NigeriAn Tribune 15 Tuesday. 20 September. 2011
recognised , registered and practising f.. rmers. According to him, Hm an y farmer s are nol always happy when you tell them to ilrproilch a bank for loans o r other (inaneiill assistance and when yo u press them furth er to kno\\' why they are always discouraged o r sad at the men tion ing o f bank loa ns, the response o ne usua lly get fro m r"rmers is that banks are not fri e.nds of farmers. This impression, however. should be corrected becau se Ih e in the country to give necessa ry support o nly to pracFeder .. 1 Government in collabora tion with the Centising r.. rme r!' insle"d of a llo w ing those whom he tnll Bank of Nigeria (C8N) through a programme dt'scribcd as newspaper or JX"lilical ranne~s to IHI\'e called the Agricultural Sav ing Guarantee Scheme. unhindered ,w:ess to farm inputs and bank luans. is to assist farmers with 10allS. So farlllcrs should Chic( Abrollnrin, who Is a prominent member of approach CON for better explanation," he .,dvised . " Ma nagemen! Committee of the lhadan Chamber of On what he felt about the noise currently makCo mmer ce, I ndustry. Mines and Agriculture ing wnve in the country on w he ther to approve th~ (ICClMA), Liis-:losed this while s peaking with newsestablishment o f Islamic bank in Nigeria o r nOI . men at the venue of the recently concluded SouthChief Abodunrin expl .. ined that left h im, he sees West o f N ig eria Agric Summit 20 11 , o rganised by no reason w hy such a proposal by the governor of the Agric Trnc'e Group_ CON should raise dust . H e said the contro versy Explai ni ng wh ile the organiser of the well at<lnd noise su rrou nding Islamic bank has been tended programme decided to chooS(' "Agricultur.. 1 b low n beyond proporlion. financing. the road m .. p tiS the theme for this yea r' s Sa id he, HTo me and I stand to be corrected, there p rogramme. Chi e f Abodunrin said it is a well is nothing to fear about Is lamic bank. No netheknow n fact Iwthing could be achieved in life withless, I wo uld have preferred the n .. me of the bank out proper a l1:1 adequate planning and even if o ne to be non-inte rest b<lnk instead of the CBN go\'erhns a gond 1'1111, finance is a major index of a well ecution in the nation's agricultural secto r, which in- nor ca lling it Islamic bank. exeeu ted project. variably is hampering its development, adding Ih"t What I know about non-interest banking as it is Asked to e"(plain how this illustration is appli - politicians o r government should stop g iving assis- being practised in. other nations IIf the world is th .. t cable tu the prilctise of ag ricullu re, the ICCIMA tance, s upports and fa rm inpu ts thai are meant for it would bring development to collage, small o r membeT t!xplailled Ih al all over the wo rld lud;,y. ag- practising farmers to Iheir allies and pilrly memmedium scale industries," he posited . riculture is b£ing practised and seen as a bus iness bers. many of which he said are mere political farm Explaini ng furt he r, he sa id if non-in te rl"s l bank· not as a prOj;ramme as it is the believe of some ers witho ut a s ingle plot 01 farm I.and . ing system is allowed to come up in N igeria, it people. He said the Federal GOI'ernment of N igeria On how 10 e ffective ly achieve ag ri cult ural fi - wo uld defin it ely take care of t h e p r ob l ~m o t has a lso reali!ed this fact a nd that is why th e new na nci n g in o rder to be food sec ured . C h ief middle men in ag riculture. Nor on ly th"t, it wu uld Minister o f Aj;riculture, Natural Resources. and Ru- Abodu nrin i1dvised banks to give loans on ly to get rid of the so called newspaper o r politica l.f.. rm · ~ rs who .1Te the ones hi· r .. 1 De velopment, Dr . j ..cking agricultural - in · Akinwun m i I\ desina is puts li ke s eed lin g~ sn l1nding it loud and clear for thoSf who care advocacy. trainin g, c1"rion ca ll on policy fertili se rs and olhe ! By OIuwatoyin Malik Insll1\lle, Ibadan. 