Farmers beg Ogun govt for assistance ARMERS
in
G b a ll\ugba~u ,
an
Gba mu gba mu town, because the to w n is ag r a r i a n purely an agrarian community ill Ogun State. comm unity with brm ha'-I! called o n the settlement. Not- only that, governor of Ogu n Sta le, the farmers also posiled Senator lbikunle that 90 per ce nt of Amosun. to channel some residents o( the town are of the resot1rces of the coco~ farmers thus they s latel towa rds the need mo rc s uppo rt in d evelopment or terms of agriculture input agricUlture. eSpecially in and lonn facilities. ru ral areas. They said, if A farmer. Babatunde this is done. It would help Ogu nlu si, said, " thi s the state to become one of com munit y produces the lead ing rood baskets hi ghes t quantity o f of the country. crea te COcoa In Ogun Stale. We employ ment for the also have s n ai ls and jobless. Ie- well as many people known incrJase Ihi:! Inte rnally Gbam ugbamu for Ihis.
F
Generated Rl!venue (lG R) oft~
state.
Some farmers in the lawn while speaking with
TrlbLne
AgrJculturet
tasked Ihl.! governor to transliIle the victory of his election to reality in terms of cle,velopm!?ntal projects
L~~~er A~~;,~~ngt~~N~~
Adegbcnga Seriu Kaka representing Ogun East and p rov is ion o f Senatorial District. has disclosed that iflhe three tiers inl ras tra tr u ctu al facilio( goyernmeni are serious ties. The tarmers in with the de \'elopment of lIgriculture in UlC country, Gbamugbamu lown aJso wanted the governor to then there is the need for them to embark ' on revamp tht> m o ribond fum settle m e nts in programmes tlmt would diHerent parts o f Ogun activl'lte and stimulah! Ihe interesto( ouryouthsin U'IC State, ;)5 we:1I as establish profession right from prinew ones. milfy and secondilry The1reason for this caU sch ouls level. according to them, is that '111C lawmilW gave Ihis agriculture n n be used to i\Sce rtion recently in creale e mployment fo r army of Jobless youths in Abcokuta, the capital city St.tte. the state, most of who m of Ogun Senator Kaka explained they said have: turned 10 that with the situation of cull is m and Okada things in Nigeria toclay, as business. The farmers also it i9 mil nUesting In incessanl increase in Ihe prices observed t hai cultism of food commodities. Ihe nourishes i n the: sta te interest o f youths in the because many politidans country sho uld be actio often I u sc, the jobless valed to embrace filnTIing. you ths for politica l stressing thatlhis could be aclivitle:s, especia lly to done by making it compulformeh t tro ub le a nd sory tllilt every primary perpelrale violence, th us and secondary sch ools In the youths have no other the country should estabth ing they now think o f lish wh.,t he called Young excepl violence. Farmers Gub. fanoer.l, however, TIle fomlerdeputy gO\'appealed t-l Governor ernor of Ogu n State also Amasun 10 "xus more 00 assertcd that agricultu re Ihe devcl" pment of should be SC(!n not only as agriculture in the state, a pmctice, but a worthy and adding thai profitab le venture that should also shnuld be e ncou raged. supported, and adequately
n'\e
'"'pl,.,,;,
ttl~llrd
Bu t the sad story is that successive governments in the state have turned their back agai nst u s in th e a re, of deve lopme nt . " We a rc the refore imploring Governo r Amosun 10 Yisit the lown so as see what we are doing in the area o f !lna ilry and cocoa farming. Honest, we are ready to increase: our cocoa p rod u ction capacity if Ogun Sta te government would help to develop agriculture In the town," the farmer further pleaded.
