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Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in Nigeria has said it will hand over the Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) system developed through the Agricultural Market and Information System (AMIS) project to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development so that Nigerians can gain better access to relevant data on agriculture.   Director-General, FAO Mr. Olutayo Oyawale, National Project Coordinator, who disclosed this recently, said the CAPI system will provide an unprecedented access to agriculture information from various stakeholders across the country that will, in turn, deliver tremendous growth for the agriculture sector. Oyawale said “Real-time data gathering has always been a problem in the agricultural sector. With this CAPI System, investors, agriculture merchants, traders and farmers can make better decisions and optimise their activities in their respective roles.” FAO also conducted a pilot use of crowdsourcing dat

Chief Audu Ogbeh, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, has said export Nigeria will start exporting yams to Europe by June 29, 2017.   Audu Ogbeh, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development He said this in Abuja while speaking with journalists, stating that within the next two years, Nigeria’s agricultural sector would have improved. “In another two years, we will be back on the world stage where every country had recognized and expected Nigeria to live up to the name – Major Food Producer. On the 29th of June this year, the first container of yams will be leaving the shores of Nigeria for UK. “Yes, we have been dealing with vegetables and a lot of other produce already and we will continue to be selling pulses mainly beans and cowpeas to India. We will soon be back exporting cocoa again on a large scale, although we are exporting very little now; and cashew nuts to Vietnam which we intend to start processing here very soon. “The processed cashew nuts

The Nigerian Government will finally go ahead with the issue of a "green" bond which was postponed from an initial date at the end of March because the budget had to be passed first. The green bond, if successful, will be the first for an emerging market country.   President Muhamadu Buhari Amina Mohammed, a former environment minister and now Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), who disclosed this to the international press on the sidelines of a U.N. conference in Mexico on disaster risk reduction, recently, said proceeds from the sovereign bond would be used to fund agriculture and renewable energy, among other projects. The green bond, expected to raise about N20 billion ($63.6 million) from its first tranche, could lay the groundwork for other African countries to follow suit, she added. "We've just had the budget approved, so I believe Nigeria will look, probably within the next few weeks, to doing (the bond issue)," Mohamme

Gustavo Dzugala, Head of Mission, Argentina Embassy in Nigeria, has said his country is ready to collaborate with Nigeria to boost agricultural production. Gustavo who disclosed this on the sideline of the Argentine’s National Day celebration recently in Abuja said Argentina’s major business is agriculture, adding that the country exports agricultural products to different parts of the world. He said if Argentina has the market, they would not be exporting millions of products out of the country, noting that Nigeria has the market. According to him, Nigeria should shift her attention from crude oil to agriculture because agriculture is more lucrative than oil. “Our main activity is agriculture, I am trying to ensure a better relationship in agriculture; we are going to train a delegation from Nigeria on Agro business. We have to understand that agro-business is more lucrative than oil because of the stability in the long terms, in agriculture only human beings are needed

Mr. Patrick Tarnue Worsie, Assistant Minister for Planning and Development in Liberia, has said his country is set to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Nigeria on transfer technology for agricultural development in Liberia. Worsie who disclosed this during a visit by a Liberian delegation to the Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi (FIIRO) in Lagos recently said Liberia wishes to strengthen collaboration with the Nigerian government in the area of knowledge sharing and power development. “We have a five-year agricultural transformation agenda and what we have been doing in the last five months is to see how we can build capacity of our people. We are doing this with support from the African Development Bank (AfDB). “Our visit, we believe will help shape the ongoing agenda in our country. This is what has made our visit to Nigeria pertinent,’’ he said. The minister said his government was in the process of procuring 15 flash dryers from FIIRO,

As part of an effort to end post-harvest losses put at $9 billion annually, Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri, Minister of State for Agriculture, said the government has concluded plans to set up staple crops processing zones in areas of high food production across the country, among other approaches.   Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri, Minister of State for Agriculture The minister disclosed this at a stakeholders’ conference with the theme “Sustainable Development and Security in the Niger Delta beyond Oil’’ organised by Akassa Development Foundation (ADF) in Abuja recently. Akassa is a community in Bayelsa State. Other approaches to tackling pot-harvest losses as listed by the minister include development of cold chains, improvement in infrastructure and product handling, among others. According to the minister, the government will utilise fiscal and infrastructure incentives to attract private food manufacturing companies to add value to agricultural produce. Lokpobiri said the gover

Alhaji Safihiyu Awosanya, Chief Imam of Aiyepe community in Odogbolu Local Government Area of Ogun State, has called on the government at all levels in Nigeria to reconsider setting up farm settlements across the country. Speaking after his installation as the new Chief Imam of Aiyepe commuity recently, Awosanya argued that the abandoned farm settlement schemes in the country could have saved Nigeria its current struggle to ensure food in some parts of the country. Lamenting the lack of continuity in the scheme, he urged local, state and federal governments work hard to resuscitate existing farm settlements and provide the right infrastructure that will make them to thrive so as to encourage young Nigerians to become part of the programme. The Chief Imam said “The white-collar jobs are not there again. This is a reason people must return to agriculture. We must train the youth in vocations; how to use their brains and hands for their own survival.” 