10 li s len that as from With "C re .. ting Local r e s e a r c h m"kcrs to key into organiC nccded support o ften r~' now, agricult' lre wou ld and International Markets com m e rcia li sa t i on, agriculture and tap the leased to (.. rmers by thl F there is "a panacea Federal Govemments. be treated .. s ., business to s ub-Saharan for ~ Sustainable OTganic link.,ge to organic markets international s upport that He, howcve r, a p flOt a pr.. elise. A f r i c a Agriculture in Nigeria~a5 and help in the area of the mO\'e for food security pealed to those who art' Chief Ahodunrin, the gree'1 revolution and food . the theme of Ihe certification. . and pro lilable ventu re against the establish chairm .. n. Ib.. d .. n Zone security. my inne r "ision works hop, Prof Adeoye He pointed out that the offers, for the benefit of of Shareholders Associa- backed by ~mp irical s.. id all the wasted food curren t chemicalised N igeri., ·s .. grarian ment of no n-interesl banking to a ll ow th l tion s t.. led th.t it wou ld ev idence is o rganic producl<; cuuld be tumed ag riculture, where abuse of surrering populace. be beller if !"tilte and lo- agricu l tl!re ~. o rgilnic ror healt h and ag rochem icals had In the keynote address b'lnk to be, stressing that cal governmen ts would This stale.men t was commercialis.1tion in locill become the order or the delivered by the Minister the bank wo uld help tt start seeing and treating m.xle by the president of the and international markets. day, had been responsible for Agricultu'r(i, Dr m o nitor fMming practhe profession as a busi- Nigerian Decrying the way for h ealt h hazard s. Akinwumi Adesina, who tices li ke plilnling, hal ' Organic ness Ih1l1 cO 'J ld boos t Agricult ure Network Nigeria had lost th e including the increase in was represented by the vesting, processing an~~ their Internally Gene r- (NOAN~ Professor Gideon internation.. 1 market for the ocrurrence of difrerent Assistont Direclor o f marketin g. " H is words: "si nce ated Revenu es Adeoye, at Ihe opening coco.. bec .. use of Ihe types o f cancer, and Orga.nic Fertiliser, l1.lr 5.0 . (IGR,providec' it is Nell ceremony of the 2nd pesticide resid ue above e nvironment al O layi",ola, it was ilgriculture is a ri sk)" funded and pl';lper atle n- tech nical worksh op o n tolerant the NOAN degradation experienced in cmphnsised that one of the busi ness, farm e rs need tion given to it. .m" h~;;,.dlhe o rganic agria.dture which the nation's agricultural reasons given fo r the su pport and assis tance. On h ow to ~olve prob- was held il t the National system. increasing growth of the !hey need to be helped lems militating Ihe deorganic sector g lobally is 111 man y ways espe,'elopment o f 19riculture the increase in awareness cia ll y with finan ce and in the country, he said regarding consumption of in pu ts. The pr<lCtise of though there are many sa fe food which o rganic farming is faced wit h many cha ll enges like sechallenges f lcing the agriculture offers. profession, he . howeve r, 11)(' minister !ltatoo that curity, weatl,er. c rop identified thl! l;oroblenl of the most recent failure, di sease attack. policy in stahi ' ily on the info rmiltilln by FlBL I o n crops, etc. But I bepa rt of the gr vernme nt, (FOAM (201l) re vea led lieve th .. t si nce non-in· s tressing thilt instability thai the land under organic teres t bank is a joint 01 o f policies by s uccessive agria.lture in Nigeria has p<lrti cipatio ry ventu re, governmcnLc i, the counincreased from 3,072 it would hel p to tak,· try h..s bL'en a major obhectares in yea r 2008 to care of these p rob lem:: be cilu se the ba nk al sl' s tacle to the d eve lop 8,202 hectares in 2009. me nt o f ag riCl.,ltu re. He added that though know they s ta nd to g"ill so mething fr o m f.,rm H e frowfled at the it was a positive news: Niger ian ~ s iiu a li nn w here those Nigeria was still far behind e rs . So, who ,He in th !." hclnl s of development of organiC shou ld look ot it a nd it :; advi"l nt age from th a i .. ffair s in the (ountry are .The Executive Direclor, National InsWutl! agria.lture, both in West allowing poli tics to inte rAfrica ,IIld Afrie., as a ang le in ste ad of (on ' (NIHORT), Ibadan, Oyo St.te, Dr Ademo/a Jdowu (Ielt) with other pardemning it ou trightl y" , fere in p rog rilmmes excontinent. ticipants . t the Ivorlcs~op. he concluded .
NE o f the st akehold ers in the nation's economic secto r and a (ilrmcr, Chil"f So la , Abodunrin, has en couraged (" rmcrs in th e country to increase their proc:lu.:ti vily ilnd embrace meehanisal;(,", saying doing this wou ld boost their incQlne a .. well as make food n'-,' only to be cheap, but su rplus in the counlr)'_ Hea ls", app"!alled. lo the Ihre!e liersof governments
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