By Olayinka Olawale

The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), has called for the adoption of policies that would support all-year-round farming to mitigate hunger and malnutrition in the country.

AFAN’s National President, Mr Kabri Ibrahim, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Tuesday.

Ibrahim said that all-year-round farming would enable the country feed its growing population.

He said that the country would overcome issues relating to food scarcity, insufficiency and insecurity by embracing all-year-round farming.

The president who observed that the present seasonal farming was old fashioned stressed the need for sustained food production to feed the nation.

Ibrahim said that the country needed to move away from the traditional rain-fed practice to all-year-farming, adding that it would aid food security.

“Nigeria can mitigate issues related to food scarcity by practising agriculture all year round and not the dependence on rainfall that dominates the practice now.

“When you do all-year-round agriculture, you don’t have any gaps and this is what happens in some of the countries that have food security.

“If you look at some countries in Europe and the United States, as well as Brazil, they do agriculture all year round except those times when the climate will not allow.

“What they do is to produce food that will thrive in the climatic conditions prevailing at that time.

“In the middle of winter for instance, in France, you might not be able to grow corn but you can grow other things that thrive, you simply concentrate on them.

“In our environment, it is even more doable because we do not have a situation that prevents us from practising agriculture all year round,” he said.

Ibrahim said that farmers can concentrate on crops that thrives more during the harmattan and vis-a-vis the rainy season.

He called for the adoption of long-term strategies, new method and policies among the stakeholders in the private and public sector to achieve the goal.

Ibrahim listed some of the challenges mitigating all-year-round farming to include policy inconsistency, funding, poor irrigation system and lack of political will.

He also said that poor water management system posed a great threat to farming all year round.

He urged the Federal Government to improve irrigation systems, encourage mechanised farming as well as create access roads in order to increase food production and security in the country.

“We do farming when the rains come and the only thing that prevents you is the torrential rain.

“During the cold or the harmattan we experience in the North, it will still not prevent anybody from doing the dry season farming.

“The tomatoes that we use now are planted during the harmattan. There are crops that even thrive during harmattan or during the cold season, like wheat.

“Farmers can produce a lot of wheat during the cold,” he said. (NAN)

By Rita Iliya

Gov. Abubakar Bello of Niger, says his administration is committed to actualising the Bobi Grazing Reserve located along Mariga and Mashegu local government areas of the state.

Bello made this known when he visited the Bobi Grazing Reserve to inspect activities on the reserve which were being affected by the increasing cases of armed banditry in the area, saying that government would do whatever it takes to secure the place.

“Without having to give details, I can assure you that we are committed and determined to put in place high-level security measures that will safeguard both government and private sector investments here,” he said.

Bello urged the Fulani communities within the grazing reserve to embrace and key into the Ruga Settlement Programme for their socioeconomic prosperity and in the overall interest of the state.

He charged them to be vigilant and security conscious, protect all facilities and equipment in the reserve, be accommodative but cautious in harboring those ‘wicked’ people who may be out to disrupt the arrangements.

In his remarks, Malam Ardo Abubakar, Leader of the community in the Bobi Grazing Reserve, expressed optimism that the project would be a huge success.

“We have witnessed the planting and harvest of the pastures, we have also seen the reality of artificial insemination and crossbreeding.

‘We are convinced about its potentials as a lucrative and dependable business,” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the reserve, which was established by the Northern Region administration, sits on 31, 000 hectares of lush vegetation, with forest stretching several kilometers on end.

It is divided into seven blocks with about 700 households and six earth dams.

It also boasts of solar-powered boreholes and seven pasture blocks.

The reserve, which has been dormant for about six decades is now a beehive of activities.

Every section of the reserve is undergoing transformation as key investors struggle to outclass each other to grab the opportunities thrown up by the Federal Government.

Hong Kong’s food safety authority on Monday decided to suspend the import of poultry meat and products from different areas in Germany, Poland and Japan due to the bird flu outbreaks.

The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government’s Food and Environmental Hygiene Department said.

It said this was in view of notifications from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) about an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N8 avian influenza in Spree-Neiße District, the State of Brandenburg in Germany.

Also a notification from the General Veterinary Inspectorate of Poland about outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Łęczyński District, Lubelskie Region in Poland.

Another notification was from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan about an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5 avian influenza in Gifu Prefecture in Japan.

The CFS has instructed the trade department to suspend the importation of poultry meat and products, including poultry eggs, from these areas with immediate effect to protect public health in Hong Kong. (Xinhua/NAN)

By David Adeoye

The Federal Government and the South-West Governors have been urged to urgently adopt irrigation farming to overcome the projected food shortage this year.

The Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Saliu Adetunji,  and two traditional worshippers in Oyo State,  Dr Biodun Agboola and Dr Fayemi Fakayode, made the call at the installation ceremony of Fakayode as the Mogaji of Onibudo family at Oke Aremo, Yemetu, Ibadan.

Oba Adetunji, who was represented at the event by Chief Shina-Olatunji Aresa, the Mogaji of Okiti family in Ibadan, stated that “for Nigeria to avert food shortage in the new year efforts should be directed toward irrigation farming.

“This will mitigate the effects of bad weather on planting while farmers should also be protected from criminals that attack and destroy their farms.

“We should see that the time has come for us to realise that the way we practice farming here in the South-West Zone cannot sustain us.

“The food shortage projection is predicated on so many reasons ranging from bad weather, insecurity and largely the poor funding from the government,’’ the Olubadan stated.

On their part, the Secretary-General, International Council for Ifa Religio, Dr Biodun Agboola and Dr Dr Fayemi Fakayode,  Secretary, Traditional Religion Worshippers Association of Nigeria, Oyo state branch,  called for collaboration among Southwest states, to ensure food sufficiency this year.

Agboola, who is also a lecturer at the Faculty of Agriculture, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile Ife, said irrigation system could bring lasting solution to the food crisis in Nigeria.

“As a famer, I have come to realise that the problem farmers encounter is lack of good facilities and infrastructure in their farms.

“And for the citizens to escape hunger we must produce more food, the South-West governors should collaborate and evolve solutions to this problem.

“They should adopt mass irrigation farming as the permanent solution to food crisis in the region,” he stated.

Fakayode added:  “We have Ikere Gorge Dam at Iseyin in Oyo state, Erelu Water Works, Asejire in Osun and others which can be used to assist farming settlements along these areas.” (NAN)