150,000 Rice Farmers To Be Engaged In Dry Season Farming – RIFAN

Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) on Sunday said 150,000 rice farmers would be engaged in dry season farming in Zamfara as part of effort to ensure food security in the country.

The Secretary of the association in the state, Alhaji Sanusi Muhammad, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Gusau.

Muhammad said the association had begun educating people on the need to participate in local rice production to boost their economy and ensure food security.

He said the special intervention programme recently launched by the Federal Government on rice farming had boosted the moral of the farmers.

He said more than 20,000 hectares in Bakalori dam irrigation scheme and Fadama schemes in Maradun, Bakura and Talata-Mafara Local Government areas would be cultivated.

"The association is working with government agents to register active rice farmers to facilitate easy reach whenever the need arises.''

The secretary urged the state and federal government to meet necessary standard in local rice production.

Meanwhile, a farmer in Talata-Mafara, Jamilu Abubakar, had expressed concern over poor market for locally produced rice.

Abubakar, who appealed to the government to provide modern processing machines in the area, also urged the government to expand Bakalori irrigation scheme to accommodate more farmers wishing to invest in rice production.

When contacted, the Director, Federal Ministry of Agriculture in the state, Alhaji Musa Raji, said arrangement had been concluded for the distribution of fertilizer and other inputs to farmers in the state. (NAN)

Source Leadership.ng

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1 lakh farmers quit agriculture in 5 years in Maharashtra

  As many as one lakh families of farmers in the state opted out of agriculture, their sole profession, in the last five years, according to the latest agriculture Census figures.

Experts expressed fears that the trend might continue with the availability of other income sources and tolerance level of the farmers reaching its peak. The final figures of agricultural land holdings for 2015-16 will be released later.

According to the agriculture Census of 2010-11, there were 136 lakh agricultural land holdings in the state. State agriculture and revenue minister Eknath Khadse said the figure has now shrunk to 135 lakh. The minister said land acquisition for industrialization, road widening and creation of new roads have eaten up the agricultural land.

As per the agriculture Census of 2005-06, there were 137 lakh farmers' families in Maharashtra. It means that the number of farmers quitting agricultural activities between 2005-6 and 2010-11 reduced by one lakh.

Similarly, another one lakh farmers opted out of the profession from 2011-12 till today.

Speaking to TOI, Khadse said, "There are 135 lakh land holding families in the state at present. As may 90 lakh of them are marginal farmers, who own less than one hectare land. The fact is alarming as agricultural land is getting divided further into small pieces, which directly affects production. Remaining 45 lakh people are small, medium and large farmers, who actually have the capacity of producing foodgrains at large scale, which can be traded. The marginal farmers are mostly into vegetable or small scale foodgrain production, which has little role in the trade."

Over the last five-six decades, the state has witnessed a successive trend of increase in the number of farmers in terms of land division and population growth. However, the number of farmers in the state started shrinking from 2010-11. The number was 1.37 crore in the state in 2010-11, but went down to 1.36 crore by 2013-14. During the same period, the area of operational holding and average size of operational holding also went down.

In 2010-11, altogether 2,00,05,000 hectares of land was under cultivation in the state, which has now declined to 1,97,67,000 hectares. The average size of operational land holding also dipped from 1.46 hectares to 1.44 hectares.

Sangeeta Shroff, associate professor at Pune-based Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, said the situation is far more serious. "Of the total labour force in the state, 52.7% are in the agriculture sector. Further division shows that 25.4% are cultivators (land owners), while 27.3% are agricultural labourers. It means that there are more labourers in the state than land owners. If labour force figures from Mumbai, Thane, Raigad, Pune, Nagpur, Nashik and Aurangabad are removed, the employment number through agriculture sector stands at 81.36%. It means there are hardly any means of employment in the rural areas barring agriculture," she said.

She said encouraging agro-processing industries in the rural areas and infrastructure development should be undertaken on priority to control the overall downfall in the sector.

"The biggest factor behind farmers being discouraged to leave agriculture is poor irrigation facilities. The irrigation cover in the state is not more than 18%, of which a huge area is used for sugarcane cultivation. A cash crop like cotton is largely rainfed putting pressure on the farmers for making irrigation arrangements. Besides, foodgrain cultivation is also largely dependent on monsoon, which is adding to farmers' frustration. Unless these issues are tackled, the sector will continue to remain in poor light,

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Goverment Train Ebonyi States Of Nigeria Farmers, Mechanised Farming

As part of its effort to revolutionise agriculture, farmers in Ebonyi State, would soon be trained on the use of modern mechanised agricultural equipment.

The Commissioner for Agriculture, Barr. Uchenna Orji, who stated this at a joint press conference with his Information and State Orientation counterpart, Dr. Emmanuel Onwe, in Abakaliki, said the government had engaged the services of some “expatriates to train the farmers on the use of the mechanised agricultural equipment it has procured.”

Orji said that five hectares of land had been acquired and cleared at the permanent site of the state university for the exercise, adding that registered farmers and farmers’ co-operative societies would benefit from the training.

He also said that “parboiling machines would soon be installed at the three modern rice mills owned by state government to get them fully utilised.”

Orji announced the readiness of the government to enhance the aesthetic beauty of Abakaliki to make it a standard state capital, saying that the Executive Council had directed the Ministry of Environment to ensure that illegal structures were removed.

The ministry is also to plant ornamental trees by the streets.

Onwe restated the commitment of the council to the urban renewal programme of the state government, adding that the council had approved N100 million to enable the Ministry of Power to continue with the on-going urban street light project.

He hinted that it was the decision of the council that the street light project be handled systematically with the current rehabilitation of 200 kilometres of urban street roads by the Ministry of Works.

 Source : DailyTimes...

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