24 -
V"'ng~ard,
FR'IlI\Y,
I!BIER 30, 2011
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BUSINESS ; AGR I CULTURE L
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NANlrS urges FG to ensure farmers benefitted from Agric Action Plan STOP. IES ))Y JlMOII BABA11.JNDf II'lfh /fgenC}'
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r-r'tiE N~tiOlllt Association of _l Nigerian n-aders (NANTS) has told the Federal Government t~ ensure that small-scale farmen benefited from the l'I300 billion, earmarked for agriculture under the Agricultural Transform ... tion Action Plan (ATAP) . The association's appeal was contained in a letler to the Minister of Pgriculture , Dr Akinwunmi A..desina. and signed by its president , Mr Ken Ukaoha, n copy 01 which was made a\ aUable to the medi ... . NANTS s~sed the need to make sure thd only genuine farmers and not those il desc ribe d ~ I . . porUolio (armers" without fannlands beneGtad from the fund . U said the Fortrolio farmen were' , !IIgricullurai contractors without f.umlands" and had (or long !l1I.botitged agriculture ! cb.emes in th'! country. '"We, therefore, call o n government to cany out careful investigations on the beneficiaries of previou. schemes so a , to ensure tbat red farmen; henefit from the programme," it said. It urge d tb'! government's Econoolic Mtnagement Tea m (EMT) to fonnulate the content of the ATAF. using mullistakeholders l'pptOdch as well as release the frame for the programme. NANTS saili that this would enable s!akeh')lden, especil\lly the private s Clctor to prepare
S},II'ia M1I1chuD. Dinctor CommanJaUoD. of AGRA lI.D.d Keb.iD.de /tfaklnde. Country Officer, Ghana lor AGRA darittg a media dutl Ittilb jOIU71<1.llsls io AGRA olDce in Accr.t actions and programmes thet would complement government in kick-starting the overall economy. It noted that apart [rom the 3.5 million jobs expected to be created by ATAP within four yean of implementation, it bad the potential of becoming the mast successful of all existing governmenl initiatives aimed at combaling u.nemployment and hunger. The association commended the economic team's vision for crops like rice, cess ava, sorghum, cocoa and colton it selected for intervention by the action plan, saying they had proven to have potentiaJ for
wealth creation and revenue generation. , NANTS wants to believe that with the advent of ATAP, Nigeria seems set to relr.lce it steps to job aeation. â&#x20AC;˘ As a trade and agriculture organis:ation., NANTS expects that the Dew programme will take agriculture as a serioua business beyond what we a_ today lIS survival vocation," it said. It also called on government to look into the crisis in faod processing, noting that the country spent as much as N 1.8 trillion on importation of Cood recently, due to tbe dearth of the process industry for
agriculture produce. 'We 4Jt!I convinced tbat 1U0re than 70 per cent of these imports are proce.ued food which could have been conied out locally witbou t requiring rocket science technology. ' We totally condemn t.be status of Nigeria remaining al the level of IDere production without value addition, the saIDe unfortunate condition thai bD trailed the nallon even in the oil sector," it said. NANTS, therefore, pledged its commitment to the success of the Agriculture TI"anJ;formation Action Pian.
AFAN offl..ial wants extension officers t o handle fertiliser distribut ion ALHAJI Bello Galoji. the Youth Wing Chairma n. All Farmer.; Association of Nigeria (AFAN) in Baucbi, has suggested that the distribution of fertilisers should be handled by agriculture exte nsion officers to minimise diversion of the commodity. Speaking o n Thesday in Bauchi. Galoji said that this approach would not onJy minimise diversion, but also e nsure th at tbe co rn.r nodity reached peasant farmers. He noted that most extension officers were civil servants, 'amilillJ with the rural fanners and their terrain, adding Ulat they were in a better position to do the job. The chairmen said that the biccups experienced in the procureme nt and distribution of fertiliser would have a negative effect on the 2011 halVest in Bauchi State_ Ihere W1l.5 no fertiliser at the period !hat the state witnessed consistent rainfall and most fanner.; could notdlford the cost at the open market. "Again. it was too late {or them to start source for local manure from the State Environmental Protection Agenc, and so they were in a fix. "The only hope of good hlllVest this year is from beans, groundnut and the like, which are all cash and not food crops," he said.
In Tanzania, more investments in cassava means faster economic development ASSAVA stakeholders in Tanzania called on the country's top leadersh ip to cbampion the crop to trans(orm the country's agricultural sector and catalyze its economic develol?ment. They emphasIZed that the crop, if well exploited under a national cassava development platform, can help fight poverty and hUDger in the country. TIley appealed to Tanza.Dla's highest oUke to commit to and support tbis initiative. They observed that the direct involvement of the presidents of olber countries such as in Ghana, Nigeria, and Zambia in cassava development initiatives bad played a big role in Iheir successes and wished to see llie same in Tenzan.ia under the ~uidance of tbe current preside nt, H .E . (Dr) Jakaya Mrisbo Kikwete . Cassava seclor stakeholders aired this
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Edo governor promises 25,000 job opport unities from agric sector O VERf'JOR Ada.ms Oshlomhole of Edo says G investnlent in egriculture will provid'J 25.000 jobs lor youths in tbe stt!.te.
Oshiombo 1e made the disclosure while speaking in Benin during the week . He ~aid ;Jovernment was partne ring with some
Vietnamese to produce rice and tha t they have already started work. "In Edo slate, my argument is. the responsibility of lbe leader is not to llummt what we have done wrong, but to learn the right lessons and see how we can correct. So right now, we are moving more into agriculture. We
h t!.ve Area of the stale.
He said the plant would be one or tbe biggest in Africa and capable oC emplaying more than 10,000 people. He said the iml4llal:Wn of the plant would save the nation the trouble o( importing fertiliser which sometimes, was of poor quality and delivered at th e wrong season to farmers.
appeal at the conclusion of the lirst-ever Cassava Week in Tanzania, held on 12-16 September in Dar es Salaam. Echoing their sentiments, Hartmann, Director General of !ITA, in a speech read on his b ebal f by Victor l\'1enyong, R4D Director for East and Central Africa, at the launch of the Cassava Week said thot agriculture offered Ule country great opportunities for economic development and c1l.Ssava W1I.S one crop that can playa key role in trans{onning the sector. He added thel it is important to increase the country's technological cepabilities to acquire, adapt, a nd a pply modem agricultural sciences, and invest in developing the skills of Tanzanian youths to develop and run s uccessful agribusiness. He said that the country did not leek investors; ratber, it l acked skilled graduates to operate co mmercial agribusinesses.