By Tosin Kolade/ Bukola Adewumi

The Nigeria Women for Agricultural Progressive and Development Initiative (NWAPDI) has announced its decision to dissociate from the All Farmers’ Association of Nigeria (AFAN) due to the exclusion of its members.

Ms. Omolara Svensson, the National Coordinator and President of NWAPDI, in a press conference on Tuesday, said this move was necessary following the ongoing leadership tussles within the organisation.

She stated that during her tenure as Head of Women in Agriculture for the Oyo State AFAN chapter, she made several efforts to address these issues.

“After careful consideration and deliberation, we have decided to part ways with AFAN.

“However, despite my initiatives, the persistent lack of meaningful inclusion and recognition of women within AFAN undermined NWAPDI’s core objectives.”

According to her, the continuous leadership disputes within AFAN created an unstable and counterproductive environment, making effective collaboration increasingly challenging.

She noted that NWAPDI, established as Nigeria’s foremost organisation exclusively for women in the agricultural sector, aims to empower and support women across production, processing, trade, and commerce.

She also emphasised that the organisation focuses on ensuring that women have a significant and influential role in shaping Nigeria’s agricultural landscape.

“By standing independently, we believe we can more effectively advocate for the interests of women farmers and drive meaningful change within the agricultural sector,” she said.

“NWAPDI will continue its efforts to support and uplift women in agriculture through various programs, initiatives, and advocacy efforts, aiming to contribute to the sustainable development of Nigeria’s agricultural industry.”

Svensson stated that NWAPDI remains committed to its mission of fostering a robust and inclusive agricultural sector where women play a leading and decisive role.

On improving the lives of rural women farmers, the national coordinator mentioned significant strides made in empowering women in Katsina and other geopolitical zones by providing essential resources.

“In Lagos, where aqua farming is prevalent, the organisation supplied women with vegetable seedlings, fish feed, and chicken feed.

“Similar initiatives have been carried out in Kwara State, and plans are underway to reach Ekiti and Osun States soon.

“Additionally, empowering women farmers have been active in Imo State and are preparing to launch programs in Kogi State.

“A key initiative includes a safety training program scheduled for tomorrow, in collaboration with other associations.

“This training aims to address the financial losses women face due to inadequate safety measures on farms and in processing plants.”

She commended the First Lady’s efforts in promoting small home gardens, saying this had encouraged both youths and mothers to engage in home gardening, regardless of their professional backgrounds.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that AFAN has seen series of crises in the past due to leadership tussle involving some members of the board of trustees, leading to the emergence of factions. (NAN) www.nannews.ng

Edited by Ekemini Ladejobi

By Bukola Adewumi

Solidaridad and IDH, a Netherlands funded programme, has unveiled phase two of the National Initiative for Sustainable and Climate Smart Oil Palm Smallholders (NISCOPS).

NISCOPS, which aims to improve the production of oil palm while fostering a climate friendly activity, targets 12,000 oil palm farmers in its phase 2.

Wouter Plomp, the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Nigeria, spoke with journalists at the unveiling of the project on Tuesday in Abuja.

He said that unveiling of the second phase was his country’s commitment to sustaining a more environment-friendly.

Plomp said it would also create a social future of the palm oil production in Nigeria.

“You know very well that palm oil is vital for Nigeria’s economy; so is the future of Nigeria’s precious forests and so is equitability in the division of the gains of the palm oil sector.

“So, what we aim to achieve by this project is to have a more sustainable future and a more equitable future for the palm oil production in Nigeria,’’ he said.

The Head of Programmes, Solidaridad in West Africa, Nathaniel Boateng, who represented the Regional Director of Solidaridad, Isaac Gyamfi, said the main focus of the unveiling was to ensure the improvement oil palm within the region.

According to him, it will help the region to feed itself and meet the demand of oil palm; so that the farmers are able to cultivate in a way that does not harm the environment.

“There is the notion that oil palm contributes a lot to deforestation; so, we seek to encourage farmers to invest more within the landscape that they are in to diversify and also enrich their production.

“So, that they get more from what they have instead of expanding into other landscapes or into the forest areas.’’

Boateng explained that the first phase was a test case to prove that indeed if farmers were to intensify, if they were to do best management practices, they could produce more.

“It was a test case with a few farmers; in phase two, we are going to expand to other farmers; we are going to scale and consolidate the results that we have.

“But most importantly is to look for opportunities to also unlock climate finance for the farmers; so, that is a new area that we want to venture in on the NISCOPS phase two.

“So, farmers are able to intensify; do best management practices to reduce emissions and mitigate carbon emissions so that they can unlock climate finance,’’ he said.

The Chairman Executive Board of IDH, Daan Wensing, said IDH was working around the globe to bring the power of the private sector to a sustainable development goal in terms of innovation power and the investment it could make.

