Organic tomatoes accumulate more vitamin C, sugars than conventionally grown fruit

Tomatoes grown on organic farms accumulate higher concentrations of sugars, vitamin C and compounds associated with oxidative stress compared to those grown on conventional farms, new research suggests.

Tomatoes grown on organic farms accumulate higher concentrations of sugars, vitamin C and compounds associated with oxidative stress compared to those grown on conventional farms, according to new research.

Tomatoes grown on organic farms accumulate higher concentrations of sugars, vitamin C and compounds associated with oxidative stress compared to those grown on conventional farms, according to research published February 20 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Maria Raquel Alcantara Miranda and colleagues from the Federal University of Ceara, Brazil.

In their study, the researchers compared the weights and biochemical properties of tomatoes from organic and conventional farms. They found that tomatoes grown on organic farms were approximately 40% smaller than those grown by conventional techniques, and they also accumulated more compounds linked to stress resistance.

According to the authors, organic farming exposes plants to greater stress than conventional farming. They suggest that this increased stress may be the reason organic tomatoes had higher levels sugars, vitamin C and pigment molecules like lycopene, an anti-oxidant compound -- all of which are associated with the biological response to stress. Based on these observations, the authors suggest that growing strategies for fruits and vegetables should aim to balance plant stress with efforts to maximize yield and fruit size, rather than trying to eliminate stress to increase yields.

Highly contagious honey bee virus transmitted by mites

Researchers have discovered a parasitic mite has caused the deformed wing virus to proliferate in honey bee colonies.

Researchers report that the parasitic 'Varroa' mite has caused the deformed wing virus to proliferate in honey bee colonies. This association is now thought to contribute to the world-wide spread and probable death of millions of honey bee colonies. The current monetary value of honey bees as commercial pollinators in the United States alone is estimated at about $15-$20 billion annually.

Researchers at the University of Sheffield have discovered a parasitic mite has caused the deformed wing virus to proliferate in honey bee colonies.

This association is now thought to contribute to the world-wide spread and probable death of millions of honey bee colonies. The current monetary value of honey bees as commercial pollinators in the United States alone is estimated at about $15-$20 billion annually.

The research conducted in Hawaii by researchers from the University of Sheffield, the Marine Biological Association, the Food and Environment Research Agency and the University of Hawaii, and reported in the journalScience, showed how the Varroa mite caused deformed wing virus (DWV) -- a known viral pathogen -- to increase its frequency among honey bee colonies from 10 per cent to 100 per cent.

This change was accompanied by a million-fold increase in the number of virus particles infecting each honey bee and a massive reduction in viral strain diversity leading to the emergence of a single virulent DWV strain.

Dr Stephen Martin, of the University of Sheffield's Department of Animal and Plant Sciences said: "Just 2,000 mites can cause a colony containing 30,000 bees to die. The mite is the biggest problem worldwide for bee keepers; it's responsible for millions of colonies being killed.

"Understanding the changing viral landscape that honey bees and other pollinators face will help beekeepers and conservationists worldwide protect these important insects. We have discovered what happens at the start of an infection. The goal is to understand how the infection comes about so that we can control it.

"Deformed Wing Virus is naturally transmitted in bees through feeding or sex but the mites change the disease so it becomes more deadly, shortening the bees' lives."

As the mite and new virulent strain of the virus becomes established across the Hawaiian Islands the new emerging viral landscape will mirror that found across the rest of the world where the Varroa mite is now established.

This ability of a mite to permanently alter the honey bee viral landscape may by a key factor in the recent colony collapse disorder (CCD) and over-wintering colony losses (OCL) as the virulent pathogen strain remains even after the mites are removed.

Africa’s agric market to hit $1trn in 15 years

The Africa’s Agricultural market will be worth $1trillion (about N200 trillion) in the next 15 years going by latest estimation.

Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, the President of African Development Bank (AfDB), who announced this, Wednesday in Dakar, Senegal, said that he continent must urgently take advantage of this prospect by rapidly investing in the development of its agro-industry sector.

“A bold plan to transform agriculture will boost local food production, reduce food import bills, conserve foreign exchange, increase domestic savings and assure strong macroeconomic and fiscal stability,” the AfDB President emphasized.

