SUNDAY PUN CH JULY 17, 2011
HEALYH
65
Appointment of CMDs to be performance-based Onyebuchi Stol ies: SOLAAOE AYO·ADERELE ."......, -
HE MInister of Health, Prof. Chrisl1an Chukwu, hili said that, henceforth , the appointment 01 chief medical directors. medical directors and chairmen of medical advIsory committees will be bilsed o n performance in previo us
National Health Bill, budgetary allocation to various institutions in the heahh sector, review of Ac t 10 of 1985, especially on the appomtment of CMOs and C-MACs, Tertiary Hospital Services Commission. disso lution of
hospitals boards VIS·a·VIS reconilllUlIon of the board and relallonship between .he ministry. cha lTJnen of boards and the CMOs .
engagements Thl! minister said this when he receivO!'<! a delegation of Commillee of Chlmmen Board of Teaching Hospitals In
hiS office over the weekend Chukwu. who nalec! thaI the currem chairmen of Federal Governmenllertiary hospital!> were those who had exceUed In medical field and had gathered professional expemmce, also challenged them to develop performancebased criteria tllat would be used in assessing the lop manz,gemem sial( of lerhary ho~ilals. He said Ihal SU'IC(! Ihe appolntmenL;;; o f CMOs and C-MACs !"Hled on the board, Ihey should endeavour 10 be lransparem anOlhorough in Ihe engagement of CMOs, MDs and C-MACs, WI th the aim of engaging the best of Whlll the country has at any gIven lime. He noted tha i the performance of teniary hospitals was a key 10 earnmg publtC confidence in the heallh sector. "Although tertiary hospilals may not serve 100 per cent of the population, they do serve as barometers thro ugh which people judge the sector," he said. Earlier, the leader of the delegation, Emeritu~ Professor of Obstetncs and Gynaecology at the College of Medicine, University of lhadan, Ebenezer Akande, who is also Ihe chairman of the committee, acknowledged the performance of Ihe minister in his first tenure and also commended governmenl's decision.o appoint techllOCTats as chairmen of boards. Akande said thai Ihe current chairmen had served for IWO years and Ihree months OUt of Ihelr Individual four·year lenure and had observed the: ne:e:d for review of certain aspeclS of heallh system administration in the country. He disclosed tha t they were ready to avail the governme nt of thei r experiences in Ihis regard if they were made pari of Ihe process of handling issues Ihal bordered on heallhcare delivery, and health system administralion He expressed Ihe readiness of chairmen of all tertiary hospitals to meel wil h the mlnisler and d iscUS.'i some issues such as perennial unio n strikes, providing clear guidelines o n the implementatio n of salaries and allowances, the
durlngajree eve test, at Jab' , AbuJa ... recent1v
Biological control offers benefits to Africa ..."II...... HE authonhes of Ihe Intemallonal Instilute of T.-opical Agriculture have said that their biological control programmes on cassava green miles have brought benefi~ worth more than $ 1.7bn 10 Nigeria, Benin, and G hana in the lasl 18 yeals. IITA Agricultural Economist, Dr. Ousmane CoulibaJy, who disclosed thlS al a seminar in lbadan, Oyo S tale
New soybean factory offers opportunities to farmers IGERlA-based Karma Foods Umited is establishing a $20m factory that will take delivery of locally-produced soybeans at the end of th LS year's hafVi!SI, a nd open up new marketing opparlunities for Nigerian soybean farmers. The 75,000 metric IOns processing capaOly facloty, which is located near Abuja International Airp:nt would ensure stable demand for soybean, the company said According to the chai rman of the firm , Mr. Dipa,k Mlrchandani, the company plans to SOUTce 100 per cent of ItS soybean demand locally. ~We hope that this invest mem will help reposition soybean production In Nigena, and; more importantly, it will profit the Nigerian soybean farme r because he now not o nly has oplKms 10 sell his products, but also can plant wllh a sense of security and the assurance that his produce has a committed buyer, he added. To meet Ihe company's soybean demand, Mlrchandani said, Karma Foods and researchers from the International Institute o f Tropical Agriculture under .he Tropicall2gume proJect, in collaboratlon with the Universily of Agriculture, Makurdl, would be supporting farmers ill Benue S tale with best practices in soybean production. ··We see Benue farmers as key stakeholders In this M
prOject because the stale plays a leadmg role In soybean production," said Mlrchandanl. The UTA Systems agronomist, Dr. AI[lha Kamara, explained thai the Institute and its partners were already prOnloting soybean produclion through the provision of high-yielding improved va l·ielies, creating awareness, promoting sustainable seed production systems (community see:d schemes) and slrengthenmg the capacll.Jes of see:d companies to package a nd sell Improved seeds. Described as a ' miracle bean' or 'golden bean' because of Its cheap, protein·rich grain, soybean production in Nigeria has been slylTlied by unfavorable market which often times results to cyclical gluts. A Motec'.tlar GenellclslIPlanl Breeder at the University of AgricultUre, Makurd i, Dr. Lucky Omoigui, said the new partnership between research a nd Industry would create sustai nable demand and supply for the commodity, and make the farmers proud. Over the years, IITA has made substantial efforts to Improve the producllvlly of the crop by dt..'Veloping high· yielding, early maturing varieties capable of nodulating, in association with local rhizobia, and po5:.essing o ther good agronomic trails. The institute has a lso developed and released rust· resistant soybean.
ca[lital, described the figure as a conservanve estimale. ~The figure represents the a mount those countnes would have spenl owr th~ years on other methods such as chemical control and/or yield IOSS<!S If they never ado[lled biological conlrol. says Couhbaly during a ~mjnar III Ibadan. The cassava green mite is a pesl Ihat was responSible for be!Ween 30 and 50 pe:r cent yield loss 01 cassava in Africa, unl!1 a natu ral e nemy of the pest help2d to contam Ihe devastation. Ii may be recalled that, in 1993 SCientists from IITA ann partners Identified Typhlodromalus artpo as one of the most efficient enemIes against cassava green mile, and the introducllon of T. aripo reduced [li!:S' populations by as much as 90 per cent in the d ry season \.I.'hen pest populations are usuall y high Even in the \\let season after the T aTipo ap plication. pest aitacks are nOI as severe. T. aripo was first released on cassava farms In Beilin Re public after It had been transported from Brazil and. subsequently, in 11 countnes and IS now confi rmed as established in all of them except Zambia "'T arlpo has a l!>O !ip(ead into Togo and COte d· lvoire from neighboring countries. It spread at about 12 km In ihe first year, and as much as 200 km in the !ieCond year. ~Today, the cassava green mile predalor has been establishe:d o n more ihan 400.000 square kilometers of Africa's cassava growing a l·eas: CouLbaly said. Scientists say the control of Ihe pesl Ihrough the application of toxic chemicals was ruled OUI because of possible adverse effects of chemicals on illiterate farmers and the envlronmenL Also, dISease pathogens and peslS lend to grad ually develop resistance 10 chemIcal pesticides over lime. Mo reover. mosl chemical peslicidesare not selective and might destroy the nalUral enemies and the pests together. Coulibaly noted thai since the re lease ofT. a ripo, benefits in ·Nigeria had been estimated at $1.367bn. followed by Ghana $305m, and Benin $54m Consumed by mo re than 200 million peopte in sub Saharan Africa, cassava is a sta p!e food that IS ri ch Tn calories, htghly droughHolerant . th rives in IXlOr soils and easy to s.ore in Ihe ground M
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