DAU.Y TRUST
Tuesday, September 27,2011
Business/ Agric
farmers seek Gombe govt intervention
to check cotton pests THE All Fann eR Association of Nigeria (A FA N). GO"Ibe chapter, has appnlcd to th e state government to urge nll y ~ss\st colton fUlnel'S in the stale In curbing the ruco;acc of pt'S\son thdr farms. Malam Sulc 1. leri, the AFAN O lainnan In Yan13Itu/De!:a l.ocaI Govunmenl A m made th e 81'Pct'1 in an Interview with the News Ase ncy o( Nlgeria (NAN) In Gombe: ynterday. Meri laid tlu' the ramleTS needed urgent
assisbnce to tacklc t.h c m cnace to reduce! imminent lass In their yields. According to him, many rnrlllcrs havc emba rked on colton (anlling due to the encour.tgcml' nt given by Ule present admlnistr.tllon. He saId thai a lot. or them had Invested heavilyon theramubut noted that Ulcyhad }·ct to rccdvc 'any assistance: rrom the government. -I r care b not tuell, a lot or ranners wiU
ex perience 10$.$t'S bcausc: of th e danlages don e by the Insects. -Manyo r us wiU lose co nfidence again In the business because our CTOp.'! have grown but th e ins«ts are posing serio us problems to the fanns,- he said. Also commenting on the proble:m, the AFAN Chai rman in Shongom l.ocal GovernmCTlt Area, Re:v. Umar Samba. said that ramlen in his lOne were eJL:pcriencing the problem but not on a Illie scale..
He Rid thcre were indications that (:l rm ers in Ule area wou ld harvcst more crops than in the prC'\ious years. Acco rding to him, the anlictpall'd good yields Is u a result or adequa te fertiliscr distributi on to large-scaleJarm en In th e state. He furth er advised the gO\'ernme:nt to ensu re due in the di stribution or fertiliser at district, vUlage alld ward levcls., using th e tndltiona l tu lerswhom, he noted. knew the real ramle:n In their arca5. (NAN)
rroces.s
Kwaraset to develop agriculture ALHA JI Mohanu nad lsah,
lhe KWa!'a Commissioner for Agriculture WId Natural RCSOIlrc-:5, ha~ f!ikr.llro his detcnnlnnllon 10 collaborate \\ilh s\akeh·"dCB in Ille dc\'elopmcnt 01 agricultu re for rood.~urity
Isall told Ihel'!t\YSAgcncy of Nigeria
(NA;~)
111 [loli.,
on Monday lhat otrldals of !lle mjnj~,ry anc! thOSC'o(the Nigcri;u\ Ina Illh-e-Uastd RiSk Sluuing for Agricultural U:nding h..,d m !t lo d ~ ranllcrship. lic also said tim the min Istry had held a lIlC'Cting with OUcfr-dl,OkOl.ti, the Managing Director or Uoonti Ranch and Industry, EjkJong.ut ami Prime Gold rutiliSC'r, llorin, on how 10 collaborate to boo:t rood pmduction. J\ccOfu lng to him. the iniUative is an off<llOOt or the AgricullUral ' l}ansronnaUon Action Plan fur Nigaia, launched by I'l'II!fkJent Goodluck Jonathan a' a roadmap (or agricultul'al transfonnation in thc coun1ry. !-Ie urged sta keholdcrs to show il1tcrest 'uld acth-dy panidp:Jl~ in the programme. TIlc commhsioncr said that thc initiative had the poteTllial to sc,cratc more: than 500.000 1"05 by 2015 through comnttrdal agriculturt, !.\kllng Ih allhe prognn'\ll1e could be used to creatc wealth :-00 aIlmate p<ro'ttty. (NAN)
CBN seeks Ebonyi'scollaboration on agric lending programme THE Cenual. Bank o f Nigeria (C BN) has solicited thecoUabontion of the Ebony! Govemmen t on the inlplementati on o( the Nigerian Incen tive-Based Risk Sharing Agricultural Lending (N rRSAL) pmgr.unme. Mrs ObiageU Obiekwe, the Bnnch Gontrollcr or the bank in Ebony!, made the a.1l In Abaka liki. when she led a del egat io n of the bank's officiab on a couTtesy call on Gov. Martin Elec hi. Obiek ..... e noted that the ban k needs the governm ent's ass istance in the a.rea o( scnsltlsing the ci tlUlIS. es pecially (armers. on the imple men ta. tion of til e progr.tmme. -Ebony! is noted for the productio n of rice wh ich is o neo( the first tOCTOpS adopted for th e pilot schemeoflile progr.tnlmeand whIch It hu co mparntlve adv;rntage o..-er o tller 5tatcs. - N ISRAL is a holistic de- riskin g Ince ntlve based banking which gives value to the Agricultural Value Chain, input prod uceB, rarmen, agro deall!rslprocfS50n and IndUSlTial manuracturers, among others; sh~ said.
