By Martha Agas

The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) has begun distribution of inputs to farmer cooperative societies to accelerate potato production in four local government areas of Plateau.

The benefiting farmer groups drawn from Bokkos, Mangu, Jos South and Barkin-Ladi LGAs each received 12 litres of liquid fertilisers and two knap sack sprayers, respectively.

The NEPC distributed the items to the farmers, on Thursday in Jos, during the third quarter meeting of the State Committee on Export Promotion in Plateau (SCEP).

Speaking while presenting the items to the beneficiaries, the state Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Mr Musa Haruna said the gesture was to boost production.

He urged them to ensure effective utilisation of the items as they were expected to play critical roles in upscaling potato production in their respective communities.

The commissioner said the Plateau government under the stewardship of Governor Caleb Mutfwang was committed towards repositioning the agricultural sector to boost its revenue base.

He said the state government had procured more than 200 trucks of fertilisers for distribution to the farmers across the 17 LGAs to facilitate dry season farming.

Haruna reiterated the government commitment to create conducive environment for its economy to thrive and discourage the over dependency of white collar jobs among the youths.

In his remarks, NEPC’s Regional Coordinator, North Central Zone, Mr Samson Idowu said that the gesture was part of measures to help potato farmers navigate the challenges affecting the sector.

Idowu noted that potatoe farmers were being confronted with challenges of accessing seedlings, farm machineries, chemicals for disease control, in addition to high inflation rate.

He said that NEPC would provide more interventions as it gets more funding, to enable Plateau boost potatoe production as its One State One Product (OSOP) for export to promote the non oil sector.

“And as we have more funding opportunities, there are still other areas that we want to intervene such as in seedlings, farm machinery,” he said.

He said the SCEP quarterly meeting was organised for key stakeholders of OSOP campaign, to discuss on how to harness the comparative advantage of of potatoe and products of horticulture.

According to him, there are nine LGAs producing potatoe and has the potentials of cultivating the produce all the year round in the state.

Also speaking, the Acting Chairman, Potato Producers in the state, Mr Isaac Bawah said that potato has high yield potential of about 60 tonnes per hectre, lamenting that farmers were recording between six to seven tonnes per hectre due to difficulties in production.

Bawah said that they need inputs such as fungicides to address diseases associated with potato and also urged government to facilitate mechanised farming to boost their production.

One of the beneficiaries, Mrs Sarah Kwarpo from Jos South lauded the NEPC for the intervention and assured them that they would put it to good use. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

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Edited by Rabiu Sani-Ali

By Aderogba George

The Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, has advised parents to live up to their responsibilities of raising their children well for the good of the society.

The minister made the call in Abuja on Thursday at the inauguration of a document titled: “Parenting for Peace (P4P): Prevention of Violent Extremism (PVE) Training of Trainers’ (ToT) guide.”

The event is organised by Mercy Corps, a frontline international organisation in over 40 countries, under the project Community Initiative to Promote Peace.

The event is supported by the United States Agency for International Development.

She said that it was the duty of parents to mould the children from the age of six months to ensure they grow to be responsible citizens.

According to him, good parenting will help to reduce insecurity in the society.

Kennedy-Ohanenye pointed out that 80 per cent of children presently having problems are due to lack of good trainings from their parents.

“Do well in training your child in the right way, pampering a child shows you are advocating for him or her to do some certain things, you have to be in control of your child.

“I usually carry out drug test on my children when they were growing, parents should be ashamed of themselves when a child is going the wrong way,” she said.

The minister also advised that parents should be cautious on the kind of behaviour they display before their children, saying, ”children learn very fast from the behaviours of their parents”.

She said that the way a woman lives with her husband at home would determine how the children would grow to live.

Mr David Gatare, Chief of Party, CIPP, said that Mercy Corps was proud to be working in protracted crisis areas to cushion conflict and economic shocks while providing humanitarian assistance as well as build resilient communities.

Garare said that in the past five years, over three million people had been impacted through the organisation’s peace building, governance and conflict resolution initiatives, education, financial inclusion and environmental sustainability.

He said that the organisation was driven by the vision of a Nigeria where all citizens, including young women and men are empowered, engaged, resilient and productive.

“At Mercy Corps, our work is on gender, peace and security; it focuses on addressing and mitigating gender dynamics that perpetuated and exacerbate conflict while including diverse group and members of the society.

“We constructively engage government, CSOs, private sector and community institutions, especially religious and traditional leaders as well as work side by side with grassroot women, men, and youth to promote a safe diverse, inclusive and peaceful communities,” he said.

Mrs Blessing Amadi, the Deputy Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Women Affairs and Social Development, also said that parents should create time for discussions with their children.

According to her, having time with the children, listening and giving them advice form part of good parenting, which parents should imbibe.

She called on parents to apply disciplinary measures in their homes to teach the children how to be responsible and to know the consequences of all actions whether good or bad.

Amadi said that as parents, there is the need to educate the children by getting involved in their assignments and guiding them to know the rudiments of education.

She also said that parents should be concerned with the security of their children at home and in school as well as teach them the dangers of random movements without authorisation.

”The children should also be guided on the responsible use of technology devices,” she added.

Also, Mr Idris Mohammed, the Acting Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Women Affairs appreciated all stakeholders for their opinion on gender issues and for creating time to attend the event.

Mohammed said that the presence of the stakeholders had further confirmed their relentless commitment to ensuring the general wellbeing and peaceful co-existence of Nigeria as a country. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Chinyere Bassey/Julius Toba-Jegede