e BusinessWORLD
Tuesday, January: 25, 2011.
THISDAY, Vol. 16, No. 5755, Page 39
agnc
Anitnal Care to Standardise Egg Production n irs effmt to enhance the standardization of poultty egg production, Animal Care Konsult now produces eggs with higher amounts of available and deliverable nutrient in Nigeria. 1bis was made know by the President of the company, Dr. Olatunde Agbato, at the lunch of Funnma eggs brand. Agbato stated that while all eggs contain certain minimum levels of nutrienrs, funtuna eggs had higher nutrient, adding that this is being made possible because of the world class, state of art faborntory. Agbato said the aVailability of seasoned and experienced local and foreign professionals in the company was also a rtuljor advantage in the breakthrough so far recorded by the company. He explained said that Funnma frums, the poultry operation arm of Animal Care Konsult ,had been admitted into the membership of the International Egg Conunission- a global network of major egg industry players from over 60 countries worldwide with headquarters in London. 'According to him, "Funnma fanns is the first in Nigeria and Sub-Sahara Africa to be admitted to the netwolk:' The President of the company said that when they started 30years ago, funnma eggs were sold as generic eggs jUSIlike the other eggs in the maIket. He said about 15 years ago, the company decided to brand it' eggs. "Over the years, funnma fanns constantly devised means of adding value to irs eggs to keep the brand on top of the pack with super rior nutritional advantages which has today given birth to the re-brandinr of the eggs' , be said. 'The fimnma egg life variant is considered as the basic standard, other volue added varianrs of eggs will be added to address the specific nutritio:Jai and health needs of different ages and peculiatities. '''This will be made possible by our scientists who are already woIk-
I
FG Acquires N73m Vehicles for Food Security
F
ederal Government recently gave out N73 million wmth of five media equipped vehicles to five states to fight food insecurity. The beneficiary states are Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Kaduna and K wara. Speaking at the handing over ceremony in Abuja, the Project Officer, Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), 1bra1tim Arabi, said the media vehicles, Prado Jeeps, will create =ssary public awareness to agriculrural extension and other project activities within and outside the project sites expected to COIltribute to the achievement of the goals and objectives of the project. Arabi said about the project, 'This project is one of the products of rural/community development strategy of Nigeria with the goals and objectives of food security, poverty reduction, improving the livelihood and living conditions of the rural poor through the provision of social and rural infrastrucrure facili-
From Yemi Akinsuyi in Abuja ties". The ConJinator stated that the
project was financed with a toJa! cost of UA 15.98 million, USD 23 million in the ratio of ADB (81 percent ),FG (3 percent),5 state gnvernmenrs (6 per cent), 45 local governmenrs (9 per cent ) and 135 communities (1 per cent) either in kind or cash. He called on the beneficiaties to make proper and good use of the vehicles in order to impact positively on the lives of the beneficiaries and also ensure the proper maintenance of the vehicles.
"On our part, we will engage monitoring
mechanism
for
proper utilisation in the ADP where the media vans are domiciled. It is our ardent hope that the states and local governments will continue to suppon the pnr ject, especially in the prompt payment of their counterpart funds to enable effective and efficient project implementation in their communities" .
By Crusoe Osagie ing on the formulation and production of the designer rations that will enable the bens to lay these value added vaOanrs just as they did for the Basic standard;' be added. He said that there is a growing awareness on the nutritional value of eggs and the myth sunuunding egg consumption has begun to wear thin. 'This has. resulted ill an increasing level of per capital egg consumption in Nigeria. There is need for increase in the number of outle!s maIketing eggs especially in supennarl<ets and neighbourllood grocery stories", be said. He funher said that young upwardly mobile Nigerians who are well informed about product quality go all out for products with a good reputation, adding that this class of consumer
Rural Agriculture: Women Farmers at Disadvantage
A
new United Nations interagency report on the gender dimension of agriculrural wolk said women still benefit less than men from rural ernployn:ient and face new cballenges due to the current economic and food crises. The report titled, "Gentler dimensions of agticulrural and rural employment: Differentiated pathways out of poverty" , said that "although gender inequality vaties considerably across regions and sectors, there is evidence that, globally, women benefit less from rural employment, wbether in self- or wage-employment, than men do".
At the same time, the report said that besides other challenges regarding gender dispsrities in rural employment, "the recent financial and food crises have slowed down progress towards greater gender equity" anti decent woIk for women in agriculrural and rural areas over the past few years. "With job losses and cuts in spending on social services and infrasbucture~
women's care
burdens and unpaid woIk have intensified, and their financial contribution to household food security is likely to decrease," the repmt said . '''This is particularly dramatic for female-beaded households" . The repmt also cited migration and the feminization of rural activities, international trade and the diversification of the rural economy, and child labour as other issues and trends affecting
women employed in agticulrural woIk. The report by FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (!FAD) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) brings Iogether the latest thinking on the gender dimension of rural and agricultural woIk and seeks 10 promote the debate about the importance of women for rural economic growth and poverty reduction. The report added that some of the factors that may push women into a disadvantaged economic position are: employment (occupation and task), segmentation (women are disproportionately employed in lowquality jobs), the gender gap in earnings, and fewer hours of paid wolk but overall larger woIk burdens. As an example, the report said "it is interesting to observe that 90 percent of the wage gap between men and women in developed or developing counties is unexplained: in other words, it is attributed 10 gender
n a bid to address the issues of food security in the country, both local and foreign experts are exploring the opportunities presented by organic agriculture. Olusegun Obasanjo Centre for Organic Research and Development (OOCORD) , a group set up to help develop research and know ledge
I
exchange on sustainable organ-
ic agriculrure in the country, system had potential to boost food security. The group said it would collaborate with Nigerian Organic Agriculrure Netwolk (NOAN) and Agro Eco Louis Bolk Institute, Netherlands to boost both local food security and income generation needs.