TIle bnnch co ntro ller remarked that the: progl'llnun e was pivoted on fi~'e pillars to be supported by an esti mated 500 miUion dollaf1i to be provided by the C BN. "These pillars include risk sharing (300 mi llion dollars), insunnce (acility (30 millio n dolla rs), technla l assis tance facility (60 million dollars), holistic baok r.!tlng medlanism (10 million) and bank incentives m K hanism ( 100 million doUars)," she saId. She said thai work on th e pemlanenl siteofthe banki n Abakaliki was In progress and CIpressed th e hope th at the targd dale o( November 2012 fOf iLl completion and hand o\'Cr. would be achl C'\'cd, The controller disclosed that. the Development Finance Office o( the bank bad guan nteed 121 loans valued al more than N35 mUii on to ranJlers across the state, und eT the Agricultural Credit G UanJltee Schcm~ and r~vered 88 loansvaJued at NZ I.4 million. Oblekwe 1150 claimed th at the bank had
emplo)'cd sil indigenes of Ebonyi as executive a5sbtant, clerical assbtant, drivC'r and tre:l5Ury auls tants, with the apprcrn.1or ll$ head office. Goy. Elcchi, In his respo nse, thanke.ltheb3nk (or il$ numerous contributions to the growth and devclopmC'llt orlh e state, especially its laudable programmes In the agricultural5ll!Ctor. "We are determined 10 re volulionaltse rice production In th e state to m ai nt ai n Its status as th C' leading rice prodUCing st ate in the coun try. "We arC' presenUy inaugurat ing three rice proccsslng mills across .Ule se natorial zones o r tile state, as we arc also tackli ng th e problem o r pesl$ which han11>cr th e yield of the produce. - The governm ent also intends to embark on commercial .-Ice production to create employment ror lhe state's tccming YOUUIS to reduce Incidences or crime:' he 53ld. The governor pledged the governmen t's co ntinu ed part nership with the bank to achieve its dClo'elopmentai objectives In the state. (NAN)
Kana, WIBank partner on agric development From I~hlm Mu.-..afiiglnyu.llano KANO Stategn-c rnment under a five-year World Dank a,q iSle<! proJect on commercial agriculture ha:; desig ned a project tagged Comm ercial " gricultu re Development Project (CIIOf ). The projcct !s aimed I l aSSlstlngr,artlclpatlng 5ma1l suleand medium Ka e commercia! fam lers to ICCeu improved technology, lnfras u ucture, finan ce and ou t puts m(IJI-:~It .
The Slr.ltegy orthe project Is to Improve the business environm ent ror agricul lUTe to b~co me more succcss(ul by gndually shift· ing the perception. goal and motl veoHood production away rrom subsIstence to co mm ercial rocus th at Is driven an d sustalned byprofiL During an Inspecti o n tour to the five sites where rarm access road ploJects or the CADP ate loca ted, th e state s tetrlng committee chairman or CADP, Alhaji Mukatntt1a:d B:tda:\vj uJd ((If PfoJect It
making study prosress tOW:\rds achieving Its objective, which Is to strength en agricultural productio n sys tems and racllitate IIcceSS to markel for targe led value chains among the small and medium scale commerda i farm ers. Badawl expressed the co mmittcc's co nceTn ovc r th e le\'eI or co mmibnent towards com pletio n of th e p rojects In time, because or iLl positive relatio nshIps wit h agricult ural productivity and growth ,
Tht Chatrmatllfho Is Ilf~o the Perm.·
nen t Secretary min istry of Agriculture and mineral resou rces n id the project is based on val ue chaln ;lpproac h and Ir successfull y Impleme nted wUl promote agrlcullural development towards achieving food security, employment and Income ge neralion, mtrket development and value addi tion. These, accordi ng to th e ch!\lrm:tn, aTe a com plete d eparture (rom the tra d llion o f In creasing a8'icultll ral producti on ror Jdf·Ju(R cltnC1·