He however noted that  this can only happen if agriculture is treated as real business venture attracting investments from the private sector across the entire agricultural value chains, including modern seed and fertiliser (organic and inorganic) companies, agricultural mechanization, irrigation and water management, warehousing, commodity exchanges, food manufacturing and processing, logistics, cold storage and transport.

Adesina was speaking at the opening of a three-day high-level conference on “Feeding Africa, An Action Plan for African Agricultural Transformation” at the Abdou Diouf International Conference Centre in Diamniadio, near Dakar in Senegal.

He cited the remarkable progress made by Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana and Ethiopia in the global horticulture industry as a clear indication that well-designed policies, financing and infrastructure support can propel Africa to the top of the global food value chains.

The AfDB President also recounted how he leveraged Nigeria’s agro-food sector when he served as agriculture minister by working closely with the Finance Ministry and the Central Bank to encourage Bank lending to the sector.

“We need to look critically at how to accelerate commercial financing for agriculture. Banks do not lend to the agriculture sector and less than 3 percent of total bank lending in Africa goes to a sector that accounts for about 70 percent of all employment and over 40 percent of the GDP. Lack of access to affordable finance leads to underinvestment in agricultural technologies, growth of agro-allied industries and investments in infrastructure,” he said.

“By fixing agricultural value chains and de-risking the financial value chains, Africa can leverage billions of dollars in financing from its domestic financial markets into agricultural value chains.”

He also spoke on how the “New Deal on Energy for Africa,” part of the five-point development agenda he unveiled in September, would help transform the agricultural sector and make it attractive for young people and women.

President Adesina announced that the AfDB will work with other partners to establish a $300-million facility for Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa – which will be used to deploy risk sharing instruments for leveraging $3 billion in commercial financing and financing from microfinance institutions to women and women-owned businesses.

He said that by providing greater attention to labour-saving technologies, especially food processing technologies, to enable women to invest their time in more productive income-earning opportunities.

In closing, Adesina emphasized that Africa’s agricultural transformation should, in a decade, result in the elimination of extreme poverty in Africa, end hunger and malnutrition in Africa, turn Africa into a net food exporter, and move Africa to the top of the global value chains.

For his part, Senegal’s President Macky Sall commended Adesina for his five bold initiatives for Africa’s development in agriculture, energy, integration, industrialization, and for improved quality of life for the people of Africa, saying the entire continent should support these brilliant initiatives which are in sync with the continent’s development vision.

“Agriculture is life,” President Sall said, noting the diverse background of the conference participants was a guarantee that it would produce exceptional results.

Earlier, the Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Augustin Matata Ponyo Mapon, called for a new agricultural revolution in Africa, noting that we cannot continue to use hoes, machetes and poor seeds in our farms and expect a good harvest.

He suggested the construction of feeder roads, creation of agricultural cooperatives and agro-industrial parks to help boost the agricultural sector.

Ponyo Mapon also supported the AfDB President’s call to leverage the entire agricultural value chain through to the market level, wondering, “Why should we produce cocoa and import chocolates?”

Can organic food feed the world? New study sheds light on debate over organic vs. conventional agriculture

Can organic agriculture feed the world? Although organic techniques may not be able to do the job alone, they do have an important role to play in feeding a growing global population while minimizing environmental damage, according to researchers. 

A new study concludes that crop yields from organic farming are generally lower than from conventional agriculture. That is particularly true for cereals, which are staples of the human diet -- yet the yield gap is much less significant for certain crops, and under certain growing conditions, according to the researchers.

Can organic agriculture feed the world? Although organic techniques may not be able to do the job alone, they do have an important role to play in feeding a growing global population while minimizing environmental damage, according to researchers at McGill University and the University of Minnesota.

A new study published in Nature concludes that crop yields from organic farming are generally lower than from conventional agriculture. That is particularly true for cereals, which are staples of the human diet -- yet the yield gap is much less significant for certain crops, and under certain growing conditions, according to the researchers.

The study, which represents a comprehensive analysis of the current scientific literature on organic-to-conventional yield comparisons, aims to shed light on the often heated debate over organic versus conventional farming. Some people point to conventional agriculture as a big environmental threat that undercuts biodiversity and water resources, while releasing greenhouse gases. Others argue that large-scale organic farming would take up more land and make food unaffordable for most of the world's poor and hungry.

