By Olayinka Olawale

President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday inaugurated a 32-metric tonnes per hour Lagos Rice Mill in Imota, Ikorodu, a suburb of Lagos, to support rice revolution in Nigeria.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Lagos Rice Mill, Imota, is a 2 x 16 metric tonnes per hour mill standing on an area of 8.5 hectares of land.

The project has an annual paddy requirement of over 240,000 metric tonnes to produce 2.5 million bags of 50kg rice per annum.

Buhari, who landed in Imota around 5:30 p.m. took a brief tour of the mill in company of Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos state.

Others included Sen. Tokunbo Abiru, Mr Colinious Ojelabi, Chairman, All Progressives Congress (APC), Lagos state and Mr Ganiyu Solomon, APC Presidential Campaign Committee Chairman, Lagos state.

Other dignitaries who accompanied the president included Ms Abisola Olusanya, Commissioner for Agriculture; Dr Rotimi Fashola, Special Adviser to the governor on Rice Initiative; Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, NiDCOM boss and traditional rulers Jimi Benson and Oba Gbolahan Lawal.

The president unveiled the rice and observed a brief display of how it was being produced and packaged.

Speaking at the event, Sanwo-Olu said that Lagos state was ready to support Buhari’s rice revolution.

According to him, the Lagos Imota Rice Mill is part of President Muhammadu Buhari’s agricultural revolution.

“When he started his government, he said Nigeria must grow what they eat and they should eat what they grow.

“We are happy that Lagos is the testament for that. With 2.8 million bags of 50kg rice per annum, Lagos is ready to support rice and food revolution in Nigeria.

“The units rice mill will create close to 250,000 direct and indirect jobs. We want to thank the local communities of Imota in Ikorodu. We thank you all for waiting patiently.

“Mr president is indeed excited that we have stated another first in Nigeria and in sub-Saharan Africa,” he said.

Also speaking, Olusanya said that the mill would produce wholesome rice to Lagos residents at affordable price.

Also, Fashola said the mill would perform cleaning, boiling, drying, sorting, hauling, polishing and bagging of rice using digital, automated and latest machine in the world.

In his contribution, Dr Femi Oke, Chairman, All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Lagos State and South-West Zone, commended the state government for the laudable initiative.

Oke said that farmers would continue to support the mill by providing more paddy.

Mr Raphael Hunsa, the Chairman of Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria, Lagos State chapter, said the new rice mill would encourage farmers to produce more in the state.

Hunsa urged the state government to continue to empower farmers with implements in order to increase paddy production to feed the mill.

“This project is very wonderful, it is a thing of joy to us as rice farmers in Lagos. I am happy that such a thing is happening in Lagos,” he said.

NAN reports that state government officials, traditional rulers, members of AFAN, Ogbonge Women Farmers Association, Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria and secondary school students are among the dignitaries who graced the occasion. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Chinyere Bassey/Chinyere Joel-Nwokeoma

Mr Daniel Alozie, LIFE-ND State Project Accountant, addressing participants at the event in Umuahia on Friday

By Leonard Okachie

The Abia State Project Coordinating Office of the Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises for Niger Delta (LIFE-ND) has trained some farmers on keeping basic accounting records.

Participants in the one-day training at the project’s headquarters in Umuahia on Friday were farmers who engage in the production, processing and marketing of the selected commodities in their communities.

The beneficiaries consisted of the project’s trainers, otherwise known as incubators, and the executives of the Commodity Apex Development Association (CADA) across the communities of the project’s implementation.

The State Project Accountant, Mr Daniel Alozie, said that it is important to train the new incubators (trainers) who were engaged last year to take care of the project’s 900 beneficiaries.

A cross section of participants at the event 

According to him, the primary purpose is because “we discovered over time that most incubation centres did not have records to buttress their expenditures.

He explained that the incubators are people that train the project’s beneficiaries in different agricultural commodities and management.

Alozie said that they made sure that the resource persons could bring down the teaching to the level of somebody who did not pass through the four walls of higher institutions.

“At this point of our project implementation, it is necessary that we keep them abreast of what is happening with respect to the basic accounting records.

“A lot of funds have been sent to the incubators'(trainers) accounts and we keep on funding them as the project implementation progresses,” he said.

A resource person, Mr Philip Obinna, who taught them the importance of book keeping, described book keeping as the life wire of a business.

According to him, proper book keeping will help the farmer to know the financial statement, whether he or she is doing well or not.

