WE GUARDIAN, Tuesday.lune 21, 2011
B~I29
Kana State votes Nm.sm for fertilisers VANO St.He GOvernment !'.will buy 10,000 tonnes of fenllizers for distribution to farmers during the 20U croppi ng Sf'ason, the $rnlor Special Assistant o n rress and rublic Rel.nions to the Governor, Alhaji Umar Tudun-Wada, has said. Tudun·Wada sa id In a_ statement In Kano on Saturday, that the decision was taken at the mald en meeting o f the state Executive Council, chaired by Gov. Rabl'u Kwankwaso.
He said, Nms million would be spent on the purchase of the fertili sers, out of which N6JO million would be USed to buy 8,000 lonnes of the NPK brand of the commodity. The statement also said that N142.5 million would bf' used to buy 2,000 lonnes of the Urea type, adding that the commodl· ty would be sourced locally and sold to farmf'rs at subsidised rates ~as early as possible", Tudun·Wada stated thar the present admlnistra-
Poor growth of coal industIywonies expert "J1iE Registrar, Council of .1 Nigerran Mining Engineers ana GeoscienUst5 (COMEG), lonilthan lkeako, on Sunday e:xpn.':ssed concttn OVer what he described as .• Federal GOvernment's lack of interest in coal mining". Ikeako, who made the observation In an inter· v1ewwlth the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, said that abandoning coal had accelerated deforestation In the country as people now use fi rewood for cooking Instead of coal. He said that coal, In Its raw form, could be used for various things, IncludIng cool..ing and generat· Ing electrichy. Ikeako said that coal cou ld 01150 be processed Into briquettes (smokeless coa l)and used for cooking, or other things.
"We have seen occur· rences of coal in at least II stares of the counny. "From the Middle Belt or North Centra l states to South Eastern states to th,. South·South, we have coal In abundance," he said. Ikeako 5.lid he was surprised that in spite of the quantity and quality of the country's coal . 'we have not s llown the interest thar we shou ld show In exploring and exploiting it' . He said that Incessantcu[ling down of tr~s for fire· wood} instead of using coal, nad led to deforesta· tion, which had in rum, adversely affected the environmenL He said the lack of interest In coal by the Federal Government started In the early '70S, when petroleum became the maJnstay of the nation's economy.
tlon in the state did not inherit any stock of fertil ls· ers from Its predecesso r but wou ld do everything possible 10 buy the commodity and dIstribute to farmers In good time. ·You may recall that the governor had said that the new administration did nor Inherit a single bag of fertili se r from the last administration and that is why the state e;1.ecutive council promptly approved the procurement of the commodity." Many farmers In the state had complained of the lack of fertilisers for use with some resorting to the use of local manure, such as animal WAste and refuse In their fanns.
Ch.airman, Chal1ered Insurance instiTUTe 01 N1Ceril (CUN), EnuCV ChapTer, Emma Onu (refs); Chairman, FiTlles! CommJn .. WlIk. AlISlin Ogbuisi; and Yin Chairman, CIIN, EnuCV ChapTer, Emml Thompson, durinr insuarance .WlIrenHI firnt u walk, in Enu(U, recenTly. PHOTO: NAN
NIIT DREAMING OF A GLOBAL I.T. CAREER? To go places, take the NUT Nigeria Scholarship Test, 2011 .
~ I ~,=l!iITj
-
- - - -- - - - - TechflologV Programmes - - - - - - - - -
ltiirl
-.u.otr
~I(O
p!:,._
~ ::=.
IMPORTANT NOTES; • last dale of application' 15th July, 2011 • Exam dale: 16th July 2011
__