He said IDH was in partnership with Solidaridad, the government, public private partnership, farmers and civil societies.

The Programme Manager, Solidaridad, Kene Onukwube, said the second phase of NISCOPS consolidated the achievement of the first phase.

“We have been able to up the yield for oil palm up to 115 tons per hectare and that is a huge gap between where it was before.

“So, we think that best management practices that are contributing to that should be replicated across more locations,” he said.

He further explained that the second phase entailed building the bridge for local and international markets.

Onukwube said from the first phase of NISCOPS, it was realised that very little was understood about issues around the sustainability standards that were the hallmark for the international market.

“So, we want to be able to use this second phase to broaden that perspective; help farmers and communities to begin to take responsibility for the sustainability of their forests, for the forest landscapes vis-a-vis the oil palm landscape.

“The farmers we are going to work with now, we are looking at 12,000 and more,’’ he said.(NAN) (www.nannews.ng).

Edited by Chijioke Okoronkwo

By Suleiman Shehu

An NGO, Agricultural Social Entrepreneurship Foundation (ASEF), has said that no fewer than 40,000 Nigerian youths will be trained for job opportunities in its ‘Waste4Meal’ farming project.

The ASEF President, Mr Oluwole Azeez, made this known while signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with New Generation Nutrition (NGN) and FIDAS African, at International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, on Friday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Waste4Meal is the conversion of wastes into useable agricultural products, such as fertilisers, animal feeds and oil.

Azeez said that 40,000 Nigerians and no fewer than 100,000 African youths and women would be trained on Black Soldier Fly farming and waste aggregation recyclination, with the aim of making them earn a living, promote food security and reduce poverty.

He said that the trainees would be divided into clusters that would spread across all the states in Nigeria and other Africa countries like Ghana, South Africa, Liberia, Uganda and Cameroon.

“The cluster persons will create farm for them and work with investors that will bring money into the project for them.

“I believe that Nigeria can feed itself if the citizenry taps into the project,” he said.

Azeez said that Nigeria, being the biggest importer of animal feeds in Africa, imported the protein components of animal feeds which could be generated locally, using food waste and other organic waste and black soldier fly.

“The banana peels, remnant of amala and rice can be converted into fertiliser and protein that fishes and pigs can eat and as well converted into oil we use in frying meat,” Azeez said.

Also speaking, the ASEF Chief Executive Officer, Mrs Rosemary Adebayo, said the objective of the MoU was to create awareness and empowerment in inset farming industry and introduce Africans into the waste4meal project.

“We intend to promote alternative sources of protein for farmers to reduce the difficulty they face in the agricultural sector in Nigeria and reduce the amount spent on animal feeds.

“Waste4meal project is about training people the whole value-chain of the black soldier fly profitability,” she said.

In her remarks, the FIDAS Africa Executive Director, Mrs Omolola Elsie, said that the organisation, being a decentralised online training platform focusing on agriculture, would ensure the success of the training.

Elsie said that her platform would be used to implement all the training component of the project.

Also speaking, the representative of NGN, Mr John Olabisi, said that the project would address the problem of food and livestock feed insufficiency in Nigeria.

In his own contribution, Dr Debo Akande, Director of Business Incubation Platform (BIP), IITA, and Executive Adviser to Oyo State Governor on Agricbusiness, commended the project organisers.

Akande, represented by the IITA Head of Social and Corporate Governance, Mr Wale Oladokun, said that it was a thing of joy for people to be trained and be made to turn the outcome of such training into profitable ways. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Remi Koleoso/Wale Sadeeq

By Uche Bibilari

Mr Innocent Ajaefobi, Director of the FCT Agricultural Development Project (ADP), has appealed to all levels of government to provide timely agricultural inputs to farmers to ensure a constant supply of farm products.

Ajaefobi made the appeal during the Monthly Technology Review Meeting (MTRM) and Fortnightly Training (FNT) for agricultural extension workers and subject matter specialists (SMSs) in the FCT, held on Monday in Gwagwalada.

He stated that the training was approved by the Mandate Secretary, Agriculture and Rural Development Secretariat (ARDS), Malam Suleiman Kolo, and designed to equip extension workers at the village level with the latest agricultural production techniques.

He explained that agricultural production is subsidised worldwide and emphasised that all levels of government in Nigeria should consistently do the same.

“The purpose of the training is to ensure food security in the FCT. We invited specialists in various aspects of agriculture to train our extension staff.

“These extension workers will then teach local farmers, demonstrating techniques on their farms for adoption.

If farmers adopt these techniques, it will lead to increased production, value addition to farm produce, wealth creation, and income generation for farmers and the general FCT populace.”

He urged all participants to view the training as an opportunity to refresh their knowledge, listen to trainers, and equip themselves.

