University Don Advocates Strategic Synergy between Agric Stakeholders

Dr Eteakamba Ukpong

Dr Eteakamba Ukpong, Head of Forestry Department, University of Uyo has advocated for effective collaboration between the Ministry of Agriculture and research institutions in solving the myriad of problems plaguing the agriculture sector. He decried the situation where institutions and organizations work in isolation while attempting to solve a collective economic challenge, describing the approach as counter-productive.

The magnitude of the retrogressive influence of this anomaly was brought to the fore yesterday, November 11, 2015 when the CEO and Editor in Chief of AgroNigeria, Barrister Richard-Mark Mbaram, made a brief courtesy call on the don at the University of Uyo, while on a premium business/working visit to Akwa Ibom State. 

In an unreserved remark by the don, he unequivocally emphasized the futility of the Ministry of Agriculture trying to provide solutions to several problems faced by farmers, without consulting institutions that should conduct research and systematic investigation into same, establish facts, reach new conclusions and proffer appropriate recommendations for application. Consequently, these challenges to a great extent remain unsolved.

The dearth of information from the ministry on prevailing agricultural challenges faced by the society impels the universities to create problems and projects, and subsequently embark on researches that are not useful for national development. “On our shelves are research works that have been published in reputable journals, but the results of such researches do not impact directly on the society, and are consequently not useful for the growth of the agriculture sector or the development of the economy”, Dr Ukpong observed.

“Research should be for development, and to achieve this, it must be focused on fundamental challenges faced by farmers. The result of such research impacts directly on the society and enhances the development of agriculture”, he opined

Nigeria cannot sustain N1tn spending on food imports – Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday in Birnin Kebbi, the capital of Kebbi State, decried the huge sums spent by the country importing food items that could be produced locally, stating that the N1 trillion importation bill was no longer sustainable.

The president, who spoke at the launch of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) Anchor Borrowers’ Programme and the commencement of dry season farming, said that the falling oil prices had left Nigeria with no option than to diversify.

The president recalled that agriculture was the mainstay of the nation’s economy but was abandoned following the discovery of oil.

He said: “The importance of agriculture in the economy cannot be overemphasised. Prior to the advent of oil, our country survived on agriculture production,” adding that produce such as groundnuts, palm oil, cotton and rubber plantation used to be the mainstay of the economy.

“During this period, the economy was built on agricultural activities and our gross domestic product grew steadily,” he said.

At the time, Buhari also recalled that banks and investment companies were financed from farm surpluses.
“The discovery of oil was expected to complement our agriculture productivity. But we allowed oil to almost completely replace it.

But current trends in the international oil market have brought to fore the urgent need to diversify both the productive and revenue base of our economy and to conserve our foreign reserve by limiting our appetite for imported goods that we can easily produce locally.”
He noted that the price of oil had plummeted and that the implication was that there were limited resources available to government at all levels.

“Economic diversification is no longer an option for us, it is the only way for economic momentum and the drive to prosperity,” he added.

According to him, the only way to do this is to go back to the land and develop agriculture.
He said he had high hopes for the CBN Anchor Borrowers’ scheme, adding that the programme had the potential to create million of jobs for unemployed Nigerians. He said the scheme would also lift thousands of small farmers out of poverty.

Earlier, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, commended his immediate predecessor, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, for the innovation he introduced into the nation’s agriculture sector and promised to improve on it.

However, Ogbeh said that despite the good intentions of Adesina, corruption was still prevalent in the sector under him.

“People supplied sharp sands as fertilizer while fake seedlings were sold to farmers. There were companies with no traceable address,” he alleged.

As a result of these sharp practices, Ogbe said many struggling farmers lost money.“There will be no room for quacks anymore. Under this administration, that will never happen again. No room for quacks anymore.
Security agencies will now be used to check fraudsters. We will no longer allow the elite play pranks on our farmers,” he promised.

Ogbeh said the president was very concerned about the incessant conflicts between farmers and grazers, adding that a new approach to grazing would be introduced.


Ogbeh said one of the challenges was to persuade the youth to embrace agriculture, noting that the administration was already working on how to attract the youth to agriculture.


“For those looking for evidence of change, this is one. To have a farmer as Minister of Agriculture and a president who is also a farmer, you are in safe hands,” he charged.