"To achieve sustainable food security we will likely need many different techniques -- including organic, conventional, and possible 'hybrid' systems -- to produce more food at affordable prices, ensure livelihoods to farmers, and reduce the environmental costs of agriculture," the researchers conclude.

Overall, organic yields are 25% lower than conventional, the study finds. The difference varies widely across crop types and species, however. Yields of legumes and perennials (such as soybeans and fruits), for example, are much closer to those of conventional crops, according to the study, conducted by doctoral student Verena Seufert and Geography professor Navin Ramankutty of McGill and Prof. Jonathan Foley of the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment.

What's more, when best management practices are used for organic crops, overall yields are just 13% lower than conventional levels. "These results suggest that today's organic systems may nearly rival conventional yields in some cases -- with particular crop types, growing conditions and management practices -- but often they do not," the researchers write. Improvements in organic management techniques, or adoption of organic agriculture under environmental conditions where it performs best, may help close the yield gap, they indicate.

"Our study indicates that organically fertilized systems might require higher nitrogen inputs to achieve high yields as organic nitrogen is less readily available to crops. In some cases, organic farmers may therefore benefit by making limited use of chemical fertilizers instead of relying only on manure to supply nitrogen to their crops," Seufert says. "At the same time, conventional agriculture can learn from successful organic systems and implement practices that have shown environmental benefits, such as increased crop diversity and use of crop residues."

Yields are only part of a set of economic, social and environmental factors that should be considered when gauging the benefits of different farming systems, the researchers note. "Maybe people are asking the wrong question," Prof Ramankutty says. "Instead of asking if food is organically grown, maybe we should be asking if it's sustainably grown."

The results point to a need to get beyond the black-and-white, ideological debates that often pit advocates of organic and local foods against proponents of conventional agriculture, Prof. Foley adds. "By combining organic and conventional practices in a way that maximizes food production and social good while minimizing adverse environmental impact, we can create a truly sustainable food system."

NIGERIA TO PARTNER BRAZIL ON DEVELOPING AGRIC RESEARCH

water farm land 

The Federal Government has said that it would partner Brazil to develop agricultural research in order to boost food production and productivity in the country.

The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Sonny Echono, who disclosed this recently in Abuja at a meeting with Brazil’s Trade Mission led by Brazilian Ambassador to Nigeria, Joao Lima, said the ministry was also interested in learning from the school feeding programme of Brazil with about 40 million children daily to fortify a similar scheme in Nigeria.

Echono stated that the ministry was fascinated by the achievements of Brazil in rice production and productivity.

He said that rice was a staple crop in Nigeria with efforts been put in place to achieve self sufficiency in its production.

Nigeria, the permanent secretary said, would borrow ideas from Brazil to achieve that feat.

Other areas where both countries are expected to collaborate include cooperatives, rice milling equipment and agribusiness, among others.

The Executive Secretary of Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria, ARCN, Prof. Yusuf Abubakar, said there were 11 colleges of agriculture and 15 research institutes with a workforce of 10, 000 staff under the council.

He said the council has 1,800 scientists identifying capacity building as one of the major challenges facing the council.

Threat posed by 'pollen thief' bees uncovered

This is a pollen thief bee in action.

A new study has uncovered the secrets of 'pollen thief' bees -- which take pollen from flowers but fail to act as effective pollinators -- and the threat they pose to certain plant species.

A new University of Stirling study has uncovered the secrets of 'pollen thief' bees -- which take pollen from flowers but fail to act as effective pollinators -- and the threat they pose to certain plant species.

Flowers often need pollinators, such as bees, to collect and transport pollen to fertilise other flowers and trigger fruit and seed production. In order to attract pollinators, flowers offer resources such as nectar, oils, and pollen in return.

However some bees act as thieves by taking the pollen -- a vital protein source for young bees -- without providing pollination services.

Even plants which have adapted to the threat they pose can suffer from extremely high levels of pollen theft, according to the study.

Dr Mario Vallejo-Marin, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Stirling and senior author of the study, said: "It's a co-evolutionary arms race between plants and bees. Some plants have fortified structures called anthers, where pollen is locked up behind a thick wall. The only way to open these 'pollen vaults' is through small pores at the tips.