Dr Omole Olateju, Head of Extension Services at FCT ADP, said the training serves as a forum for scientists and experts to teach ADP subject matter specialists about developments in agriculture.

Olateju noted the dynamic nature of agriculture and the need to stay updated on new production methods.

He explained that specialists would train ADP subject matter specialists, who would then train extension workers to transmit the information to farmers.

These extension workers, he said would also gather information from farmers about their problems and bring it back to scientists to find solutions.

Olateju noted that since the training commenced, there had been significant improvements in farmers’ productivity and approaches to farming systems.

“The quantity of food produced in the country is insufficient to meet our needs, let alone for export; we are far from food security.

“However, with this programme, we have seen improvements in farmers’ production, the training covers crop production, fishery, animal production, and more,” Olateju said.

He added that the future of agriculture lies in the hands of smallholder farmers, who produce 70 per cent of the nation’s food.

Mr Solomon Idowu, Head of Technical Services at FCT ADP, said the training spans the six Area Councils and, when relayed to farmers, would help improve their productivity, put food on their tables, money in their pockets, and empower their livelihoods.

One participant, Mrs Dorcas Idowu, Zonal Extension Officer for Gwagwalada, noted that the training was timely and necessary to equip them with the knowledge to teach farmers.

She urged other participants to use the knowledge gained from the training to enhance the farming practices of local farmers.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that three papers were presented on enhancing farming prosperity with tela maize cultivation, the production and management of sheep and goats (small ruminants), fish stocking and routine fish management.

The participants were extensively trained on these topics to subsequently train the farmers. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Gregory Maduakalom/Abiemwense Moru

By Bukola Adewumi

The Agricultural Transformation Agenda Support Programme (ATASP-1) says it will train no fewer than 200 youths from seven states in agribusiness incubation along the value chains of rice, cassava and sorghum.

The training is in partnership with ABOMAX, a firm that provides services in agribusiness, among others.

Ms Heather Akanni, Project Manager, Youth in Agribusiness Incubation, announced this at the inauguration of the workshop on Youth in Agribusiness Incubation on Tuesday in Abuja.

Akanni said the programme was aimed at contributing to the Renewed Hope Agenda on food security, food safety through improved and gender friendly technology.

She said the strategy was to catch youths and get them involved in agriculture with the hope of monitoring and linking them with relevant institutions and organisations in scaling up food production.

According to her, the programme will deliver three mandate value chains of cassava, Sorghum and rice across the four zones of Adani-Omor, Bida Badeggi, Kano – jigawa and kebbi – Sokoto.

“The incubatees would be taken through various modules in line with the value chains to effect inter personal relationship among the young agribusiness partners,’’ she said.

Dr Adekunle Alege, National Agribusiness Specialist, ATASP-1, said the strategy was to promote the growth of self-reliant small-scale business model among incubators.

He said the programme’s core mandate crops included rice, cassava and sorghum, adding that the training was to re-orientate youths about agriculture.

Alege said that the Federal Government unveiled the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) to attract private sector investment in agriculture and reduce post-harvest losses.

“Also to add value to local agricultural produce, develop rural infrastructure and enhance access of farmers and other value chain actors to financial services and markets,’’ he said.

The National Project Coordinator, ATASP – 1, Dr Muhammad Arabi, said the beneficiaries would undergo two weeks training where they would be trained to become entrepreneurs.

He said the beneficiaries would acquire capacity in production, processing and also to increase their income generation and reduce unemployment in the country.

Dr Rotimi Matthew, Director General, Chartered Institute of Mentoring and Coaching Nigeria (CIMCN), said the objective of the training was to enhance food and nutrition security, alleviate poverty, as well as creating employment and wealth.

He said the training would help the beneficiaries get access to financial services and create a bond among the incubators.

Dr Bukar Musa, the Director, Project Coordinating Unit of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS), said the aim of the programme was to unlock jobs for youths.

He said the ATA was set to create over 3.5 million jobs along the value chains of priority agricultural commodities of rice, cassava, livestock, oil palm etc.

Musa appealed to the beneficiaries to make good use of the opportunity, saying it would help them be employers of labour. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng).

Edited by Chijioke Okoronkwo

By Philip Yatai

The Agriculture and Rural Development Secretariat, FCT Administration has trained agricultural field officers to provide efficient services to farmers, towards achieving bumper harvest in the territory.

The Mandate Secretary of the secretariat, Mr Lawan Geidam, said at the training in Abuja on Friday, that the training was designed to improve the capacity of the officers to provide technical support to farmers.

Geidam, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Mrs Grace Adayilo, said that the training tagged, “Prevention, Identification, Diagnosis, and Management of Common Crop Diseases,” would equally cut post-harvest losses.

He explained that a significant number of famers recorded huge losses due to ignorance of good agricultural practices in mitigating crop diseases, pest infestation and poor storage management techniques.