Also speaking, the Governor of CBN, Godwin Emefiele, said the central bank was concerned about the high foreign exchange spent on the importation of food items that could be produced locally.

He said this informed the decision by the central bank to set aside N40 billion from the N220 billion Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund for farmers at a single-digit interest rate of 9 per cent.
According to him, agricultural commodities and the food import bill had averaged over N1 trillion in the past two years.

He said: “Food products like wheat, sugar, milk, rice and fish accounted for N901 billion or 93.5 per cent and N788 billion or 88.71 per cent of the amount spent on imports in 2013 and 2014 respectively.”
Emefiele put the import bill on rice and wheat at N428 billion and N307 billion in 2013 and 2014 respectively.

He said: “The huge amounts were expended on items that the country has the potential to produce locally with the attendant loss of employment generation and wealth creation.”

The CBN governor said the allocation of foreign exchange to the importation of these items had contributed to depleting the nation’s foreign reserves especially in the face of lower oil revenue resulting from low oil prices.

He maintained that agriculture remained an important sector in the economy despite the neglect it had suffered.

The governors of Sokoto, Cross River, Plateau, Zamfara and Niger States attended the launch of the scheme, while Kaduna and Katsina States were represented by their deputy governors.

Agric institutions need assistance to upgrade technology – Okomu Boss

Dr Graham Hefer

 

Nigerian Agricultural institutions need assistance in the area of technological improvement, the Managing Director of Okomu Oil Plam Plc, Dr Graham Hefer has observed.  

 

Hefer, in an exclusive interview with AgroNigeria said agricultural institutions including universities of agriculture where the agriculture scientists are, need assistance to upgrade technology, and get the people into the 21^st century.

 

He stated this consequent upon his findings that the newest book in the library of Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR) was written in 1953.

 

He however said that Okomu Oil Palm Plc has been assisting NIFOR the best way it can with laboratory systems.

 

His words: “The newest book on their library was 1953 before we gave them a library full of books. They could not do the soil sample test for their courses because they never had any of the required chemicals needed to test the soils. We assisted them because those are the types of people that will come through the ranks to us; if we don’t help them there, we will have to teach them here again, it is an extra cost to the company,” Hefer said.

 

He said his company recently spent about #20m in skilling and re-skilling people alone. He lamented the lack of skilled personnel; noting that looking at upgrading skills, “one of the biggest problems we have here in Nigeria is that of getting the requisite skills, farming is no longer pick-and- shovel, you have to have sophisticated people learning what they need to do.”

 

The Okomu boss lamented that despite the fact that NIFOR is the oldest oil palm research institute in the world with very promising potentials “unfortunately it is falling behind, with their own starting with second generation seeds, most other countries in the world are already into third generation, these are the things that need to move forward,” Hefer stated.

TOGO INTERNATIONAL TRADE FAIR: NEPC HOLDS BRIEFING, SELECTION PROCESS

Stakeholders

The Nigerian Export Promotion Council briefed and selected its delegates for the Togo International Trade fair recently. The event held at the NEPC Conference Hall Lagos.      
                           

The briefing and selection process was coordinated by the following directors: Director, Market Development Department, Mr. Matthew Adebayo Iranloye; Deputy Director, Products Department, Mrs. Evelyn Obidike, and Assistant Director, Market Development Department, Mr. Samson Monehin. The briefing and selection process was primarily for the purpose of passing on information and selection of products to be exhibited at the trade fair.  

Mr. Iranloye addressed the interested participants on relevant details concerning the products and the fair. He pointed out that selected products were to arrive on or before the morning of the 16^th of November as that is when they are scheduled to take-off. While emphasising that only the selected products must be brought to the venue, he said “some participants who were selected to exhibit product A will instead come along with products A and B.” He added also that the selected products were not to weigh above 100 kilograms; advising the participants to include resources for re-branding, in case the council sees the need for a change. 

Iranloye also re-affirmed the policy of the NEPC saying “it is only after returning from the trade fair that you will be considered for a rebate of your flight tickets and for those who prefer to go by road, a flat rate list will be given.

The Togo International Trade Fair is the annual exhibition of Lome and it is very important. Its 12^th edition will start from the 20^th of November to the 8^th of December, 2015 and will feature investors from all around the globe.

