Food Scarcity May Hit Nigeria Soon

Blessing Oladele from the Agriculture and Allied Employees’ Union of Nigeria,  has asked the federal government to heed the warning given by the Nigeria Meteorological Agency that the country may experience food scarcity due to low rainfall in 2015, The Punch reports.

Oladele on Wednesday, August 19, stated that the low rainfall experienced in the South-West and North, known to be agriculture zones, called for serious concern.

He said: “The states in the South-West, particularly Ekiti, have very low rainfall this year and it has started manifesting. So, our governments must invest in our dams, so that we can have irrigation projects that can respond to this kind of situation. My task is to ensure that agriculture is repositioned in the South-West, and we shall achieve that. I am encouraging members of all the unions, including the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress, to invest in farming and we are receiving warm reception.Fayose’s stomach infrastructure policy has become a brand and we have to embrace it. The only alternative to our economic survival now is farming, which is food production, and we have to live by that reality.”

Oladele urged the federal government to seek alternative means of water supply to boost food production by investing hugely in irrigation projects across the country.

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Osun agency sensitizes rural communities on potential in agriculture

 

Osun State Agency for Community and Social Development Project (CSDP) has embarked on sensitization of grassroots communities and farmers on the need to exploit the natural resources as a viable option to lift their life and overcome the challenges posed by poverty, starvation and deprivation.

Speaking at a one-day motivation workshop on Community-Based Natural Resources Management (NRM) held at Iyo Community Hall in Isokan Local Government Area of the state, the General Manager of the agency, Mrs. Funmi Abokede stressed the need for the country to eradicate poverty among the rural dwellers through exploitation of our natural resources for the benefit of the people.

She noted poverty is a disease that must be fought in all fronts to enable people live worthy life.

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Nigeria Can Earn N5tn From Agriculture

 

Adebayo Sangobiyi, Shonga Farm Holdings Limited general manager, thinks that Nigeria can achieve national food security and earn about N5trillion foreign exchange from agricultural exports as well as create massive employment with the adoption of commercial agriculture.

On Thursday, August 20, Sangobiyi said that it was imperative for the country to have a well-articulated and strategic agricultural master plan that should be strictly implemented to boost the nation’s transformation in the sector.

The media source reports that the general manager canvassed the adoption of the Shonga Farm model as a national agricultural strategy, because such a measure could make Nigeria compare favourably with the United States and the United Kingdom in agricultural production and exports.

READ ALSO: Why Food Scarcity May Hit Nigeria Soon

Sangobiyi said: “If we face agriculture squarely, there will be industrialisation; with that, the economy will be transformed. Even at the national level, the Gross Domestic Product will improve and we will do less of importation.Shonga Farms had intensified its expansion programme with the aim of reducing the food import dependency of Nigeria. The concept of the farm was for them to understudy the white farmers, adding that by the time they are big enough they should buy them.”

He further claimed that his intention is to start the Alapa project with the indigenes.
The official believes that Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed has already started it by selecting 10 farmers from each of the 16 local government areas of the state.

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Economist wants FG to invest in agriculture

 

Prof Cletus Agu, Head, Department of Economics, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in Enugu State, has urged the Federal Government to diversify the economy by investing in agriculture sector.

Agu told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Nsukka on Thursday that this would forestall the total collapse of the economy.

He added that the country’s economic dependence on oil alone for foreign exchange was not a good development.

He said the recent fall in the price of oil in international market was a strong indication that money from oil could no longer sustain the economy of this country.

“From every indication, it is clear that money from oil alone can no longer sustain the country’s economy; there is urgent need to diversify to prevent total collapse in future.

“Some states and local governments in the country are unable to pay workers salaries because of fall in oil price that resulted in reduction of federal allocations to states and local governments.

“Government, as a matter of necessity, should seriously invest in agriculture to boost the economy as well as provide employment to millions of jobless graduates roaming the street,” said.

He said state governments should start harnessing solid minerals in their various states as part of diversifying the economy.

“There is no state in this country that has no one solid mineral that when harnessed, will become a foreign exchange earner for the country.

“Our problem is that as soon as oil was discovered, we abandoned agriculture and other natural resources in the country,

State governors should look inward on how to generate funds to run their states; the present situation where governors rush to Abuja every month end to share oil money is not the best, “he said.

Agu recalled that before the discovery of oil, agriculture was main foreign exchange earner, noting that some premier universities in the country were built from the proceeds of agriculture like palm oil, groundnuts and cocoa.

“It is unfortunate that as a result of oil boom, we abandoned agriculture and all eyes focused on oil; today we are bearing the consequence of that great neglect of agriculture.

“It is indisputable that agriculture provides about 60 to 80 per cent of foreign exchange to most countries of the world.

“Federal Government should put measure in place to build farm settlements in all local governments in the country which will help to ensure food security as well as provide employments to millions of Nigerians.”
He expressed concern about the inability of successive governments in the country to use money generated from oil to adequately develop the country.

“If all the revenues generated from oil have been well spent, the level of poverty and unemployment could have been small.

“The truth is that our leaders saw oil money as national cake, so everybody is busy trying to cut his or own, instead of thinking how to use it to develop people’s welfare and the country,”Agu said


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EU, UK, others invest N900bn in Nigeria’s agriculture

Nigeria’s key development partners under the New Alliance Cooperative Agreement Framework/Grow Africa initiative are committed to a funding equivalent of N100bn ($500m) for the country’s agricultural sector for a three-year period, the Federal Government has said.