Another resource person, Mr Lawrence Ubani, taught them “How to prepare simple cash book and bank reconciliation.”

He explained that such an important exercise would make them to keep the record of all their entries after which they reconcile it with their bank statements later.

A participant, Mrs Elizabeth Deliverer, who is the Managing Director of Delver Farms in Osisioma Local Government Area, said she benefitted a lot from the training.

“Most of us do not keep records but now I have learnt how to keep my cash, sales and purchases to move forward,” Deliverer said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that LIFE-ND is being funded by International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), in collaboration with the Federal Government and Niger Delta Development Commission as well as the Abia state government.

The project, which is in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s vision for national food security, is being implemented in the nine Niger Delta states. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Ifeyinwa Okonkwo/Vincent Obi

By Lizzy Okoji

The Government of Ukraine has expressed its readiness to establish grain hubs in Nigeria and other African countries as it donated about 25,000 tonnes of grains to Nigeria to boost bilateral ties.

Ukrainian Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food, Mr Mykola Solskyi, made this known on Tuesday in Abuja when he led a delegation that met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama.

Solskyi said that the grain from Ukraine would arrive in Nigeria in February under the initiative called ‘Grains from Ukraine’.

He said that despite the war with Russia, the Ukrainian food industry wanted to have closer relations with Nigeria,  adding “we are very thankful to you that your country is ready to develop the relations“.

“Despite all the events going on in the world our countries are ready to develop this cooperation.

“The Ukrainian government and Ukrainian president are ready to pay a lot of attention to this development. We want to have regular contacts every year not only by our agriculture ministers but other ministers as well.

“Development of such hubs will make it possible to bring in high quality grain into your country and it will influence prices positively.

“Ukraine intends to develop two or three hubs in Africa and taking into consideration the capacity of your country, the grain hub in your country is priority number one.  If we implement it well,  it would be a practical step towards our business relations reaching a new level,” Solskyi said.

Onyeama, who empathised with Ukraine over its ongoing war with Russia, also lauded it for the grain donation, pointing out that the gesture was coming even when the country was still at war.

He thanked Ukraine for extending its support to Nigeria and other African countries despite the current situation in that country.

“Notwithstanding the situation in which your country finds itself, you are able to extend a hand of friendship not just to Nigeria but to other African countries. This demonstrates superhuman courage and we really admire your generosity and we thank you for this support,” Onyeama said.

Onyeama noted that Nigeria had long standing relations with Ukraine, lamenting that some of the victims of the war in Ukraine were the large number of Nigerian students, whose studies have been disrupted by the war.

“You have built up real specialisation in many disciplines and Nigerian students are the beneficiaries. We can continue to strengthen relations between our two countries and our two peoples.

“We will do our best at the multilateral level to bring the war to a very quick end,” Onyeama said.

Also speaking, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mohammad Abubakar said that Nigeria was willing and ready to provide the appropriate ports for the grain hub.

“We appreciate and commend you that despite the war you still found time to extend a gesture of friendship to Nigeria and also donated grains.

“I can assure you that the relations with Ukraine will improve.

“We have been having businesses with Ukraine, especially in the agriculture sector and I can say that over 30 per cent of our agricultural businesses are with Ukraine particularly in the area of wheat, fertilizer and other grains. This I can assure you will continue to improve our relations,” he said.

Fielding questions later, Abubakar said the purpose of the grain hub was to have a centre where Ukraine would be bringing grain and we would be helping other African countries.

He said the hubs would be useful in emergency situations and could also be used to donate grain to other countries.

“We are looking at the Lagos Port and also the Onne Port in Rivers.  The grain coming from Ukraine will increase the amount of grain here and the hub will eventually become a business hub with other African countries and beyond and it will help to stabilise the price,” he added.

The minister said that Ukraine had the technology and know-how to help Nigeria in wheat production, stressing that capacity building would be part of the relations which would produce a win-win situation. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Some beneficiaries at the recent Livelihoods and Nutritional Empowerment (LINE) Project Close-out and Lessons’ Dissemination event in Bauchi

A news analysis by Angela Atabo, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)

Bauchi State, just like most states in northern Nigeria, has had its share of agricultural challenges.

Although farming is one of the mainstays of the state, it is no doubt accompanied with some challenges that sometimes discourage residents from taking to farming.

These challenges according to Ahonsi include inadequate farm inputs, poor agricultural yields, food insecurity, lack of awareness of healthy food diversity for nutritional balance, malnutrition among others.