wWw\'llIlopbloluel,om ~ mUll Info , b,olopb,,,/uel,on\
tla 6!l~45011 OSO~Hll0bl Oall106HliS
HE autho rities handling the Fndama III pro' in e rOS9 River say tml STl fnmling groups in the s t'a te h a\'e been empowered wilh fu nds to taling aboul NllS.4 million. The funds' benefi· Oilries, a«ording to the Coordlnatorofthe project in the state. t.1r Bassey lIcm i. nre 40 Fadama Communi t y Assodations (f<:As) and 532 Fadama User Groups (PUGs). Itemi, who disclosed this in an interview wilh News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ca labilr recen tly. said that Ihe
T
I"'"
was groups between NO\l. 2009 and July, this year. He said th a i the disbursed fund WilS part of the N300 million w hich the slatl! Accessed from the Internatlomd DC\le l op · menl A~iation (IDA) grant. T he coordinator said the state government had paid its counterpa rt con tr ibution 10 the programme fur 2!1Jl, 2OC6. 2009 ilnd part of 2010. totaling N IS4 mill ion, s.1yillg the stale's annual contribution wns N56
govemment,'n',·,~5,;;~.;' 1
pay its 201 1 contribution the locnl
makes c,ase for young farmers' clubs m schools P~~:d~'~~;,.n"du-
funded by Ule three 1m 01 government without leaving the job for the r-edcral eoyemment atone. According to h im, Mmilily of ou r prilcti sing farmers, majority of whom reside in rurnl areas are gelling old. In (act. avail· able data showed Ih:.t greater percentage of them ilrefastbecomingagcdand If we wanl 10 be serious with agricultural dC\lelopment as :. ",11ion. U,en we need to encourage programmes or projccls whose objeC1ives would be to catch our youths while they arc still young. adding that doing this would make them to dc \'elop in· terest in fO\nnlng. lllat is why I'm adYoeating for th: fonnation of young fanTIers dub in pri. ma ry. secondar), and hig her institu tions, " he stilted. Speakingonsomcofthe factor.> responsible for hish pricesoffoodcornmodities in recent times. Senator !<aka who is also a pradising farmer ill Ogun Slate explained thai apart from climillc dlange, Nigeriil as il nation is still pilying lip servire to the development of agriculture. He posited thai Ihe country has been tumed 10 a pack.,ging nation wilh many companies and individuals imporling and repackaging imported p rod ucts. especially ronsumables without hay· ing an interesl in producIng such commodities or products here in Nigeria. In his words, "since tl~ practice of agriculture is tlOSe-<fiving. we arc experiencing shorl:1ge or inad-
- Sena tor Cbeng. K.k. cquacy of raw materials as it ought tobeif\Yewanl needed by many indus- quick de1.·elopmel'1t in this tries or manufacturing nation," he sta ted. compilnies. He a lso ad vised the This is nol helping our Fede ral Goyernment to industries lu develop be-- come o u t with an eco· cause agriculture which is nomic programme that su pposed to be a major wou ld de-emphasis the .source of tllf!Se useful raw focus of Nigerians on pematerials have not I:Jt.en re- Iroleum seclo r. adding ceiying adequa te allen- Ihat the sole dependence tion. So we want the gOY' of the country on crude oil emmcnt 10 fund agriculture may not take us to the
siye preserve and inler('5t of just one per cenl of the entire popul"tion. I know what I'm 5aying and unless we shift our attention away from crude oil and focll s on agricultu ral sec· tor, Nigcri n &onomy may continue 10 dance inside a circlc," he posited. Senator Kilka, how· ever, ad\lised you ths. especially grildumcs. not to expect that the govl'rn· nlcnt to meet thei r yeil Tllings and expccla tionll by p ro\liding emp loymen t for all of them. but to deYdop interest in the pTilClice 9f agricu ltu re which is a profession that would make them to be self-reli· an t. MBcfore. 11 used 10 be flO \lenlu re, no gain, but the you ths o f today have changed the popu lar slogan. They are now saying no gain. no \lel1tu rt'. TIl(' reverSe Is now the case and as long as they have this wrong menta lit), or pera>ption, Ihere would always be a chaotic sima· tion and there would be disorder. This would can· tinue to haye ncgati\'c efrcds on the nillion's ecvnomic and growlh," h e concl uded.
Flood wreaks havoc on Zartech
Z
ARTEOi, a giant p o ultry farm in tbadan, the Oyo State capirol had lost oyer 80,000 birds to last week Friday flood that killed hund reds people and destroyed valuable proper· ties wo rth million s o f na ira. Info rm ation emanal· Ing frum the poultry farm at Oluyole Estate, Ibadan, also revealed Ihat million
eOverIlJ,axJbirdssweptawayhvmpoultJy na.iTa poultry pr0«S5ing eq uipment and stale-ofthe-Art machines in the company were a lso affected by Ihe flood . A manager in o ne of the poultry pens. who would not want h is naOle in print, told Tdbune A8riculture that the fl ood rayaged the poultry {arm
and destroyed things be-
yon"d Imagination. The source said thai the f100d disasler also affected the popu lar pou l. try farm in the estale belonging to a retired general in the Nigerian Army. The flood. it was further learnt, also deslroyed the many (ish ponds of Zartech.