enhance all-year-round farming and rehabilitation of feeder roads for easy access to the farms.

“The programme is also targeting 4,875 farmers to benefit from cassava and rice milling machines, motorized sprayers, cold rooms multipurpose grinding machines, de-feathering machines and tricycles,” Obaseki said.

The governor added that the programme has built over 10 markets and provided water reticulation points, toilets and boreholes in the markets.

According the him, EDO FADAMA CARES programme has implemented over 75 per cent of its targets across the 18 local government areas.

“Today, as a follow up, the state government is empowering 471 small-holder farmers in Edo Central senatorial district with all this inputs and Assets you are seeing here.

“As a government, we will continue to ensure that we provide all the farm inputs needed to make 2024 farming season a success,” he added.

In his welcome address, the State Project Coordinator, Edward Izevbigie, said the inputs and Assets were hybrid varieties that would guarantee high yields for the farmers.

He disclosed that 160 bags of fertilizers, 1,981 bundles of cassava cuttings, 48 bags of Urea, 300 litres of herbicides and 400kg of maize seeds have been allocated to each of the five LGAs.

He also explained that 15 grinding machines and one tricycle was allocated to Igueben local government, Esan West was allocated 10 grinding machines while Esan central got one tricycle in addition to other inputs distributed.

In his remarks, the chairman of Esan Central local government, Mr John Iyoha, who thanked the governor on behalf of the farmers, promised to set up a monitoring team to ensure that the inputs were well utilized.

According to him, this is the first time the whole of Esan land is witnessing this kind of large-scale inputs distribution. It has never happened.

“We thank Gov. Godwin Obaseki for fulfilling his promises to Esan people,” he said. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

========
Edited by Vincent Obi

Survey

Government at all levels have started equipping farmers with agricultural inputs in order to facilitate this year’s wet season farming and improve yields, a News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) survey indicates.

Respondents who spoke with NAN across the country, said that such farm inputs would go a long a way in boosting food security and addressing food inflation.

Some of the stakeholders also expressed concerns on the rising cost of livestock feed and the urgent need to address the trend.

At the federal level, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari, said the ministry was taking the lead.

Kyari said that the ministry would distribute 2.15 million bags of assorted fertilisers donated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to Nigeria farmers.

He said that the fertilisers donated by CBN comprised UREA, NPK and SSP valued at over N100 billion.

“Well, we have been donated 2.15 million bags of assorted fertilisers from the CBN.

“We are in the process of taking possession of those (fertilisers).

“Hopefully, by this April, we will start the distribution of these fertilisers especially in those areas that wet season farming has begun,” he said.

Kyari also revealed that the ministry was set to receive 500 tractors assembled by the John Deere Group to improve mechanised farming, increase production, and achieve food and nutrition security.

He said that the initiative was aimed at catalysing farming activities and fortify food and nutrition security in line with President Bola Tinubu’s emergency declaration on food security.

Kyari reaffirmed the Federal Government’s commitment to improving food and nutrition security through mechanisation.

He said that the tractors would be accessible, available and affordable for small, large-scale, and cooperative farmers across the country.

In Edo, Dr Samuel Owoicho, the State Coordinator of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, said the ministry had concluded plans to distribute inputs to farmers ahead of the farming season.

Owoicho also disclosed that seeds and irrigation equipment were part of the inputs to be distributed to the farmers.

According to him, 11 local government areas of Edo have been selected to benefit from the support.

“The Federal ministry of Agriculture and Food Security will be unveiling the distribution of inputs to farmers first week of April.

“Farmers from 11 local government areas of the state have been selected already.

“Each selected farmer is to be given three bags of fertilisers at 50 per cent subsidised rate,” he said.

In Bayelsa, Mr Ebiye Kalaku, a senior official in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that the state government would soon provide farmers with inputs as support to cushion the effects of the current economic hardship in the country.

He listed the items to be distributed to farmers to include, cartons of agro chemicals, plantain suckers, bundles of cassava stem, and cartons of day old chicks.