He urged the field officer to build the needed knowledge and capacity to be able to teach farmers how to combat crop diseases that impede productivity.

The mandate secretary reassured farmers of FCT Administration’s commitment to support farmers with a view to boost agricultural production.

“The Minister of FCT, Mr Nyesom Wike, and the Minister of State, FCT, Dr Mariya Mahmoud are taking proactive steps towards achieving the collective aspiration for food and nutrition security for all residents of FCT,” he said.

The Permanent Secretary also highlighted the importance of integrating traditional methods with modern agricultural practices to get the best of the planting season.

Adayilo said that the integration was necessary considering the difficulties small-scale farmers face in accessing advanced agricultural technologies.

She assured the farmers of the full support of the Agriculture Development Project, adding that the project was a grassroots initiative to ensure that government programmes achieved the desired impact.

Mr Ofili Beneath, acting Director, Department of Agricultural Services, said that the department would continue to engage farmers across the 62 wards of the FCT and provide them with critical information.

Ofili expressed confidence that the training would strengthen knowledge-based agricultural practices and bring prosperity to the FCT farmers. (NAN)

Edited by Abiemwense Moru

By Abigael Joshua

PULA Advisors AG in partnership with Leadway Assurance Company Limited, Heifer International, and AFEX Commodity Exchange on Thursday began payment of N110 million agricultural insurance claims to Nigerian farmers.

In a statement in Abuja by Dr Mike Enahoro, country commercial manager, PULA Advisors AG, it is stated that the ceremony kick-started the 2023 Wet Season Insurance Claims Pay-out Ceremony facilitated by PULA.

The statement announced that the insurance payout forms the basis of the “Naija Unlock Signature Program” coordinated by Heifer in conjunction with AFEX and her network of Rice, Maize, Soya and Ginger smallholder farmers.

Enahoro said the farmers are spread across Niger, Kaduna, Jigawa, Plateau, Kebbi and Jigawa States.

He added that Leadway Assurance, being the lead insurer of the programme is to make the claims payout of N110 million to AFEX.

Enahoro said this is on behalf of Ginger farmers in Kaduna State who suffered 100 per cent harvest loss due to the outbreak of the Ginger Blight disease.

He added that a total of 1,138 Ginger farmers were verified for compensation for payouts in respect of their harvest losses.

Enahoro says the payout ceremony has been made possible also because of the catalytic role played by Heifer International.

He says that Heifer is responsible for pre-financing the insurance premiums of farmers participating under the AFEX 2023 wet season farming programme at the start of the planting season.

Enahoro asserts that the Heifer pre-financing model allows for farmers to be insured during the farming season but deferred their payment for insurance services post-harvest when they are financially buoyant to pay for it.

He says the payout bears testimony to the impact of mitigating against agricultural risks that are currently experienced by the Nigerian smallholder farmers.

The PULA executive said losses which were due to pests, diseases, climate change, and other critical factors had necessitated the inclusion of insurance in the farming programme.

Enahoro said this is in order to protect farmers’ investments against crop or harvest failures emanating from climate change perils.

“The partnership has been actively involved in ensuring that climate-induced challenges in the agricultural sector are tackled.

“This is in order to ensure that smallholder farmers’ confidence is bolstered, food production guaranteed and food systems resilience is mainstreamed in the attempt to support the government’s ongoing drive to address food security challenges.

“We are able to achieve this by ensuring that farmers’ claims are verified, catalogued and processed expeditiously anytime they suffer from harvest losses,” he said.

PULA Advisors, a leader in agricultural insurance innovation, streamlined the claims assessment and payout process, ensuring transparency and efficiency in delivering financial support to aggrieved farmers that suffered losses.

Heifer Project International, a global non-for-profit organisation, pre-financed the insurance premiums for the farmers at the beginning of the season, providing a post-harvest repayment option.

Leadway Assurance Company Limited, with over 50 years’ experience in protecting livelihoods through comprehensive insurance coverages has once again demonstrated its competence in servicing farmers’ claims.

By so doing, Leadway is providing climate resilience and sustainability for smallholder farmers’ businesses thereby contributing to the food security of the nation.

AFEX, one of the largest commodity players in Nigeria, works with an expansive network of farmers and processors, providing them with the capital, infrastructure and market access needed, to support food productivity.

AFEX’s innovative value-chain financing model leverages on insurance to protect their investments and indemnify their raw-material agricultural supply chain against crop losses.

The partnership has enjoined its collective aspiration towards expanding this engagement and ensuring that more Nigerian smallholder farmers are registered and insured during the 2024 farming season.

Farmers and investors involved in the production value chains are therefore advised to take advantage of this partnership and have their projects insured against climatic and other risks during the 2024 wet season and beyond. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Razak Owolabi