Vanguard, FRIDAY. OCTOBER 26. 2012 -23
BUSI N ESSj AGRICULTURE
Rood: Agric Ministry embarks on double up fanning to forestall food crisis • Assures Nigerians of rapid response and enhanced productivity .,-,.IE Federal Ministry of lAgricuHure and Rural Development has commenced fast-track measures to increase food production through dry season planllng dunng the commg dry season this year to forestall food shortage followmg the flood dISaster in many states of the country The measures became evident last week in a meeting of directors and heads of departments. held with the mmlster Stocks were taken and plans were OUUlOed on how to obtain hum inputs, Including certlhed seeds, fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides needed 10 aid dry season productJon. To ensure early responses and proper targeting. messages have gone 10 the state directors of the federal ministry of agriculture to get us the list of farmers affected in vanous states. In addition, food items in strategic grains reserve would be deploye:l to cusluon the effects of food shortage.
Directors of agricultu re For the production, the regional and state oUice directors of the nunistry will be worklng with the stales' commissioners and directors of agricullure on how to go about the Intervention of emergency Growth Enhancement Support (GES) platform Stressing the urgency, the Minister, Dr. Altin Adesma. said the more delays we have, the less successful the interventions will be. lie therefore announced that. "where the GSM system is not functioning, we can use the voucher system . We don't want a situalion in which seeds and fertltser are given and they disappear. We want a system that we can account for." Tn some states, the dry season intervention wUI involve a double-up approach. For the double-up approach, the regional directors have been directed to register farmers and harness those already registered on the platform of GES for the purpose of additional food production Dr. AdeslOa added that. for "those who have aJready lost crops to flood. we will use our strategiC grains reserve to support. Mr. President has released money to the states ; they can buy."
For fertiliser, although a total of 610.000 MT IS expected by December, records from the ministry show that 167,540 MT is available now, going by feelers [rom "those that have responded to ow inquiries on avat1ability. We wrote to about 12 of those fertiliser compaOles - those that performed well. Six of them have sent their stock position to us. on what they can produce between now and December."
A5 a part of preparahon for the dry season, the mmater promised to give free seeds and fertliser to those affected areas. -rhe emphasis should be that. what IS bemg done here is a one·time intervention strategy in response to the present emergency," Adesina stressed Among the vanous mputs, 36,000 litres 01 herbicides. 22,000 litres of InsectiCIdes have been estimated as urgently needed
Efforts are already belng made to lmport 173,000 MT and produce 260,000 MT locally by December. The mirustry has Said it would no longer purchase genenc fertiliser as done in the past but would determme what to purchase henceforth on the basis of commodity·by· commochly reqUIrement. In addition to staples. horticullural crops will be involved as they are tradllionally grown dunng dry seasons, for example. onions
FG to set agenda on fisheries at Indonesia -Strengthens value chains in fisheries, livestock HE Federal Government has reiterated its committed to strengthemng value chains of hshenes, livestock and c rops as parts of strategies to reposition agricultural sector of the economy with a view to malting the sector economically viable rather than a deve10pment program The Permanent Secretary. in the r-ederal MmlStry of Agriculture and Rurlll Deve1opmenl, Dr Ezekiel Oyeyoml stated thiS yesterday in Ahuja at a meeting to outline Nigeria's position for the fish and fisheries product slated lor Bali. Indonesia He said the mmistry has strengthened its quality assurance unit tosupporl mdustnal fish traWling and recently embarked on cerlificatlOn (or aquaculture Industry" The Permanent Secretary said that the Nigeria's food safety systems have been receiVing substantial international attenbon lately speCially With respect to the establishment of a national food safety comnultee "A5 part of the Federal Government of Nigeria's effort to grow agnculture, ensure food security, alleViate poverty, diverSify the economy and generate foreign exchange, the Federal MIOIstry o( Agriculture and Rural Development has embarked on the Implemenlatlon of programs to transform the Nigenan agncuJture by repositioning agriculture as business rather than deve10pment programme.
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L·R: CommunlciJUon Channel Manil!l'u, UnJJe l'erNlg~r/a PIc:. Afr. Chr/sA digu O?; Markel ing D ired or, M r. Dal1d Ok em e and Cafeg ory"-faniJg er (Savoury), M rs. Olza G/ran. during the Unile ller N ig. PIc inaug ural press conferen ce on Kn orr Tast e Ouesl i n Lagos... on Tuesday. Px Biodun OgunJeye
Agric Yes programme: Over 300 youths empowered in Lagos HE Lagos State T Agriculture Youth Empowerment Scheme, popularly known as "Agncaimed at empowering youths, has so far empowered over three hundred youths with an additional one hundred parttclpants undergoing training at the moment. Course Officer for Vegetable , Mr. Hakeem Anjolaiya, who disclosed this at the institute training centre at Epe, SaId that the overall aim 01 the scheme is to breed a new generation 01 agroentrepreneurs In poultry. fish farming. bee-keepmg and all season vegetable fllrming . Anjolaiya said the Itudents 01 the institute normally go through six months intensive YES~
traming and also a period of internship before they are left on their own as fulJ fledged far mer s He explained that after the training, the government gives the participants money and some plots of land to assist them to go into mechanized agriculture . ~Sincelhis programmestllrted in 2009, we have trained about 300 youths and we are in the fourth batch of training 1000(them. We train them in poultry fanning, crop tarmers, fish farmers meat production and so on "We get our students through advertisement in the media after that we conduct a test for them, we usually collect 36 female and 6-4 males lor each batch of student to sum up
100 partlcipants for a session" he said . lie further noted that after the training that the participants would be diVided IOto co· operatives and each co· operative would be given the sum of N lOOmillion to carry out thelT agricultural venture. According to him. "apart from the N 100millton, the participants were also given accommodation where they can live with their own families . We also have a fulJy automated layer pen where we generate 500 crates of eggs per day. people are coming to buy them and we move out as much that we can produce. We can't eveD meet the demllnd of the market