Others were bags of poultry feeds, bags of fish feeds of different ranges, assorted edible tree crops, bags of NPK Fertilizer, packs assorted vegetable seedlings and economic trees.

In Delta, the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) said it needed government to subsidise cost of fertilisers to boost food production in the state.

The State AFAN Chairman, Mr Richard Asenime, said that farmers were also in need of services of tractors for ease of cultivating their farmlands.

“It is no longer news that prices of fertilisers and other inputs have been impacted by inflation and as such, both federal and state governments need to support farmers to produce food this year,” he said.

According to him, farmers in the state have always enjoyed government support every year.

From the North-East, the Governments of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states have reiterated their commitment to using agriculture to tackle poverty as their citizens recover from the insurgency.

In Borno, Gov. Babagana Zulum, said he had inaugurated 312 tractors and assured farmers of subsidised fertiliser.

In Adamawa, the Commissioner for Agriculture, Prof. David Jatau, said Gov. Ahmadu  Fintiri administration had approved N456m for the purchase of farm inputs to support small scale farmers for the 2024 farming season.

Jatau said that so far about 20,000 farmers had been registered for the intervention.

According to him, the support package included fertiliser, herbicides and improved seeds among others.

“A lot of changes and strategies have been put in place to support our small scale farmers this year.

“The government is introducing climate smart agriculture, which will boost production and revenue for the farmers.

“The improved seeds when planted would mature early and won’t be affected by drought or inadequate rainfall before harvest,” he said.

In Yobe, the Commissioner for Agriculture, Alhaji Ali Goneri, said the government would support 2,600 small scale farmers in the 17 local government areas of the state in the cropping season.

“We want to empower 15 farmers in each of the 178 wards in the state by providing them with a comprehensive set of agricultural inputs for crop development,” he said.

Still more, from Benue, Mr Thomas Unongo, the Director of Agricultural Services, State Ministry of Agriculture, said the ministry had made requisition on procurement of fertilisers and other farm inputs to the state’s executive council and was waiting for approval.

The director stated that procurement of fertilisers and other farm inputs involved processes that had already been initiated with the submission of memos to the council for approval.

He expressed optimism that the approvals would be out by next month.

According to him, Gov. Hyacinth Alia has a lot of interest in agriculture, and that is why he subsidised all farm inputs in 2023.

“The state government subsidised each input by 50 per cent; that is farmers paid 50 per cent while the state government paid 50 per cent,” he said.

In Plateau, Gov. Caleb Mutfwang promised to tackle insecurity to enable farmers go to their farms at all times.

He said that the current hardship in the country would only be addressed via farming.

“Let me encourage our people to go back to agriculture and as a government we will support this move.

“But there must be peace for people to farm, that is why we revived the Plateau Peace Building Agency and taken other measures that will guarantee the security of our farmers,” he said.

He said that in addition to the fertilisers, government had constructed 25 access roads from farms to markets across the 17 local government areas of the state to boost ease of movement of farm produce from the farms to the markets.

In Nasarawa, Mr Umar Dan’ Akano, Commissioner for Agriculture, said the government had  approved the clearing of 10,000 hectares of farm land at Jangwa and Agwatashi areas of Lafia and Obi Local Government Areas  for wet season farming to boost food production.

He said plan was on top gear to distribute farming inputs– fertilisers, herbicides, insecticides, seeds and seedlings to wet season farmers at subsidised rate to ensure food sufficiency.

According to the Agric Commissioner, the state government had earlier distributed 13 trucks of fertilisers alongside herbicides, insecticides, seeds, seedlings, knapsack sprayers among others at subsidised rate for dry season farmers.

On the high cost of animal feed, Aishatu Onuku, Director Animal Husbandry Services, Nasarawa State Ministry of Agriculture, said that farmers were being sensitised through extension services on the use of alternative feeds to reduce the cost.

In Kogi, the State Government said that all was set for the 2024 wet season farming toward boosting food production and security.