"However some species of bees, such as bumblebees, have adapted to produce high-frequency vibrations to counteract this and get at the pollen, a process known as buzz-pollination.

"Looking at a buzz-pollinated plant called buffalo-bur, we found that more than 80 percent of bees visiting its flowers collected pollen but failed to contact the female floral parts, therefore contributing little, if anything, to seed production."

Although nectar theft among bees is well-known, little research has been carried out into the prevalence of pollen theft, or the factors which determine whether a bee will become an effective pollinator or a pollen thief.

The study showed that showed that bees which act as pollen thieves are smaller, stay longer at each flower and visit few flowers in each run. Legitimate pollinators tend to be larger, buzzing bees which visit many flowers in many plants and are likely to help plants spread their pollen more widely.

Lislie Solis-Montero, a former PhD Research Student at the University of Stirling, said: "The bee's size is the key determinant of whether it will be a pollen thief. The flowers of buffalo-bur work as a 'lock-and-key' mechanism to ensure that the bee collects and deposits pollen with the right body parts. Bees which are too small fail to contact the female organs, while still taking away pollen grains to feed their larvae."

The study was carried out in Mexico, where the introduced European honey bee was found to be a particularly common pollen thief, which could have important repercussions for buzz-pollinated plants in areas where honeybees compete with native bees.

Dr Vallejo-Marin said: "If honey bees are displacing native pollinators, the reproduction of this and other species of buzz-pollinated plants may be compromised.

"The decline of natural populations of bees around the world, combined with the expansion of non-native pollinators, could have important repercussions for the evolutionary future of specialised, buzz-pollinated plants."

Global organic agriculture market hits $75 billion in 15 years

The global organic agricultural market is steadily growing, hitting $75 billion in the last 15 years, according to the International Federal of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM).

Mr Markus Arbenz, the Executive Director of IFOAM

Mr Markus Arbenz, the Executive Director of the movements, based in Bonn, Germany, said this in an interview with the Renaissance in Lagos.

“The global organic market has $72 billion in global consumption; most of it is actually in North America and Europe.

“But more and more actually, the Asian markets are also discovering, Latin America markets are discovering and slowly also African markets.

“Particularly, urban markets are discovering the potentials of organic foods.

“The development is quite impressive. If I say $72 billion right now in the market, in year 2000, it was only $15 billion.

So, you see, from $15 billion to $72 billion, it is a huge edge which you can make in only 15 years.’’

Markus, who is in Nigeria for the third African Organic Agriculture Conference holding in Lagos, also spoke about the geographical spread of organic farming around the world.

“There are about two million certified organic farmers.

“Organic farming is a production system but it is also a certification standard, so you can certify to that and then internationally trade it.

“The biggest country in terms of farming is India; the second biggest is Uganda and the third – Tanzania and Ethiopia.

“And I can tell you that 80 per cent of organic farmers live in Latin America, Africa and Asia.’’

The executive director explained what organic agriculture entails.

“Organic agriculture is based on four principles. It’s on the principle of ecology, health, fairness and care.

“It is actually a system that performs on two levels. On the first level, we have production itself.

“This is, in most cases, the food but it can also be textile, in case of cotton for example, but it also can be for body care products.

“This is directly beneficial for the market or beneficial for the family itself for consumption.’’

He further said that there are 37 million hectares of organically certified agriculture land globally.

“There is another 30 million hectares of white collection areas, in which you can also harvest and yield organic products for the global organic markets.

“Such is a market growth in two digits, more than 10 per cent growth every year at the moment being the record of 30 per cent growth of organic market,’’ Markus said.

Improving climate protection in the agricultural sector

Conventional farming produces more greenhouse gas emissions than organic farming, however, it achieves higher yields.

Credit: U. Benz/TUM

Agriculture is responsible for around ten to twelve percent of all greenhouse gases attributable to human activities. This raises the question of how these emissions could be reduced. A recent study has investigated -- for the first time -- the full range of factors that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, namely soil and climate conditions, the agricultural model and the farming intensity on both organic and conventional holdings. The study has enabled scientists to develop a new model that will allow agricultural landholders to determine and improve their climate balance.