Vegetable farmers solicit govt’s support

Vegetable farmers

 

Vegetable farmers in Anioma Greenland, Abakpa Nike, Enugu, have requested for government’s assistance with the acquisition of fertilizers, agrochemicals like insecticides, pesticides and mini water pumping machines at subsidized rates.

 

The farmers when interviewed in their various farms said they are interested in growing more vegetables round the year, if their demands are met. Their spokesperson, Mrs. Agu said they have to plant with the little resources they have; adding that the proceeds from the sales are not usually enough to cater for their needs as well as their children’s.  

 

“It is their desire to farm on more than two hectares of land as we are currently working on only one hectare per member,” she said.

 

She also stressed that if the government will not help them after the meeting, they will not be proud to call themselves full citizens because, according to her, they are being neglected and marginalised. She also stated that the state government knows how greatly they contribute to the food sufficiency drive but has just neglecting their efforts because they have no mouthpiece.

 

One of the farmers, Mrs. Maria Nworie said they need improved species of vegetables of all kinds and that if the government can provide them with their needs, they would also flood the market with vegetables, all year long.

CHEMICAL APPROACH NOT SOLUTION

 

 

Claims by a few agro-chemical companies that they possess potent chemicals that can eliminate Tuta Absoluta (Tomato Leafminer) have been debunked.

 

The companies – who are major chemical companies of international standing – have asserted they have effective and efficient chemicals which could exterminate lycopersicon esculentum’s scourge christened ‘Tomato Ebola’ in Nigeria.

 

Contrary to this assertion however, AgroNigeria can authoritatively reveal that chemical solution to Tuta absoluta is at best temporary. Tuta absoluta can only be controlled through comprehensive program targeting all life stages. 

Reacting to the claims made by these companies through an e-mail conversation with AgroNigeria, Managing Director, Russell IPM Ltd, Shakir Al-Zaidi, Dr. CChem, said: “It is normal to have such claims as it is true most insecticides will kill Tuta absoluta but you need repeated application which will increase the insect resistance to pesticides increase as well as the level of pesticide residues in the crop. Eventually the control fails and the crop destroyed.”

 

He maintains that Tuta absoluta can only be controlled through “comprehensive program targeting all life stages. In Nigeria, Russell IPM is demonstrating such program which proved successful in other African counties,” Al-Zaidi states.

 

In the same vein, Managing Director, Agronet Nig. Ltd, and partner of Russell IPM Ltd. – an Integrated Pest Management company – Mr. Tunde Williams-Funmilayo, while fielding questions from AgroNigeria during an exclusive chat in respect of the claims, rebuffed the claims; insisting chemical solution doesn’t provide security beyond the first usage. “Once you apply for the first time, yes it seemingly might have worked but, by the next planting season the moths will regroup and because it is a three-pronged attack – larva, pupa and the moth itself – it can position itself in the cravats of the tomato that the insecticide spray may not be able to reach.”

 

Another issue is that “larva is found in the ground and it operates in the night such that when you are spraying in the day it is already sleeping – it has gone away -except you are going to come back in the night and spray your tomato crop,” Williams-Funmilayo said.

 

He maintained Russell IPM biological solution comprehensively attacks the three stages of the evolution of Tuta problem. “It takes out the actual moth that ordinarily procreates to result in the larva, it also handles the eggs with the pupa; so in a comprehensive sense, you are addressing the problem.”

 

He said he is confident that Russell provides the best and most effective solutions for mass trapping and monitoring Tuta Absoluta with efficient and effective monitoring solutions.

 

Also reacting to claims by these companies that they possess ready-made solutions to Tuta Absoluta pest infestation, a key player in the Nigerian agriculture industry who did not want his name in print revealed to AgroNigeria: “If you say you are going to solve Tuta Absoluta problem with just spraying of Amphligo for instance, or whatever Bayer has got on its own, you are lying because all the places where Tuta has occurred, there has always been biological entry in solving the situation because a chemical solution will not help. 

 

The source maintained that “in fact, if you insist on chemical solution to solve the problem you will find that you will be back to the situation where the European Union (EU) was complaining about the Nigerian beans; insisting the beans are replete with chemical residue. In fact, findings have shown that biological solution is cheaper,” the source maintained; stressing that even Bayer and Syngenta admit their chemical is not cheap.