Mr Timothy Ojoma, the Commissioner for Agriculture, described Kogi as agrarian State feeding Nigerians with good food.

Ojoma said that Gov. Usman Ododo was a farmer friendly governor, who was very much interested in food production and security.

“We have concluded training for our enumerators for the forthcoming biometric capturing of all farmers across the state for useful data.

“We have mapped out for immediate intervention for 1, 200 hectare of land just for cassava production this year; we have done same for Palm trees and Cashew,” he said.

In Oyo State, the Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr Olasunkanmi Olaleye, said the state government had in the last three months, distributed maize and fish feeds to poultry and fish farmers.

Olaleye said that about 2,500 poultry and 1,000 fish farmers had so far benefited from the distribution.

The commissioner said that the government had procured assorted fertilisers, herbicides, maize, Soya beans and other farm inputs that would be distributed to crop farmers in early April.

He said that the beneficiaries of the government gesture did not need to be registered AFAN members but must be farmers.

The commissioner said that the state government had also earmarked lots of measures to assist farmers in order to bring down the cost of food and support farmers in the state.

“Recently the state government exonerated farmers from paying tax on farm produce in the next six months among others incentives given to farmers,” he said.

On its part, the Ogun government said it had a well-planned out programme of support for farmers in the state ahead of the 2024 planting season.

Mr Bolu Owotomo, the state Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, said the state government recently sold various inputs like fertilisers,  maize  and hybicides to farmers in the Ogun Central Senatorial District at subsidised rate.

He said farmers in the Senatorial District were made to pay only 50 per cent of the prices of the inputs that they bought at the Ogun state Agro-Economic Transformation programme.

“This programme will be replicated in the other two Senatorial Districts immediately after the Easter celebration because we have plans to empower no fewer than 2000 farmers,” he said.

In Bauchi, Mr Mohammed Salihu, Director of Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture, said the state initiated viable agriculture transformation programmes to boost productivity through comprehensive farmer support services.

Salihu said the programmes were designed to accelerate crop and livestock production, encourage farmer enterprising skills, and value addition to create market for the produce.

He said the programmes were part of strategies adopted to enhance food security, address hunger and poverty among citizens of the state.

The director said the state government constituted a committee to gather inputs and make recommendations towards addressing food insecurity in the state.

In Jagawa,  Mr Hamisu Gumel, the media aide to Gov. Umar Namadi, said the state planned to expand the scope of wheat/rice cultivation programme from 150,000 to 300,000 hectres next cropping season.

He said the programme was designed to encourage agriculture productivity, uplift livelihoods and boost state revenue base.

Namadi said the programme was being implemented in collaboration between the state, Federal Government and the African Development Bank (AfDB).

“We also prepared to go for massive cultivation of rice, currently about 105,000 farmers indicated interest this coming farming season.

“The state is expecting between 150,000 and 200,000 hectares of rice cultivation alone,” he said.

He said that the bank would support rice farmers in the state.

According to Gumel, the state government will provide inputs to the farmers at 40 per cent subsidy in the 2024 cropping season.

In Gombe, Malam Inuwa Salisu, a maize farmer, said that early distribution of fertilisers and inputs would encourage farmers to produce more and mitigate post-harvest losses.

“It is important for the state government or any stakeholders to always provide inputs in good time.

“This will help us plan because inputs are expensive and many farmers now cultivate based on available inputs not the number of hectares you have.

“If you plan to cultivate five hectares and because of funds, you were only able to cultivate three in spite of having up to eight hectares of farmlands.

“When the government distributes inputs in July, many farmers may have concluded their arrangement and may have planted their crops,” he said.

In Ebonyi, Dr Ignatius Unah, the Chairman of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Ebonyi chapter, urged the federal and state governments to step up plans to provide farm inputs for farmers in the state.

Unah noted that provision of agro inputs for farmers would go a long way to avert impending food crisis.

“Well, we are yet to have the farm inputs from the federal and state governments.”