As part of the study, scientists investigated 40 organic and 40 conventional agricultural holdings across Germany's four agricultural regions. They focused exclusively on crop and dairy farms. The scientists recorded all relevant climate gas streams during the entire production process, including methane, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide. In the case of dairy farms, they also factored in the purchase of soybean meal from South America and all related greenhouse gas emissions.

Strategies for improving climate balance

Fossil fuels, above all diesel, are one of the main sources of CO2 emissions in agriculture. However, greenhouse gases are also emitted during the manufacture of mineral nitrogen fertilizers and pesticides, agricultural machines and equipment.

"There are different ways of improving a farm's climate balance," explains Professor Kurt-Jürgen Hülsbergen from Technische Universität München (TUM). "One effective strategy is for landholders to grow feed themselves rather than purchase soy from another source. Farms can also streamline production processes and deploy modern technology to obtain higher yields without increasing the amount of energy required."

In crop farming, increasing nitrogen efficiency is a key factor. High levels of nitrous oxide are released into the environment if crops are unable to utilize all of the nitrogen fertilizer that was spread. The production of nitrogen fertilizer is also energy intensive, which further increases the climate balance of unused nitrogen.

In contrast, the greenhouse gas CO2 can be stored long term as humus in the soil, and thus eliminated from the climate balance. "This can be achieved by planting legumes as part of a diversified crop rotation strategy," explains Professor Gerold Rahmann at the Thünen Institute. "Using soil less intensively and applying organic fertilizer also helps."

Topping the charts: organic versus conventional farming

Organic farming is more energy efficient and produces less land-specific CO2emissions. This advantage, however, is offset by the significantly lower yields achieved through organic farming practices. The pilot organic crop farms produce around twenty percent less emissions per yield unit than conventional holdings.

Organic dairy farms use more plant fodder grown on site and do not import soybean meal. This strategy pays off, according to Hülsbergen: "The pilot organic farms we looked at emit around 200 grams less CO2 per kilogram of milk than conventional farms with the same milk yield."

Most interestingly, the investigations show that yields and greenhouse gas emissions fluctuate significantly between different organic farms in some cases to an even greater extent than the fluctuations between organic and conventional holdings. This demonstrates that the individual know-how of farm managers plays an important role in the greenhouse gas balance and that there is significant potential for improvement at individual farms.

Putting theory into practice

This is the first time that a study has provided a 360-degree overview of climate-relevant factors impacting all emissions related to livestock and crop farming. "We have a workable model that will enable us to identify the causes of low energy efficiency and high greenhouse gas emissions," adds Hülsbergen. "We are now optimizing this model so that it can be used directly by climate change advisors in the agricultural sector."

More information on the study

The study was carried out from 2009 to 2012 as part of a collaborative project between TUM, the Thünen Institute, the University of Bonn, the Martin-Luther-Universität Halle Wittenberg and Bioland Beratung. The study is financed by Germany's Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection and by the Federal Program for Organic Agriculture and Other Forms of Sustainable Agriculture (Bundesprogramm Ökologischer Landbau und andere Formen nachhaltiger Landwirtschaft).

Organic farming needs direction to be sustainable

Large-scale organic farming operations, based on a review of almost a decade of data from 49 states, are not reducing greenhouse gas emissions, says a University of Oregon researcher.

The increasing numbers of commercialized organic operations -- which still make up just 3 percent of total agricultural lands -- appear to contribute to increased and more intense levels of greenhouse gases coming from each acre of farmland, reports Julius McGee, a doctoral student in the UO sociology department. His study appeared in the June issue of the journalAgriculture and Human Values.

While the findings appear troubling, McGee, a regular consumer of organic food, says the study really points to the need for a reassessment of where the organic-food movement wants to go and how to get there. He suggests stricter adherence to sustainability-driven farm practices and increased governmental oversight of the profit-motivated move toward upscale, certified organic production.

"The big questions are what are we are doing when we shift from conventional to organic production, and what are the environmental consequences," McGee said. "This study says that the organic farming industry is in the early stages. So far we don't see any mitigating effect on greenhouse gasses. We need to pay close attention to what processes in organic farming operations make them the sustainable alternative that we want them to be, and we are going to need to more strictly follow those."

