Agric council approves Ogun’s request for farmers’ support on drought, and 29 others

* Communique 

The National Council on Agriculture and Rural Development (NCARD) chaired by the Minister of Agriculture, Alhaji Sabo Nanano has approved the memo presented by Ogun state asking for the approval for farmers in Nigeria that are affected by climate change drought to be supported along with other 38 memoranda for the year 2021 policy implementation direction.

The approval for this memo and one other on mainstreaming nutritional and food safety value addition  along with  37 others were approved  at the 44th meeting of the NCARD held last week Thursday at the International conference centre, Abuja.

 A total of 39 substantive memoranda was presented by the head of technical committee, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) Dr. Ernest Afolabi Umakhike before the council along side with Ogun state’s own for approval by the council members who are commissioners of agriculture from all the 36 states of the federation including Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The two memoranda presented by the Ogun state ministry of Agriculture on ‘’ Climate change natural disasters of drought and flood and need for equal recognition and same level compensation and intervention, and one other on ‘’ mainstreaming nutrition and food safety into extension and agricultural intervention activities’’ were expressly approved with an adjustment that the one seeking support for farmers on drought impact be extended to all states across the nation.  

Speaking on the two approvals, the Commissioner for Agriculture, Ogun state, Dr. Samson Odedina said that the request for the support for affected farmers as regards drought in the states of the federation was being motivated by the lot of losses being recorded without any support from government to get them quickly back to production, saying both flood and drought are climate change impacts that needed support of Government and relevant stakeholders to mitigate losses impact on farmers.

 Dr. Odedina said that the second approved memo on enhanced ‘’nutrition’’ would attend to the empowerment of the people and institutions that are involved in production, utilization and adoption of the crops and livestock with potentials to address nutritional challenges like bio fortified crops of ‘’ vitamin A cassava, vitamin A maize, Orange Fleshed Sweet potato, Iron beans, zinc rice and livestock, vegetables and other traditional less popular crops and animal production’’ 

He added that the memo emphasised the need to mainstream the promotion of nutritionally-enhanced crops and livestock sources into the National Agricultural training and extension activities in Nigeria by making it a key and fully established component of Agricultural extension service in Nigeria.

The representative of the Deputy Governor, and commissioner of Agriculture Kano state, Dr. Alhaji Nasiru Yusuf-Gawuna emphasized his support for the approval saying it would timely address the impact of drought on Nigerian farmers nationwide in the same proportion of attention and support given to farmers that are affected by flood in order to quickly get back to production towards food security, added that anytime the government is asking for flood affected areas, the issue of the drought too must be mentioned.

The draft of the communiqué read by Dr. Umakhike stated that the council has considered 39 substantive and 24 information memoranda from both the public and private organizations in the agricultural sector with an attendance of  880 participants including 64 on the virtual zoom from National Assembly, Federal and states ministry of Agriculture, department and agencies in the agricultural sector, including representative of organised private sector in Nigeria.

Also a part of the draft communiqué commended President Mohammudu Buhari for the untiring effort of his administration to divert the dependency of the nation’s economy on  oil and gas to agricultural repositioning to create job and wealth through agribusiness and commercialization even in the face of Covid 19 pandemic and climate change challenges of flood and drought devastation, thereby emphasising on the need to bring about lasting solution to herdsmen and farmers conflicts.

Part of the approved memoranda as read by the PS FMARD are as follow

1. The conduct of detailed national survey and soil fertility mapping nationwide in collaboration with private sector

2. A draft national agricultural extension policy to be domesticated at the states and local government in revitalization of adopted villages/schools for greater effectiveness and rich extension service delivery

3. The development and improvement of artisanal fishery in Nigeria especially in the Niger-Delta of Akwa-Ibom, Rivers, Cross Rivers, Balyesa etc for improved production of fish.

4. Mitigation strategies against post harvest losses of fish produce.

5. The increase of domestic fish production to reduce fish importation in the face of covid-19

6. The proposal to re-establish national baseline for national livestock population in the face of covid19, flood and insecurity

7. The national policy for control of contagious bovine pleura-pneumonia disease, foot and mouth diseases and African swine fever in Nigeria.

8. Domestication and implementation of national gender policy in Agriculture

9. The adoption of remote sensing technology for improved generation of agricultural statistics for policy planning and early warning system.

10. Revitalization of agricultural extension services in the face of Covid 19 and flood challenges

11. The FGN support in climate resilience agricultural strategies and PPP agro industry establishment

12. The mainstreaming of nutrition and food security into extension, and agriculture intervention activities

13. The proposal to the training of 25,000 extension workers over a period of 3yrs which will include the beneficiary of Npower and funding strategies which included a proposed 2.5% farmers’ loan, levy on agricultural produce and Central Bank of Nigeria support.

14. A proposal to revive school farms and young farmers clubs to encourage youths to venture into farming business as a sustainable agricultural development

15. Proposal for the utilization of cool store for potato and vegetables (tomato, onions, garbage)

16. The establishment of Bio-pesticide centres in Nigeria food security and safety.

17. The abolition of the use of tyres, plastic materials to flaring animals for human consumption to be replaced by renewable energy and gas

18. Establishment of livestock disease free zones/ disease free farms for furtherance to animal and animal products export

19. The proposal for the resuscitation of national agricultural data management and information system for the planning and policy implementation

20. Increase funding commitment compliance of the FGN, states and local government with Maputo/ Malabo declaration for meeting SDG2 on zero hunger which stipulates a minimum of 10% of annual budget allocation to agriculture.

21. The green imperative project for improved mechanization of agriculture

22. The National Livestock Transformation plan proposed to be implemented for over 10 years in Nigeria with the involvement of the private sector.

23. The establishment of the gene bank for conservation of horticultural genetic resources food and nutrition security with economic empowerment.

24. The draft national agricultural technology and innovation plan soon to launch.

25. The establishment of National Council on Agriculture and Rural Development resolution implementation task team to ensure compliance on council resolutions.

26. Memo on Aflatoxin- industry and trade bodies, monitoring and implementation of standard in the market place, develop the system to converge the technical policy and institutional innovations to achieve zero hunger and zero reject in Nigeria.

27. Memo on coconut cultivation through out-growers scheme

28. Memo on causes of flood and control measures in Plateau state

29. Memorandum for adoption of powder and liquid egg technology for export as panacea for egg-glut  

30. Memo on the review of agricultural officers from level 08 to 09.

31. Memo on climate change natural disaster of drought and flood and need for equal recognition and same compensation to farmers.