transformation programme to generate 200,000 jobs' HE Sorghum Transformation Programme of the Federal Government is to generate 200,000 jobs in farming related activities in Adamawa State. The tea m leader of the prog ramme, Professor Baharunde Obilana, made this known while address-ing fa rmers at a sensi tisation wo rkshop o n the programme. Obilana said the hybrid sorghum to be introduced nex t year would increase farmers yield by more than 300 per cent making them to realise a n iI"\come of Nl50,OOO per hectare as agains t the present N26,OOO per hectare. Obilana said Adama wa, being the leading producer
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o f so rghum. wou ld benefit immensely (rom th e programme that would add more value to sorghum
production. He added that the Federal Government wou ld among others use fortified food to be made &om sor· gh um {or its proposed primary school fe eding programme. In his remarks, the Adamawa Commissioner fo r Agriculture, Alhaji Tijjani Maksh a, who described the project as timely, said the state government was fully committed to such programmes aimed at enhancing farmers' productivity, income, standard o f living as well as ensuring food security. Maksha said the state government on its part had embarked on general transformation of agriculture by estabLishing fannin g ~kill!! acq~isi ti on centres in all the 21 local government areas for rural farmers to Ix: lTained in modem farming techniques. Maksha said so far. about 40.000 farmers had been trained while government had purchased and disl:Jib., uted 260 metric1tonnes of assorted high yielding varieties of certified seeds to the farmers.
FADAMA coordinator tasks state govts on counterpart fund /I T
HE National PADAMA p rogramme has con U-ibuted imm ensely to the develop ..... men of agriculture in many parts o f the coun try . The p rogramme h as also assisted many practising fanners in d ilferents parts of the country to achieve their potentials. Thus. it. should be sustained ~n d continuous sup port been given to the programme~s tak e h ol ders in the natio n's agricu ltural se and g.overnment should also continue to sup ~ These were! the 1words of Mr Tayo Adc wUmi, the Natio nal Coord~ator. FADAMA...m, \'(hile spe~ng in Ca l aba r ~ccently . The FA~AMA expert"t!xplained that sThce the il1troductJon o f the programme in the country. the face of agricultural practices has changed as many fa rmers a re now happy ~nd confident ·to be id.en tified with their p rofesSIon. Adewumi further explained that the success of FADAMA I and II and it s cont ribution to the growth of the nation's ag ricu ltural sector has boosted the hopes 'of many fann ers, adding thai That was the reason many adopted FADAMA m a nd prayed Ho c the sustain ab ilily of the programme. T • However, for PADAMA rn to be a success like FADAMA 1 and II, the FADAMA or National C0o rdinator ap pealed 'to state governments to render necessa ry s upport to the th ird pha se of the progrllJIUJle by making s ure that they contribute their counterpart fund to programme at the appropriate time. He also canvassed s uppo rt for FADAMA llJ from agricultural experts in the country, as well as tasked states ministriC5 of agriculture to give j necessary assistance toward s the s u ccess of FADAMA lU. I _ • Ad ewumi sta ted th a t it was on record that FADAMA p rogramn:\~ ha~.~ empbwere d~rJ' I
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Truly, agric sector is capable of creating millions of -AFAN
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·Or. Akinwuml Adesina, Agric Minis te.r the present security challenges would have been averted. The security challenges and pockets of un-
rest we are having hereand there are ca used la rgely by unemploy-
Biola Azecz. Dorin HE National Presid e nt o f All the Fu lani Elite Cong ress (A FEC), M21lam Moga ji Ah me d , h as ca ll ed on t he Fede ra l Government to provide g r azing rese rves fo r Ful an is across the
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economy th roug h animal husba nd ry a.nd ag-
The fa rme rs know whnl the sector needs to dev~lop and so will do every hing 10 see the prograrr.mes through," he ronclllded .
CRIN introduces eight new varieties of cocoa HE Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN) has intensifi ed efforts al increasing cocoa product ion in the counlry wil h the introduction of eight new varieties of coco,1 to Nigerian farmers. The new va rieties, which could increase prod uction from the present 450 kilogramme per hectare bekveen one and two tones were recently presented to cocoa fanners in Ondo State. Speaking at the interactive session organised by the Centre for Cocoa Development Ini ti atives (CCDI). the Head of Crop Improvement Division of CRI N, Dr. Sa mue l Omolaja. said the new varieties were the res ult of yea rs of research by the institute. He said the new hybrid COCOil varieties tnat were inaugurated last Septem- .