The study used annual state-level data from 2000 to 2008 on organic and conventional agricultural greenhouse gases from all states but Louisiana. Alaska data were not available for the first two years. McGee also collected data on socioeconomic and agricultural indicators believed to influence industry growth trends. He then analyzed greenhouse gas emissions using a fixed-rate panel regression that allowed him to indirectly control for unseen variables.

The study does not rule out the possibility that large-scale organic operations eventually will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but, for now, McGee said, higher emissions are likely to continue unless actions are taken to correct course.

Organic farming emerged as early as the 1940s as localized alternatives to industrialized methods that were more ecological sound, more humane toward animals and less intensive on soil. The practice also was considered to be more effective at reducing the effects of climate change.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture initiated certification standards for organic production under the Food, Agriculture, Conservation and Trade Act in 1990, but as organic farming moved toward large corporate operations the use of USDA-recommended practices had declined. Recommendations include crop rotation best suited to local soils; organically derived pesticides and herbicides; locally produced composted and manure fertilizers; and mulch tillage.

As operations grow, McGee said, it takes more machinery to do the work. The trend, he noted, is for a focus on single rather than rotated crops, an increased use of organic pesticides and herbicides and the importing of manure-based fertilizers from other locations.

"We are not going to solve all these problems with technology," said McGee, whose doctoral research explores the development and environmental impacts of sustainable markets. "The issue of agriculture and climate change doesn't derive only from technology. Sure, that's part of it, but a lot of the issue is the social context in which we relate to food -- the idea that overproducing food at a level exceeding what we need -- for both forms of agricultural production."

FARMERS LAUNCH MICRO-FINANCE BANK

farmers ATM

Hitherto, farmers and stakeholders in the agricultural sector have often been snubbed by regular banks in matters that concern lines of credit for their businesses. However, to curtail this, the farmers have decided to take their destiny in their hands; they have launched a farmers’ micro-finance bank, called Joint Farmers Micro-finance Bank (JFMB) at Oyo town in Oyo State.

One of the founders and board members, Mr. Muideen Adekunle recalled that 187 cooperative societies decided, some years ago, to undertake this venture in order to serve farmers in Nigeria.

Adekunle, who is the Chairman of Nigeria Cassava Growers Association (NCGA) in Oyo State, said JFMB was first of its kind in the country, wholly owned by Nigerian farmers and dedicated to serve them and their agricultural projects.

He said that for now, branches of the bank, which is taking off in Oyo State, would be located in Lagos, Osun, Ogun, Delta, Edo, Ondo, Ekiti, Kwara, Kogi and Abuja.

Adekunle urged farmers to buy shares in the new bank, as the bank would serve their interest and those of their children, who were to be employed as skilled personnel.

National President of NCGA, Mr Segun Adewumi lamented that in the past, some individuals had duped Nigerian farmers under the guise of registering them for fictitious loans and grants.

“We shall link the Joint Farmers Microfinance Bank to donors and the SME programme of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which is presently delivering N220 billion loans for which two per cent interest rate is charged,” he assured.

Another board member, Dr James Ojebode said though the NCGA was a strong catalyst to the birth of the bank, it was a bank for farmers of different crops to benefit nationwide.

Ojebode urged NCGA members to lead the way by subscribing massively to the N100 million capital requirement of the CBN for the bank to take off fully.

In a message sent to the occasion, the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi urged the farmers to do their best to sustain the new bank.

The Governor of Oyo State, Abiola Ajimobi said the establishment of the microfinance bank was a great opportunity for Nigerian farmers and he urged them not to misuse it.

Ajimobi, who was represented by acting Permanent Secretary, Oyo State Ministry of Agriculture, Mr Gabriel Olusoji, said the farmers would become prosperous and agriculture would be fully developed with the establishment of the bank.

The Governor, who officially launched the bank, said it was coming at the right time as agriculture would now be the main pillar of the Nigerian economy with the crash in global prices of crude oil, Nigeria’s major export.

About 2,500 farmers and agricultural practitioners from Oyo, Lagos, Osun, Ogun, Delta, Edo, Ondo, Ekiti, Kwara, Kogi and Abuja graced the occasion.