 

“They have said so on several occasions themselves. It is simply because they are emphasising chemical solution that is why they were able to convince the governments to intervene on behalf of the marketer or the producer such as the likes of Kano State government, Kaduna State government  and even the Federal Government are now being hoodwinked to be in bed with them; but serious-minded businesses like the Dangote, or Dansa are already sensing that chemical approach is just a short-term intervention and that it does not help their business case and so are already beginning to review their strategy  to incorporate biological solution and Russell IPM Ltd is the biggest name when it comes to biological solution to Tuta Absoluta. In fact, Russel IPM has a comprehensive blog dedicated to Tuta,” the source noted.

PMB Flags Off Dry Season Farming, Launches N20bn CBN Loan in Kebbi

President Mohammadu Buhari Flags Off Dry Season Farming, Launches N20bn CBN Loan in Kebbi

 

True to his statement that he would revive agriculture by building on the policies of the past administration, President Mohammadu Buhari demonstrated the Federal Government’s commitment to agriculture by  officially flagging off dry season rice and wheat farming in Kebbi state and also launching the N20billion Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) which the Central Bank of Nigeria has set aside for rice farmers across the country.

 

Over time, dry season has always been a challenging period for farmers because there are no irrigation facilities in the country and they most often than not, have had to incorporate different saving practices to adapt to the climate change on their own. This irreversibly results to low crop yields and the endangering of the livelihood of farmers.

 

It is believed that the efforts of the Federal Government to address this problem will ensure that farmers will no longer be left dry when the weather gets harsh.

 

President Muhammadu Buhari at the Kebbi State launch said that the importance of agriculture to the economy cannot be over- emphasised, hence, his administration would diversify the economy to give greater emphasis to agricultural production.

 

He also commended Kebbi state for taking the lead in the project and also it’s effort in the revival of rice and wheat production with states like Zamfara, Adamawa, Jigawa, Ebonyi, Gombe and Taraba who have also demonstrated and indicated their interest of supporting farmers.

 

“The importance of agriculture to the economy cannot be over emphasised because economic diversification is the only way to prosperity. Go back to the land and develop agriculture because the era of depending on oil is over,” he said.

 

Speaking during the event, Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele said that the Anchor Borrowers’ programme was designed to create economic linkages between farmers and processors, not only to ensure the output of rice and wheat, but also to bridge the gap between production and consumption.

“Over 200,000 rice and wheat farmers will benefit from the scheme ranging from N150,000 to N250,000 to assist in procuring necessary agricultural inputs.

 

The programme is an initiative of the CBN aimed at creating an ecosystem to link out-growers(smallholder farmers) to local processors.

 

The Executive Governor of Kebbi State, Gov. Atiku Bagudu commended the CBN and assured the public that the state has the capacity to produce rice and wheat for both domestic and external consumption.

The event took place at Kebbi state yesterday, November 17, 2015.

Experts hinge nation’s sustainable socio-economic devt on agricultural sector

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In view of the increasing need to explore the abundant opportunities in the nation’s agricultural

Ogbeh and Nwanze

sector in order to reverse the ugly fiscal straits the nation’s economy is going through, development experts have urged the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government to consolidate on the gains recorded by Agricultural Transformation Agenda, ATA and by so doing, partly address the structural distortions in the economy.

Many stakeholders say the pronouncement by President Buhari during his campaign and after being elected that he would pay greater attention to agriculture is indeed heartwarming.

According to them in the face of plummeting oil prices agriculture is expected to serve as a buffer for the Nigerian economy.

President Buhari had a few weeks ago reiterated his desire to develop agriculture beyond the level it is now and charged Nigerians to stop paying mere lip service to agriculture since crude oil and gas exports can no longer provide the country the much needed foreign exchange haven needed for Nigeria’s macroeconomic stability.

The President gave the charge at an audience with Kanayo Nwanze, the president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD, at the presidential villa, Abuja.

“It’s time to go back to the land. We must face the reality that the petroleum we had depended on for so long will no longer suffi ce. We campaigned heavily on agriculture, and we are ready to assist as many as that want to go into agricultural ventures,’’ he said.

