The Federal
Government has commended the Ijebu Development Initiative on Poverty Reduction ( IDIPR) for
contributing to fish production in the country and advised other states to
emulate the community’s agricultural initiative.
The
Federal Government through the Minister of State, Agriculture and Rural
Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri stated this when a delegation of the Ijebu Development Initiative on Poverty
Reduction
led by the Chairman, Board of Directors of the initiative,
Prof.
Olanipekun Alausa paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja.
The Minister
who described Ijebu community as a pride of Africa in the production of fish, said
“When
we came last two years, Nigeria was producing about 700,000 tonnes of fish but
this has increased to about 1.1 million tonnes which means that there has been
an increment of 400 tonnes and the rise in the statistics was attributed to
the contribution of Ijebu community.
The Minister quoted
the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as saying that
Ijebu community had the highest number of fish clusters in the world and
expressed happiness that other communities like Bayelsa people were coming to
Ijebu community to learn fish farming for them to leverage on their water bodies.
According to the
Minister, the current deficit in fish in Nigeria is over two million tonnes and
urged citizens to invest to boost fish production and create jobs in the
agriculture sector, “Federal Government has mandate to increase investments in Agriculture as
alternative to oil and we are ready to support all farmers”, he stated.
The Minister stated “We
realized that fish import is no more sustainable and what we did was to
encourage those that import it to think of the backward integration by reducing
the quota year by year in agreement with the CBN. Very soon, we are not going
to give quota for fish importation. We want everybody to set up their fish
farms, employ our people and create jobs for our people”.
He noted that
the biggest challenge facing Agriculture in Nigeria is the high interest rate and
stated that the Bank of Agriculture has
been restructured to enable lending to farmers at single digit rate as well as
compete favorably with commercial banks.
He said the
government would soon complete and commission the fish feed mill located at
Eriwe village farm in Ijebu community of Ogun state while appreciable number
of smoking kilns would be given to them
to boost their fish production.
Earlier in his
remarks, Prof. Olanipekun Alausa, the Chairman, Board of Directors of the
initiative, listed some challenges hindering the agricultural initiative to
include lack of infrastructure such as rural roads ; inadequate access to loans
and lack of modern agricultural tools for mechanized farming among others.
“We want provision of
access roads in the farm villages, access to direct credit and government’s
grants toward our poverty reduction programme.
The change in the life of the poor is visible as the needs and
well-being of women and other disadvantaged groups in our community are being
met. Hundreds of young graduates now see
agriculture as a thriving business and cluster innovation farming platform has
been proved beyond doubt that it is capable of making fortune,’’ the chairman
stated.
He said the scheme, which was
established in 1999 as a non-governmental organization, was geared toward
community development to reduce poverty and improve the livelihood of people,
using agriculture and micro-credit among others was involved in poultry, livestock, piggery, bee-keeping, all season
vegetables , cocoa farming among others to ensure poverty reduction and contribute to
agricultural development of the country. The Chairman said the initiative which has 691
number of cooperative societies farming on 639 hectares of farm land was
currently supplying food items to nine local government areas in the state and appealed for more support from the Federal
Government to enhance the initiative’s performance.
Muhammad
Tahir Zakari MFR
For: Ag Director Information.
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