• L-R: Execulive Dirrctor, Equinox Resources, Mr. KekdJj Ozuzu, Hetul, Lagos 'Office, SfIuuJortl, Organi.sotion ofNigeriJJ (SON), Mr. Agboola ,volayan, Mqnaging DirecfDrlCEO, Mr. Obinna Euulw, with officials of SON, Mr. ElwlrBme Pre,., and Mr. Abah Dankl oJ the presentoJion of MANCAP (ISO) certifi. cou 2010 fD Equinox ResoUl'Ctls in Lagos
.
sures must be implemented 10 The report showed that reduce and redistribute the burwomen face disctimination that ••den of housework. limirs both their economic pnr . • Public wolks programmes can suppmt gender equality in ductivity and their personal rural employment, especially if development. Women need beneficiaries are genuinely access to education, training, involved in designing them. credit, markers, technical assis• Promoting quality female tance and labour protection. education in rural areas and They need equal, secure access reducing gender gaps in primary to land and other assets.And they and secondary schooling wjll need 'social capital', including improve women's access to the ability to participate equally decent employment. with men in farmers' organiu• Non-lraditional agricultural tions. exporls can generate quality With these advantages Oong employment for women and available to men), women can men, but women in particular are increase their contribution to vulnerable 10 lax enforcement of national development and poverlabour standards. ty reduction. Seventy per cent of A package of complethe developing world's 1.4 billion mentary policy measures is extremely poor people live in needed to address the many genrural areas, so raising rural der differences in rural employwomen's economic participation ment. The measures should is crucial to achievement of the include legal reforms that proMillennium Development mote gender equality; social safety nets; assistance to organiGoals. zations supporting farmers, Among the report's concluwomen and youth; child care sions are: programmes; education; and • The enormous economic beuer access 10 infonnation and contribution of unpaid work labour markets. must be recognized, and meadiscrimination" .
Food Security: Experts Parley on Organic Agriculture
said the organic agriculture
':.i.:
constirute a significant group at which Funnma Egg is targeted. . In his contnbution, the Chainrum of the occasion, SirTolaAntinmo, a distinguished professor of Nutrition University of Ibad3n ~imd President Federation of African Nutrition Societies (FANUS) acknowledged the contributions Animal Care Konsult had made in the . production of high nutrition eggs in Nigeria. He said that in ljllOtber 2 to 3years with funnma eggs, the mortality rate of children in Nigeria will fall. He said at age 6 months and above, an egg a day is what is required. Speaking on the health implication of egg consumption, be said one of the myths of egg consumption is irs link with high blood cholesterol and heart disease. He said while it is true that eggs contain some dietary cholesterol, recent research has showed that there is no linkage between dietary cholesterol and blood cholesterol. "It is the saturated fat and trans-fattharbas been found to raise blood cbolesterollevel in human body and eggs are really low in saturated fat and do not contain any trans-fat" He noted that a renowned nutritionist, Dr. Ancet Keys, and his colleagues showed that people who eat six or more eggs a week had lower risk of heart disease than people who ate less than one egg per week. The unveiling of the new Funnma brand was done by the representative of the Group Managing Direclors of Union Bank Pic and Sterling Bank Pic. There was an interactive session with distributors anti guesrs at the event.
The OOCORD Executive Director, Prof. Jonathan Babatola told newsmen that this became necessary because the country has been lagging behind on the usage of organic agriculrure and wants it promoted. "OOCORD is set up to develop research and knowledge exchange on sustainable organic agriculture systems to address the dual role of food security and income generation for public good, " he said.
Elzakker in his presentation
By Chinazor Megbolu He explained that OOCORD is set to develop farming system, which will rely on renewable, non-polluting pcacrices, which are murually beneficial to farmers as well as the environment with regards to principles of health, ecology, fairness and care respectively. Babatola higltlighted that the objectives would be to develop and maintain the infrastnJcrure, skills and processes necessary to identity, address and solve the challenges of farming community to developing a nationwide sustainable agriculture
capable of meeting local food security and income generation needs within the context of vulnerability and change. Others include, cultivate a peer level process of murual learning and democratic collaboration among a diverse
community of organic farmers, scientists. extortionists. consultant, consumers aqd others for
the pursuit of the project mission, create a shared under-
standing of organic agriculrure as a mainstream approach to managing agricultural system. Meanwhile, the Eco Agro Managing Director, Mr. Bo van
noted that the mission of the company in Nigeria was to help strengthen OOCORD's functions in Nigeria in collaboration with Nigeria's National Institute
for
Horticulture
Research (NIHORT), Conventry. University and the African Leadership Development Centre, UK. He hinred that in a bid to promote organic Agriculture in Nigeria. researches have been
going on most of the country's universities and Agricultural institutions in order to give the
nation a much needed boost to help address this trend in a coordinated way. "Nigeria's wealth, landmass variety of vegetation zones and
large population of 150 million also makes potential possible production economies of scale
that few other countries could match. It also means apart from competing for the export market, it has a large potential local market that wairs to be developed, " he said. Elzakker, however, . expressed optimism that soon organic Agriculture would involve thousands of the country farmers and snowhall into small, medium and large scale industries.