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ber by the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina had the ability of transforming the Nigerian cocoa industry if adopted. He emphasised "these varieties had the capacity to transform the cocoa ind ustry in the sense that currently, the yield in the N iger ian far ms is 450 kilogramme per hecta re but this new hybrid varieties has potenti al of o ne to two lonnes per hectare. "The minim um yield thai we can get from this hybrid is one tone wh ich pre-su p poses thai if it is truly adopted il will increase farm yield a nd t hai tra nslates to imp roved income to the farmers. It also translates to increased lotal annual p roduction for the country, it trans lates to imp roved foreign exchange earners to the country. if fu lly adopted it translates to better employment fo r
AFEC president makes case for grazing reserve for fulani farmers
a means o f """<!+oNil gr.;s«ooft lli''''''i\'1llifu!Ac"pp,;,c.-, I <~i~~;~~;;~'~s the nation's ate the beauty otcommerdal and IIl,emanica'lanning.
ment. Therefore. there is the need for government, at ,11! levels, to faithfully im , Iement poli cies o n agriculh lral development alr.:ady made public on the pases of new spapelS. " a lso l.1 ohnmmed tast:ed the government to ensure thai the real practising farmers were iden· ti(i,:d and cha rged with the responsibility of driving the polici es that would transform the sector. • We have discovered thai over the years, the real fanners were often sid elinej whL.., it comes to the implementation of governmerit's policies on agricul-
ARMERS ;n Edo
Stale have ca lled on the Federal Govemmenttogivepriori ty to agriculture, say ing that farmin g was critical to the revamping o f the nation's economy. The fa rmers also acknowledged the fact that the government had embarked on robust policies to boost agric\llture in Ih.e sta te, b ut expressed doubt if the programmes would be im ple me nted as enundalcd. " If our economy will be boosted, the government must give priority 10 agrirulture: the All Fanners Association o f Nigeria (AFAN) Coord inator in Edo North Senato rial d istrict, Alhaji Abdulahi Mohammed stated. The AFAN boss remarked thai all the government succeeded in doing over the years was to make policy pronouncements thai we re neve r translated into reality. Mo hammed s tated Ihat if given p riority, agriculture was capable of tu rning aroun d th e nation's economy due to its multiplier effects. He a lso said that the sector had the potential of tri pling cu rrent ea.mings of the country, maintaining that there were many areas in agriculture craving fo r harnessing. According to him.. "the sector will not only create millions of employment op portunities and boost food production. it will also strengthen export ac>tivities and po te nti als. T hat is not all, when most peo ple are gain'fully employed, stability will be ushered into the nation's security sector and there will be enough ra w materia ls fo r loca l in dustries to use," he added . The AFAN coordinator furthe r sa id. " If ha lf o f the amount of money voted for security is used to d evelop agricultu re,
r icuHure. .
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~pea.k ln g :, Ith Jour-
nallsts 10 lIorm, Mallam Ahmed also enjOined all tiers o f governmen ts to establish vete rinary centreS IOcontrol animal diseases. He said the Fe d e ral Government was d o ing the country a disservice by abandoning the agricul tura l· sector, s tressi ng that if the a.n ima l sector
of agricu lture w~s p rope rly harnessed. It would earn the country billions f d II f · 0 a a r as o rel gn reserve. Ma ll am Ahm ed re-
N i g~ rians."
(Imol.Jja said CRIN Ihe ex perimer t on the new hybrids on its expt!rimental plot, adding that the go\'ernmert should intervene 10 inci ease the parental stoc< fo r the hybrid . He said the expansion o f he p are nta l s tock wou ld inLTease the capacity cf the institute to generate hy b rid pods that could be made available to the laller population of Nigenan farme rs. He sta ted that. "government zan come in by p ro\ idinS fu nd to establi sh ma rl! pa renta l ga rderu; all over the country. If governmen t give us fund we Vli ll do this in order to make impact in rocoa market in the Wes t African s ub-region and we need to establish at least 169 hectares o f pare ntal ga l dens.~ Omn laja, h oweve r, sa id it " a uld take the next five yea rs for the country tt) rea the benco n duc t ~ d
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now The Chid Operating O ffi ce r of CCD I, Robo Adhll2e. said the interact ive sess io n was organised to provid e a good platform for cocoa ca lled that in the north- farm ers ir. Ondo State in em region during the first o rder to know about tbe republic. the government new varielies. focused more atlen ti on He sa id ma ny of the o n a g ricult ure. but la- coca farm~rs in the state menled that ,it was even-)" were not i,wiite 'of thi ri\: tually abandoned by sub- novation that could lead sequent ad ministration, to increased production particularly the military. and levenue for them.