He also pledged that his administration would also cut short the long bureaucratic processes that Nigerian farmers had to go through to get any form of assistance from government, adding that foreign exchange will be conserved for machinery and other items needed for production “instead of using it to import things like toothpicks’’.

With the appointment of Chief Audu Ogbeh as minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, many stakeholders say it goes a long to show that the president really want to further develop agric sector .

Ogbeh ho on his inaugural press briefi ng at the headquarters of FMARD, on Wednesday promised that his team would work towards reducing the $32bn spent on food import annually by Nigeria is seen by many as a good choice since he is a farmer.

According to National Publicity Secretary of the National Cashew Association of Nigeria, NCAN, Mr. Sotonye Anga, Now that a farmer is the minister of agriculture, it means that he will understand the terrain and set achievable agendas that will move the sector forward”.

Many stakeholders have said that the new Minister of Agriculture task given the performance of his predecessor Dr Akinwumi Adesina who truly transformed many aspects of the country’s agricultural sector.
Managing Director of Okomu Oilpalm Company Plc, a major agribusiness concern operating in Edo State, Dr. Graham Hefer, commended the choice of a practicing farmer as successor to a high fl ying technocrat.
According to him this is clear evidence of an intention to consolidate on the gains of the ATA, but he pointed out that “more work lies ahead”.

Indeed indicating his preparedness to deliver on this assignment Ogbeh promised to focus intensely on agricultural research and marketing in order to reduce importation of food and increase self-sustenance in Nigeria.

With the success of Efugo farms and the good record he has set in the past, many believe that Ogbeh will deliver in the agricultural sector and stay true to the course set by the immediate past Minister, Adesina, now President of the African Development Bank, AfDB.

Considering the impact of the ATA on the agric sector and the economy as a whole, several groups have called on the current government not to jettison the ATA, but to improve on its programmes.

Recently Buhari has been urged tovigorously pursue and implement the Agricultural Transformation Agenda, ATA, of the immediate past administration in order to move the economy and indeed the country forward.
This was part of the communiqué issued at the end of the One-Day South West Town Hall Meeting convened by AgroNigeria in Ibadan, Oyo State.

After an extensive deliberation, the Nigerian farmers (South-West zone), unanimously resolved that President Buhari should never politicise Agriculture, rather he should consolidate on the laudable policies of the immediate past administration especially ATA to move the sector to the next level. They maintained that the present administration should continue to pursue and implement the ATA which had started on a very sound footing.

They also recommended that all the states in the South West Nigeria should as a matter of priority, invest massively into commercial agriculture; insisting there must be urgent efforts calculated at bridging the gap in food production between the North and the South.

The forum also resolved that: “Policy formulations should adopt bottom-up and end-userdriven intervention approaches especially on fundamental issues affecting agriculture.

Experts have said that there is the need to resuscitated, strengthened the Farm Settlement Scheme to address the 21st Century needs of agriculture.

According to the experts attitudinal orientation should be encouraged and institutionalised by all stakeholders as this will address the negative impressions of the youth in going into agriculture. “Migratory Fulani herdsmen should be integrated into the national agricultural policy to proffer lasting solution to the frequent clashes between them and other farmers.”

The town hall meeting also advise that youth and women in agriculture should be accorded priority attention whenever policies on fi nancial interventions are being formulated; adding that there must be a national declaration of a state-of-emergency in agriculture that will insist on a policy that Nigeria has no reason to be food insecure.

Many farmers frown at the current huge infrastructural gaps in the rural areas and insisted same must urgently be addressed to make for a rewarding season for agricultural practitioners; adding that the communication gaps between farmers and policy implementation must be bridged. They argued that agriculture in all its ramifi cations must be projected and made to be profi table and worthwhile, and emphasis should be placed on training and capacity development for agric practitioners, especially women and youths.

Agric-friendly fi nancing policies must be encouraged especially among fi nancial institutions for wider impact on the economy, extension services should be given urgent priority attention as the current level of extension services are inadequate nationwide.

“Risk management and insurance policies should be tailored towards the generality of Nigerian farmers in order to make the sector competitive and attractive to investors”, experts said.

In spite of its successes the ATA, Joy Obiora of Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Nigeria, in her study said that the technology transfer sub-system which should naturally be the major stakeholder in ATA have weak capacities with regards to training, human resource development and workforce.

