22 \\'ednesday. Nigerian Tribune 6 July. 201 1
TribuneBusiN £$S
Urbanisation, climate change, bane of agric development By Joseph Ajayi
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TAKEHOLDERS in agriculture and eli ma te system in Nigeria ha ve attribuled the impasse in ag ri cultural practices such as food pmduction, liveslocks, acquacu lture. holticulture, fi shery, among olhers in the country to a reckless manner in which elite hijack and construct buildings on lands in the urban a nd peri -urban ce ntres, and the changes in wei'lther w hich adversely aHect products. The stakeholders, com prising dons from facullies of Agriculture, Urb<1O Bnd Regio nal Plan ning, Department of Geography, farmers in va rious practices, representatives from Oyo Slate Ministries of Agricul ture. and Regional Pl anning and non-govem mental organ isations, made this disclosu re o n Thursday jast week at the Uni \'ersity of tbadan. during a forum entitled: 'Vr-
ban/Peri-urban agriculture and climate change; Ibadan city assessmen t." According 10 Professor BolilllJe Wahab, Head, Depa rtment o r Urban and Regional Planning, Un;\'ersity of Jhad an,. elite are the major problem to the practice or agricu ltu n! in Urba n and Peri-u rban centres. He said since the deparlure of Europea ns, elitealwaysl\'anted to live in Government Reserved Areas (GRAs) and thus take large por1ion of land around the city and usc (or buildings ra ther than for agricultural pu rposes. Also baring his mind on factors affecting fann ing practices in Ibada n and Nigeria at large, Mr Akinrelerc Victor, owner of Vee-Gee-Cee farms and Chai rm an, Pig 'Farmers Associa tion of N igeria. Oyo Sta te chap ter, sa id farmi ng did not thrive in the urban centres becausc organ isations had taken O\'er \·irtually all the lands that should be u5ed foragricultural p ractices. Citing recent flood incident in lhadan recently, Mr Victor said fl ood had not only succeeded in des troying many farm s in the city. bu t Ilad also killed II number of people. A not he r participant, tllrs Adebayo Otiti, who is the Chairman, Rice Farmers Association, Oyo State, said farm products s uch as cassava. rice, com, yam etc suffered a g reat deal d ue to rain shortage in rerent ti me, adding that this had been re5ponsible for a
decline in har vesting by farmers. Emphasising the ef(ed of climate change on the society as witnessed in incessa nt f1oodi ngs, the programme coordinator, Dr Akin Adeseh in wa blamed the weather. adding that carefree erection of buildings was solely respo nsible for fl ood ing when it rained. While presenting a repo rt o n UrblJIl / Pui-ur-
dislodged the erosystem. In hi s update on Urban / Peri-ur ban agriculture in [badan, Dr Stephen Babajide sa id hi s
organisation. Urban/Periurban Agriculture (OPA), in its exploration studies, found that there were
Ibadan North Local Gove rnment, pig production in lbada n North Wes t, fi sh ing alo ng Danshuru area, but WilS shocked ilt
-Shareholders the fact that there were ou tbreaks of diseases. loss o f fa rmland s to institutions and lack of extension agents in the 10000l goven!-
ban agriculture and climate change: Ibadan City assessment, Dr Ibid un Adelekan of the Department of Geography, noled that though the re were p roduction, p rocessing and dist ribution of food stuff and crops. as well as anim31 rearing within and around the cit}'. the rural comm unities could n ot easily s upply these products to the urban cent res d ue to bad roads, arising from nood and erosion. S~ stated fUr1her Ulat the impact of cl imate change on agriculture was e no rmou s as it affected ava ilability of water. and
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Ex';,,.;.n a.nd Rural Development; Professor Shyngle 8alogun,. Dean, Faculty of the Sciences; Dr lbidun Ade/ekan, Coordiantor, Ibadan City Assessment of Urban / Peri-urban Agricullure (UPAJ and Mrs Adeniran Fu nke. representative of the Dyo State Ministry of Agriculture, at the stakeholders' meeting on Urba n / Peri-urban Agriculture and Climate Change held at the Uni versity of Ibada", recently.
Why Diamond Bank is building capacity of MSME operators -Nnadozie Odidison Omankhanlen. La os
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EAD. Micro, Small Medjum En I e r p r i s e s (MSMEs) of Diamond Bank, Mr. Chima Nnadozie, has said that to bridge the knowledge gap and introduce MSME ope rato rs to best practices was Ihe moti ve behind building the capacity of fl.1SME operntors. 5 pea Ici ng at t h e O·lamond Dank 14th
BusincssXpress Enteprise Series seminar, held at Golde n Tulip H o te l, Enugu, he said the bank noticeclthaloneofthe faclors militating againsl the growlh o f young enlreprencu rs was lack of ca. pacity building as many of them did not have opd b portunily to atten usisch I f ness 00 s or any orm f .. h ·1 0 tramlll~ W .1 e some went inlo siness unpre-
pared.