He said that the Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Mrs Nkechinyere Iyioku, had x-rayed the good plans to assist farmers with fertiliser and other inputs.

“We believe the government of Ebonyi has the plans to boost agriculture in the state.”

On accessibility to farm inputs and fertilisers in the state, Unah said that the cost of the commodities in the market had made it difficult for them.

“We believe the government have plans to subsidise these inputs in order to overcome food security and poorest of the farmers will have the opportunity to put crops in the farm as well as access to agro chemical inputs like fertiliser among others,” he said.

In Enugu, the Commissioner for Agriculture and Agro Industrialisation, Mr Patrick Ubru, said the state would procure farm inputs and subsidise it for registered farmers in the state.

He said the office was open for farmers to register, which they did on daily basis.

According to him, the state is preparing for a pre-farming training for farmers to launch the state into new farming season and at the end of it, inputs like seedlings, fertilisers, sprayers and others will be distributed to the registered farmers.

He explained that the essence of the registration was to identify real farmers from political farmers.

“This is why we are doing validation of farmers after registration to ensure that the farm they said they have, belong to them; and during distribution, we go back to our database.

“In Enugu State, one of our major crops is cassava and we cultivated over 500 hectares of cassava for bioetheanol value chain development which Enugu State is a pilot for the project,” he said.

Ubru said there was need to encourage private individuals to establish feed mills to help push down prices.

In Lagos State, Mr Adewale Alade, Director, Agricultural Development Authority (ADA), said that the state government would unveil various aspects of urban farming to encourage residents to grow food during the raining season.

Alade said that urban farming was one the measures government was adopting during the planting season.

He said that government wanted every household to be able to cultivate one thing or the other.

He said a lot of preparation was ongoing for the raining season farming in the state.

“We are launching various aspects of urban farming where every household will be able to cultivate one thing or the other.

“The government is getting farmers prepared for the season by embarking on pre-season at the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training, Ibadan.

“We are preparing our farmers through various training on how to approach the season.”

On distribution of inputs and grains to farmers, Alade said that Lagos was working with the Federal Government to ensure the inputs got to the right beneficiaries.

“We are working with the Federal Government; we have farmers already listed to benefit from various kinds of inputs like fertilisers, seeds, pesticides and others.”

“All these are on ground while the state government is also working on its part to support farmers in various aspects too,” he said.

On the rising cost of livestock feed, an agriculture consultant and co-founder of Corporate Farmers International, Mr Akin Alabi, said that to ease the cost of livestock feed, the government needed to prioritise the subsidisation of agro-inputs.

In Akwa Ibom, Dr Offiong Offor, the Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, said that the state government had scaled up the quantity of farm inputs for distribution to farmers.

She added that more farmers would get farm inputs, depending on the crops of interest.

Offor said that the government had assisted farmers in land preparation by leasing out farm equipment at a reduced rate.

“Taking off the cost of land preparation and inputs from the farmers is a big relief, which will maximally increase production and profit margins,” she said.

Equally, in Rivers, the Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) reaffirmed the Federal Government’s commitment to food security through the National Poverty Reduction with Growth Strategy (NPRGS) programme.

The State Programme Manager,  Mr Vitalis Gbule, said that the strategy would guarantee bumper harvest in 2024 and beyond.

He said that as part of implementation of the poverty reduction strategy, the Federal Government recently distributed farm inputs to 250 verified farmers drawn from the 23 local government areas of the state.

‘’The input included seedlings, fertilisers, agro chemicals, fish feeds, poultry feeds and some hybrid poultry birds,’’ he said.

Meanwhile, the National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) said it had distributed agricultural inputs to farmers in Abia, Kebbi and Yobe.

NALDA’s Executive Secretary, Mr Paul Ikonne, said the inputs were aimed at assisting farmers to maximise crop cultivation for improved yields and increased food production.

He said that the beneficiaries in Abia and Yobe received NALDA-branded bags containing high grade fertiliser, herbicides and improved maize seeds.(NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

============
Edited by Chijioke Okoronkwo