She said this apparently shows that the sub-system cannot meet up with the demands/ needs of the farmers and all other actors along the targeted commodity value chains in the on-going transformation.

“The study also reveals some strategies for strengthening the subsystem as capacity building for extension personnel, proper funding of extension, proper staffi ng of extension service among others.

“The study therefore strongly recommends increased funding and general strong support to the sub-system to make them relevant and effective in the transformation agenda”, she said.

According to Nwanze, IFAD had since 1985 been providing loans and grants in the nation’s agricultural sector to boost agricultural production.

“Nigeria has the largest portfolio of IFAD’s investment in Western and Central Africa and the second largest in Africa.

“But the case point here is that this country has all the endowments that it takes not only for it to produce enough food for its population but also to be the bread basket of region.

“And this is where my institution on my behalf, I offered our services and our support in the agenda of rural transformation as a key ingrate in this country’s economic and social development,’’ he said.

It would also be recalled that the immediate past government at the centre launched a N50bn farm mechanisation policy drive to take hoes and cutlasses into the museums and replace them with affordable and appropriate modern farm machinery”.

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture demonstrated full commitment to the promotion of increased food production in the country and the overall revitalization of the agricultural sector so that it can become a major employment outlet as well as an alternative source of income to the country. The commitment of the government to see this vision through is evident in the enormous efforts, activities, and policies being implemented in the agricultural sector.

According to some analysts Nigeria’s food importation was growing at a rate of 11 per cent per annum. The reality is that relying on the importation of expensive food from global markets fuels domestic infl ation; puts high pressure on the Naira, hurts the economy and contributes to rising unemployment as it replaces local production and displaces Nigerian farmers.

The efforts at transforming the agricultural sector is therefore government’s way of saying loudly that food importation is not sustainable fi scally, economically or politically and that it is no longer acceptable that at a period when other countries are becoming self suffi cient in food production, Nigeria is still importing food, including the ones it can produce in abundance.

Adesina made known the momentous achievements of the government in the campaign to sanitise and transform the nation’s agricultural sector. The former Minister mentioned that in an effort to guarantee the vibrancy of the sector, agriculture is now treated as a business and that the Ministry is integrating food production, storage, food processing and industrial manufacturing. He stated the resolve of the government to create jobs and wealth through agriculture and ensure food security by engaging in investment-driven strategic partnerships with the private sector in addition to undertaking investment drives to unlock the potentials of the States in agriculture.

Non availability of farm inputs namely fertilisers, seeds etc and the diffi culties farmers encounter in acquiring these inputs; have over the years been a major setback to the development of agriculture.

According to Adesina; the government is deregulating the seeds and fertiliser sectors as a step towards solving this age long problem. As it is, the government no longer buys and sells fertilizers and seeds; this responsibility has been handed out to the private sector, but the government provides 50 per cent support for seeds and fertilizers. Vouchers and electronic-wallets (mobile phones) are being used to better target subsidized inputs to farmers, with the target of reaching 5 million farmers per year.

Also, the government has established a Nigerian Seed Venture Capital Fund with the goal of raising the use of hybrid seeds from 8,000 metric tons to 1,000,000 metric tons, per year.

The Federal Government is establishing marketing corporations to facilitate marketing of agricultural commodities. The marketing corporations which will be owned by agricultural value chains and run as private sector-led institutions are to coordinate the production, investments.

External markets are being developed for cassava chips. In January 2012, a trade agreement was concluded to export 1 million metric tons of cassava chips to China, in two tranches of 500,000 MT each. The total benefi t to Nigerian farmers and processors will be N40bn.

Also records from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development have revealed that Private sector investments in fertiliser manufacturing have expanded, with over $5bn private sector investments in fertilizer manufacturing in the past three years.

It further revealed that the sector witnessed a turn around as the share of total bank lending expanded from about 2 per cent in 2011 to 5 per cent by 2013. Bank lending to seed companies and agro-input dealers expanded from $10m in 2012 to $53m in 2013; while bank lending to fertilizer companies expanded from $100m in 2012 to $500m by 2014.

The Agricultural Transformation Agenda, ATA, launched in 2012, is an initiative of the Federal Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development to support the former President Goodluck Jonathan’s Transformation Agenda.