It also stated that international and local business establishments were committed to make investments of about $4bn (N800bn) in the agricultural sector.

The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Sonny Echono, disclosed this on the occasion of the validation workshop on the New Alliance Report involving Nigeria, private sector investors and its development partners.

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The development partners, according to Echono, include the European Union, United Kingdom, Japan, France, Germany and the United States.

The permanent secretary, who was represented by the Director of Special Duties, FMARD, Mrs. Ademola Abiri, stated that the new alliance was a collaborative approach geared towards developing the agricultural sector of the Nigerian economy.

He said, “In Nigeria’s new alliance agreement, the government is committed to 13 major policy actions in the areas of seed and fertiliser, the Bank of Agriculture, agriculture insurance, nutrition, land tilting, staple crops processing zones, commodity exchange, enterprise registration and power availability.

“Key development partners including the EU, the UK, Japan, France, Germany and the US, are committed to funding equivalent to about $500m for Nigeria’s agriculture sector in the 2013 to 2016 period. International and local business establishments are committed to make investments of about $4bn in the agricultural sector.”

Echono said the Federal Government was hopeful that through the partnership, more investments would come to the sector as the FMARD would implement the 13 policy actions in order to improve the environment and attract investors.

He explained that the new alliance was formed in Nigeria in 2013 when the Federal Government, private sector players and the development partners made written commitments on key actions to be embarked upon.

This, he said, was in order to improve agricultural investments and food and nutrition security in line with the principles of the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme.

He said, “Each stakeholder is therefore accountable to other stakeholders for commitments made. The Nigerian government made policy reform commitments while the private sector made commitments on the level of agricultural investments in the medium term. Development partners on their part committed to funding levels for the medium term. The civil society is to ensure that the commitments reflect the views of the intended beneficiaries.

“In order to assess progress, an annual report on the level of implementation of stakeholders’ commitments is produced at the national level and at the continental, African Union level. This report is discussed at the annual Africa-wide new alliance leadership council meeting, which normally takes place in June every year.”

He noted that the purpose of the workshop was to review the progress made so far under the alliance in order to produce a final document which would be submitted to the AU commission on August 31, 2015.

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Dixon’s deep roots in agriculture remain strong

DIXON — Lambtown and Dairy City are just two of the nicknames that denote Dixon’s strong agricultural roots.

The town should have been named Dicksonville after pioneer Thomas Dickson who donated 10 acres of his land for a railroad depot, but a mistake on the spelling of the town’s name on a shipment of merchandise in 1872 got the community’s identity changed to the simpler Dixon.

Dixon’s agricultural heritage derives from its located in the Dixon Ridge farming area, which has some of Solano County’s most fertile soil that allows farmers to grow everything from tomatoes to alfalfa, ranchers to run cattle and sheep, and orchardists to grow almonds and walnuts.

The community keeps its farming heritage alive with such events as the annual May Fair, which began in the late 1800s and is the longest continually running agriculture fair in California, and attractions founded more recently such as the Cool Pumpkin Patch corn maze, reputedly the world’s largest.

Solano County has a 548-acre area zoned for agricultural services next to Dixon. This area is to be home to processing plants and other businesses that help the farming economy.

Dixon has become more suburban in recent decades, with subdivisions swelling its population of commuters who travel to Davis and the Sacramento area to work.

The city, which was incorporated in 1878, has 18,315 residents as of the 2010 census, of which 40 percent are Hispanic of any race. Of the non-Hispanic population, 49 percent are white, 2.7 percent black, 3.5 percent Asian, 3.2 percent two or more races and the remainder Pacific Islander and other categories, according to the 2010 census.

The median age of Dixon’s population is 32 years old and its median income in $71,122.

Dixon almost became home to a major horse-racing center, but residents voted that down on the grounds they liked their town the way it was. The city also courted the idea of trying to land a movie studio that would have been built on the south side of town and produce family films, but the studio never came about.
Dixon was born in 1851 when pioneer Elija Silvey founded the town of Silveyville, which was located a few miles from present-day Dixon. He set up a hotel and saloon for mule teams traveling between San Francisco and the gold fields in the Sierra Nevada and put up a red lantern to make certain people could find it.

By 1865, Silveyville had about 150 residents and boasted a store, blacksmith shop and a post office, with Silvey serving as postmaster. But the Central Pacific railroad came through in 1868 several miles away and Silveyville died. A new town sprung up along the railroad tracks, with people moving many of the Silveyville buildings there on rollers.

In a twist of irony, one of the few buildings to survive from Silveyville was a church that was too large to be hauled over the railroad tracks. When a massive fire burned down much of Dixon, the church survived quite literally because it was on the wrong side of the tracks.

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Agriculture Program Takes Students Outside

Chapin, SC (WLTX)-The Agriculture Department at the Center for Advanced Technical Studies is growing, as students trade plant poinsettias in their new greenhouse.

The students, who also attend regular classes at their respective high schools, will grow and sell the flowers throughout the year to raise money for their program.

"We've done some plant sale fundraisers in the past, but none that we've grown. so we're really excited to get the community involved in that," Lead instructor of the Biosystems Engineering program Kevin Cox said. "When they can own their education and they can show off what they've done, it makes it so much easier to teach and these kids."

It's one of the many things they get to do outdoors, away from the traditional classroom. On Monday, they will begin planting their own broccoli, to be harvested for the school cafeteria.

"We are using the same agricultural practices that you might see on a thousand acre road crop farm, but were able to do that here on a much smaller scale," Senior Jacob Cathcart said. "We can bring people out here and show them where there food is coming from."

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