However, some organisations such as Oxfam have taken the initiative to champion agriculture revolution in the state to complement the state government’s efforts towards boosting agriculture.

Dr Vincent Ahonsi, Country Director of Oxfam Nigeria, at a recent Livelihoods and Nutritional Empowerment (LINE) Project Close-out and Lessons’ Dissemination event affirmed that Bauchi farmers face several challenges in their trade.

The event was organised by Oxfam in collaboration with the Canadian Government in Abuja.

He said with this in mind ,the Canadian Government intervened by sponsoring a 10 million dollars Livelihood and Nutritional Empowerment (LINE) project implemented by Oxfam in six local government areas(LGAs) of Bauchi State.

According to him, the project agreement was signed between the Government of Canada and Oxfam on March 21st 2016, and the implementation was carried out in Bauchi State.

The project which has been running for six years has empowered 16,598 smallholder farmers in six LGAs of Tafawa Balewa, Alkaleri, Ningi, Darazo, Shira and Gamawa with dry season farming inputs including seedlings, fertilizers and herbicides.

“Oxfam is a world-wide development organization that mobilizes the power of the people against poverty.

“In Nigeria, we also work to influence policy change in favor of the poor and most vulnerable, promoting food security, and supporting small scale farmers to improve the livelihoods of men and women in rural areas.
“We focus on meeting vulnerable people’s needs, saving lives, sustaining increased incomes for the poorest and transforming attitudes about women’s roles and rights.

“Today we are gathered here to officially close out the Government of Canada funded, Oxfam-implemented Livelihoods & Nutritional Empowerment (LINE) reviewing the lessons learnt from the project implementation”, he said.

Ahonsi said the project trained farmers on climate-smart agriculture, engaged in financial inclusion, which is setting up village savings and loans, associations and cooperatives.

He said the project provided no fewer than 1400 boreholes as well as no fewer than 700 pumping machines to facilitate dry season farming in Bauchi state.

According to him, the project is a demonstration of a robust cooperation between the governments of Canada and Nigeria, through the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, the Bauchi State Government and Oxfam.

Ahonsi therefore, said the LINE Project was implemented through local partnerships to purposely build the capacity of local stakeholders and NGOs, train small-scale farmers to improve their capacities and knowledge base; and strengthen other local value chain actors.

Ms Djifa Ahado, Head of Development Cooperation, High Commission of Canada to Nigeria, commended the project for empowering many farmers in rural areas in Bauchi State.

Ahado expressed satisfaction with the performance of the LINE project adding that it ended with very tangible results.

“In retrospect, this project was approved before Canada had launched its feminist international assistance policy. Yet all the project’s interventions were designed with women in mind, and were testing ways to reach gender equality in communities, within local government and at the state levels.

“This type of collaboration is key to the project implementation, but more importantly for the sustainability of results and impacts.

“In all projects we have here in Nigeria, this is the type of collaboration we are looking for in order to support self-reliance and continuously ensure the relevance of our projects for people, communities, local governments and states”, she said.

Mr Saleh Giade, the Permanent Secretary, Bauchi State Ministry of Budget and Planning, said that the LINE Project recorded huge successes in the selected six local government areas.

Giade said that there were plans to extend the lessons learnt from the project to other local governments in the state.

Some beneficiaries of the project expressed gratitude to Canadian government and its implementing partner, Oxfam, for the privilege they enjoyed.

One of the beneficiaries, Ms Fatima Aminu, said before participating in the project she could barely make ends meet.

She said the knowledge and empowerment she received she was able to engage in dry season farming through which she made some money.

She said Oxfam gave them a pumping machine for irrigation and her farm had more yield, unlike during the wet season farming.

“Oxfam gave us economic trees to plant which is another way of fighting desertification, we were given seeds which we have been replicating, and we were also linked to where we can buy fertilizer at a cheaper rate’’, she said.

Ms Hajaratu Pisagih, a partner in the Women Empowerment Initiative Bauchi state, said the project touched the lives of many women in the state.

Pisagih said prior to the project, many women were marginalised, however, the project made it possible for women to participate in decision-making and have farms.

She said this has increased productivity and brought a lot of economic resources to their families.

“We also introduced to a savings scheme where we save money, a woman who has never held N5000 of her own got about N300, 000 after the savings and it has put smiles on their families and the communities”, she said. (NANFeatures)

**If used please credit the writer and News Agency of Nigeria.