The goal of the ATA is to build commodity value chains and the institutions required to unlock the country’s huge agricultural potentials with the targeted outcome such as add 20 million tonnes of food to the domestic food supply by end of 2015, create 3.4 million jobs and ensuring import substitution through the acceleration of production of local staples; aimed at reducing dependence on food imports and turning Nigeria into a net food exporter. One of the major success stories of the ATA in 2014, was the revelation that Nigerian Food import bill had dropped by N466bn thereby adding N780bn to the economy during the period.

‘Nigeria to earn $52bn yearly from agro-allied products’

The Managing Director, ABX World, a Nigerian courier and cargo firm, Capt. John Okakpu, has projected that the country can make about $52.2 billion from exportation of agro-allied products busiannually if the government focuses its attention on the sector.

This is as he revealed that the company is partnering with Arik Air and the Skyway Aviation Handling Company Limited, SAHCOL, in the airlifting and ground handling of agro-allied products out of the country.
Speaking with aviation correspondent in his office in Lagos during the week, Okakpu disclosed that ABX WORLD had reached out to the Federal Government to leverage global agro-allied sub-sector while breaking the challenges pose by mono-produce nature the country practices at the moment.

In his statistics, he explained that for instance, if one million out of over three million Nigerians living in the United Kingdom alone purchases food items from the country at the cost of $100 weekly even with the current exchange rate, Nigeria could not earn less than $5.2billion from the sub-sector annually.

He hinted that agriculture was taking back its leading contributor position to the global economy; hence oil and gas sector was seriously in shambles globally, stressing that Nigeria with its enormous potential and opportunities must not be left behind.

He charged the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to eschew interest on the oil and gas sector, which is currently facing uncertainty in the world.

He said, “We know the price of crude oil today. Nigeria is largely a mono-dimension economy focused on crude oil extract, export and import.

Our banking sector is no way to be reckoned with the rest of the world. God wants to reposition Nigeria, which is the reason we are faced with the crude oil price downfall.

Private Sector Investments In Nigeria’s Agric Sector

Cassava

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has disclosed that private sector investments in the country’s agric sector has reached about N760 billion in the last two years.
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has disclosed that private sector investments in the country’s agric sector has reached about N760 billion in the last two years.

Former Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Sonny Echono, an architect, disclosed this in Abuja at a seminar organised by the ministry and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), to harness public and private sector stakeholders’ support for the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition (NAFSN) in Nigeria.

Echono, who was represented by the Director of Agribusiness and Marketing Development, said that the “New Alliance for Food and Nutrition” was a global platform led by the world Economic Forum in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The Permanent Secretary stressed that the alliance had propelled private sector investment commitments in Africa totaling $10 billion and Nigeria had enjoyed the goodwill of the private sector investors who had committed more of the investment money in Nigeria.

Also, an agribusiness specialist with UNDP, Dr. Tony Bello, said that government needs to give more support to the private sector in order not to lose the goodwill the country had been enjoying.

“There is risk of reduced investment spending that can lead to loses of opportunity for job creation by 16 priority investors due to lack of satisfaction with government support,” he said. The UNDP Deputy Country Director of Programmes, Mandisa Mashologu, said that nascent system of coordination and inconsistency of policies, regulations, laws and administrative practices, which were key challenges, must become a thing of the past, if Nigeria must maintain its enviable leadership position in Africa’s agricultural transformation.

USAID, one of the international partners that was supporting Nigeria in its quest to attain food security status, was not left out in the vanguard of campaign to persuade Nigerian government to sustain the progress made already in the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition.

According to USAID’s Agriculture and Food Security Officer in Nigeria, Xavier Preciador, United States’ President, Barak Obama, one of the proponents of G8 countries, which established the New Alliance, was desirous to see 50 million people lifted out of poverty over 10 years in Africa.

Talking about how the transformation in agriculture in Nigeria could be sustained, he explained that donors could facilitate partnerships and share best practices, as well as support the development and dissemination of new technologies to increase productivity; but how to convert private sector commitments to real investments is solely dependent on the commitments of Nigerians.

Preciador said: “If we want to reach true scale on the level of millions of farmers, if we want sustainable access to markets and creativity that drives innovation, then we need the private sector as full partner.”