He noled that the sem inar also offered partici.
pants a pl<'ltform ~or netw? rklng as _the~ l~teract wllh Ihose In slDUl ar ~r comple mentary b us lnesses. AspartofitsCorporate Socia l Resp o ns ibility, Nnadozie sa id the bank hn',du"P'IOid !~rl:=""n:~tre,..PI,re-' "I' U\:' ... L'U • .boul6000 ~'<I.m-I,.d .. ~o '-___ "'1_. from.n NIB "b,"IU\:11t."l 1",", lion loan lor MSMEs. This loan scheme, Nnadozie explained, was a special loan package,
N k' C2-00,Ola N k' Xl - 01 Nokla' UnVel'ISOla Oluwase u n Ayantokun, Lagos
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OKIA has unveiled a se t o f dual sim phones kn own ilS Nokia C2-00 and XI-OI. Managing Director of Nokia Wes t Africa, Mr. James Ruthe rfoord, said the mo\'e validated the fact that Nokia was a listening brand that would continually seck ways to surpass the expectations of its customers. Mr. Rut herfoord ex plained that in spite 01 being quite affordable for its prize band, the 0.(1) was imbued with features that would delight Nokia faithfuls. The phone, according to
Rutherfoord. has an external sim slot for multiple SIMs. O the r features include micloSD support up to 32GB, media player, 3.5m m, AV connector, GPRS, VGA ca m era as welt as web browse r and micro USB connector slot. The C 1.(1) is also a messaging dev ice w hich means users can s ta y ill touch with their loved ones with the chat applications of ya hoo. fa cebook and othe r social media p latforms. The Xl -Ol , on its part, is an affo rdable dual-si m music pholle. It allows user.!l to give cadI SIM card a name and a dedicated logo as well as MP3 dedicated ring tone. Other features includ e an MP3 mu sic
player, built-in nashlight, extra long ballery life and pre-lo.1dcd games. The Nokia boss in West Africa also noted that both phones came w ith Nok ia 's proprie tary personalised service. the Nokia Life Tools (NL T). The NtT enables users to benefit from pe.rsonali5ed inlormation on health, agriculture, sports and entertainment. Subcribers can also lea rn English as well also enjoy jokes. M r Ruth erfoo rd explained that these featu res and benefit s we re on ly available in gen u ine Nokia d evices an d ad vised Nigerians to avoid being conned into buying counterfeit de vices under any guise..
that recognised the ract that lhis smaU businesses did not ha ve the coltaleralsor meet the normal conditions for bank loans and the loans range from one 10 ten million naira . Also s peaking at the e..,ent, dlairman of Manuf facturing Association 0 N"" MAN'An b 1gena ( I< am ra, Eb d E ony~ an n~tu bra nc, Dr. C i e Obidigbo blamed go\'emment for the high fa ilule of business enterprises in Nigeria. H, irui,loo Ih.1 bu,iness fa ilure rate in Nigeria was very high and one of the major causes was govemment which he d escribed as an enemy of businessmen and inves-
had closed many bustnesses in the count ry as
wellasfailedtop~videan
enabling environment for businesses and the p roductive sector to thrive. He lamented that govemmenl created poli~es and mad e po licy summerMult thai affected busi nesses and investments negatively, pointing out that government did not consull manufacturers and olhe r investors when b "" I r · th t nngmg ou po laCS a affected the industry_
Obidigbodesoibed the Bu,;n",Xp"" " m;n" as a great opportunity for young entrepreneu rs, pointing out that capadty building and huriHIIl development should be the duty 01 government. He admonished. young 10,," Also, Obidigbo wanled en trepreneu rs 10 go for bank to take risk and in- knowledge a nd not be vest ill the manufacturing tired of leaming. urging seelor of the nation's them to gel some practical econom)' by giving long experience before setting lerm 10.1ns to investors be- oul if they desire 10 hl>succause there would be no cessful because selling up long term planning with- business nCC<il'o.i determination and patience, and out a 10llg term fund . Speak ing on "Critical the most deadly cha lFactors for Successful Skill lenges were at the beginAcquisition and Entrepre- ning of the venture. He ad vised that w hen neu r Development" Obidigbo, who is the b a nks were giv ing out Managing Director and money to young entrepreChief Executive Officer of neurs, they should also H ardes/ Dromedas In - mentor and monitor them duslry Limited, Enugu and not just give out s tated Ihat go,vernmenl . ~. ~oney ~nd go to sleep