38- V a ngua rd, M ONDAy' JULY 4. 2 0 "
Agric
Financ ialVanguard By ]j~OlAAlONrt'~l lIorm ormer CWef Executive Officer, National Centre for Agrlcullur· a l Mechanisation INCAM) , Professor Kayode ani ha.s said that lood security in Ni· geria can on ly be achieved through transformation of the rural area. Prol . ani asked President Goodluck Jonathan to urgent· Iy develop the rural areas through agro·industry and rural·based private sector par. ticipalion in commercial agricu l ture . He noted that applying Ihe strategy of agro· industrialization for natiobal food secu.rity will not only en· sure iIodequl!!Iite supply of our nutritional needs but central 10 the successful diversifica· tion of the eco nomy and income base nation.The univer· slty Don said this bas become Impe rative because the Mil· lennium Development Goals 01 red ucing wo rld 's hungry people by '2015 may not be rea lized as a result o f a s teady decline in policy attention to agricultural and rural devel· opmen t by t he .ta keholders . Former Chief Executive Officer, National
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Don calls for rural development Adesina . Centre for Agricultural Mech· anisation (NCAM) spoke a t the 94th inaugural lecture of the University 01 llorin enti· Ued ; Mon, MochJne and Food lnsecurlly. The don stressed lurther that in order to overcome f06d crisis situa· tion in the country, all hands must be on deck by all the three tiers 01 government to ensu re thai they take agricul. tural development llS a mat· ler 01 policy in the lask of ad· dressing the ugly situation. Professor Oni who expressed th e conviction that these ef· forl s would surely ensure food production for the teem· ing masses of the country, however said that, "apart from the fa ctors above, other prob.l ems militating against achieving this goal are climate change, ene rg y crunch, fi · IIdnciai crisis, economic un· certainty, population growth envi ronmental degradatio n and a shift in consumption patterns in emerging econo·
mies of the world". According to him, "our co~ntry possess· es the fundamental human, material and institutional resources required to achieve national food security" .He noted that, poverty is Ihe principal cause of hunger And hunger is Blso a cause of pov· erty by causing poor health, low levelS of energy and men· tal impatient and thereby lim· iting the ability of the people to work And learn .The uni· versity don explained; "For eJl:ample, poverty in Nigeria is rated absolute poverty for Jack 01 any form of social security in place, no safety net of any sort as the incidence of poverty in Nigeria compares quite fav.ourably with seve.ral other African ctluntries that are not even blessed with the kind of naturaJ endowment that Nigeria bas." He noted that "the most direct and effective means of raising standard of aJleviating poverty, hunger and malnutrition is lDcreasing
the productivity and incomes of small· holder fanners in the country that would assist the nation ·to be transformed into economic g rowth and devel· opment capable of moving the country lorward" .Apart from this, Oni also recommended that, enabling environment for agricultural development should be responsibility of all the tiers of government as the provision of basic inlrastruc· tures to rur41 communities should be inten.si.fied in order to reduce ru ral migration to urban cf>"fltres and thereby al· lowing t.be economy of the ru ral communities to grow.. He also said that, there must product.development, machines and equ"lpments standardisation , machines and equipments certification, pilot testing of identified rna· chines and equipments, coalition IIIld analysis of shelf sit· ting machines and equip· ments, among others .
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Enugu determined to lead In agriculture -Chime "'Takes delivery of27 new tractors ByTONYEDll(E HE Enugu State Government'. drive to boost Its agri c ultural lortunes through mechanised farming got a massive push at the weekend witb the arrival of a first batch 01 '27 loorand new multi· purpose tracto rs. Receiving the tractors at the old Government Lodge Enugu. Governor Sullivan Chime described \heir arrival as a major leap in the " silent revolution·' that has been going on in the agricultural sector In the state adding that it mlllked a new era i n government's ellons to end large scale manual farming In the state and make it a leader In the Agricultural ~ector. He dis closed thai the government had prepared tbe grounds lor tbe Immediate deployment of the tractors with the establishment 01 two world c1us senlements In Adani and H~eke In Uzo Uwan\ and Ezeagu loca1govemment areas respectively adding that the settlements and others we re . capable 01 supplying all of the Slate's agricultural needs In ·lJllllns. vegetables and tubers and creating over 3.000 Dew job! each year. He said, ''Our dJearn 01 turning Enugu Stale into an agricultural paradise and making agriculture the pillar 01 its economy has taken Toot. We already have two wo rld cla!s farm settlements capable 01 s upplying aJl ow needs In
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agriculture and creating jobs for our teeming youths. Our multi· purpose, 4·whee:l drive tractor! h ave now slarted arriving and we are confldeot that very soon, those trucks whlcb norma lly bring fa.rm produce to Enugu State hom otber parts of the country will be heading In the op.posite direction .~ The governor disclosed that the tractors which were procured with the assistance of the Songbai Agricultural In· stitute, Benin Republic, will also be made available to each 01 the 1110cal government councils in
the state stressing however. thai their performance and maintenance ISlues will be strictly monitored to ensure maximum productivity an d sustenance. Also speaking, the Director of tbe Songhai Institute, Rev. Father Geoff,ey NzearnuJo put the cost at the tractors at N79 mUllan adding that they constttuted the first batch of aseries that would keep arriving until the state 's needs In mechanised farming were me t. He dlsclosed th a t the tractors were deslgn"ea to per-
lorm all sorts of lunctions and work under all condltions and In aI.1 tenalns round tbe year adding that tbey would be principally deployed In the area of production of staple foods such as rice, mabe, yam and cassava. Father NzeamuJo noled that bls ins titute bad trained over 200 Enugu graduates to work In the farm settlements aod the Jocalgovem. ment areas adding that their output will be greatly enhanced with the arrival 01 the tracto rs.
The man who might head the agriculture ministry
r. Adesina Akin · .wurn; is one of those technocrats President Goodluck Jonathan went outside the-shores of the country to invite 10 help move the country forward . Dr. Akin Adesina is current· I.,. the Vice·President 01 Poli· cy and Partnerships at the AI· liance for a Green Revolution to Africa and an Associate Director lor Food Security at the Rockefeller Foundation. Dr. Adeslna is making a huge splash in the agriculture development sector In Africa because of his unique and cutting· edge approaches 10 agricultura.1 development. He is leading a campaJgn to achieve a green revolution in Africa and has played a piv. otal role in assisting African governments to develop policies to s timulate pro· poor ago ricultural growth Ihal targets smallholder farmers across Af· rica. Dr. Adesina is a distin · gulshed agricultural econo· mist, with over 20 years of professional experience in African agriculture. He holds a BSc in AgriculluraJ Econom· ics (First Class Honoun) from the University of !fe, Nigeria, a nd a PhD in Agricultural Economics from Purdue Uni· versity in the United States. He is also a recipient of a number of awards, including American Agricultural Eco· nomic s Associalion· s Out· s tanding Black Agricultural Econorrust Award (200S), Vara Prize for a Green Revolution in Africa (2007) . Last year. he was appointed by United Nations Secretary· General Ban i(j·moon to the Eminent Persons Group as an Advocate 01 the Millennium Development Goals Advoca· cy Group. Dr· Adeslna is an ardent campaigner against poverty and believes that Africa has capacity to feed itself and the· rest of the world, if only more focus was given to unlocking the potential of its AgriCultural sector. He believes that Afri· ca need not depend on donor aid and can beat hunger with· in this generation . He is spearheading an exciting new initiative aimed at un· locking locally available reo sources througb Centr41 and Private banks to finance smalJ·holder agriculture.
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