Economic and agricultural experts have called for broader inclusion of stakeholders in the formulation and implementation of budgetary allocation for the agricultural sector to engender economic growth and national development. Mr Aso Patrick Vakporaye, Assistant Director Economic Growth Department Ministry of Budget and National Planning; Barrister Eze Onyekpere, Lead Director Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) and Azubike Nwokoye, Food and Agriculture Programme Advisor, ActionAid Nigeria (AAN) gave the advice in Kaduna. They spoke at the “Stakeholders Consultative Meeting on 2018 Agriculture Budget” organised by the Action Aid Nigeria (AAN) and the Ministry of Budget and National Planning (MBNP). The meeting which was first held in 2016 was, among others, convened to facilitate conversations among key stakeholders connecting the continental framework on the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) targets and government intentions within the Agric

International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has assisted the Federal Government with 35,930 kilograms of seeds for distribution in Borno State as part of efforts to cushion the humanitarian crisis in the northeastern part of Nigeria. Delivering the seeds to the Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State, Dr Kenton Dashiell, IITA Deputy Director General for Partnerships for Delivery, said the donation is a gesture aimed at helping Nigeria to rebuild Borno, in particular, and the northeast in general. The donated seeds include improved varieties of cowpea, soybean, maize, millet, sorghum, and rice. The seeds are adapted to the climate of the region with some being extra-early, early, and intermediate, maturing. Dashiell explained that the seeds are also high yielding and resistant to the major pests and diseases, and other biotic and abiotic constraints in the region, adding that another 3,000 bundles of cassava planting materials will be delivered to the state

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has urged the Federal Government invest more in agricultural initiatives as part of an effort to attract and encourage the most vulnerable groups in the society, including young people and women, into the sector. Mr. Ernest Aubee, Principal Programme Officer on Agriculture, ECOWAS, who said this recently in Abuja commended the Federal Government for its `Green Alternative’ policy, adding that improved investment in the sector would help to translate the plan into reality. Aubee also called on the government to encourage widespread use of technology in order to the provision of good quality seeds, storage and packaging facilities as well as good transportation and marketing facilities. “Nigeria has been a leader in agriculture in the past but it went down at some point and oil and gas took over. Nigeria needs more investment in the agriculture sector now. All that is needed is more investment to transform agricultural

Mr. Graham Hefer, Managing Director of Okomu Palm Oil Company has said processed palm oil can become a major foreigner exchange earner for the country in spite of infrastructure deficit, adding that if the necessary infrastructure can be put in place, production of palm oil will grow in volumes and this can help to ease pressure on foreign exchange as well as facilitate development of other sectors. Hefer who was speaking recently in Benin said agriculture remains the best option for Nigeria to get out of its economic woes and palm oil produce could sustain Nigeria’s economy in the future. The palm oil sector in the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is heavy and an indication that there was a large scope for improvement. “I can see a big boom in the sub-sector only if there is right environment for government-private partnership.’’ he said. Hefer noted that although Okomu Palm Oil is growing steadily, he regretted that the company is not doing as much as its co

Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of the House of Representatives, has advised fresh graduates who have just completed the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to take advantage of Central Bank of Nigeria’s N400 billion intervention fund for agricultural sector.   Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of the House of Representatives Dogara who gave the charge at the opening of the second sitting of third session of Nigerian Youth Parliament at the National Assembly complex in Abuja recently, expressed optimism in the potential of agriculture to solve youth unemployment in the country. “As I said elsewhere, agriculture accounts for the bulk of GDP in Nigeria, and probably employs a higher absolute number of youth than any other sector. However, its full potential is rarely exploited. Much of Nigeria agricultural land lies fallow due to restrictions on land titling, state ownership of productive land and lack of incentives. Lack of supporting infrastructure makes production and transport of agricultur

Alhaji Aminu Goronyo, President of Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), has said annual rice production in Nigeria has increased from 5.5 million tonnes in 2015 to 5.8 million tonnes in 2017. Goronyo who disclosed this recently in Abuja said that in 2015, Nigerians spent not less than N1 billion daily on rice consumption, adding while spending had drastically reduced, consumption had increased because of increased local production of the commodity. “The consumption rate now is 7.9 million tonnes and the production rate has increased to 5.8 tonnes per annum,’’ he said. He said the increase was as a result of the CBN’s Anchor Borrowers Programme with a total of 12 million rice producers and four million hectares of FADAMA rice land. Goronyo said the programme since inception had created economic linkage between Small Holder Farmers (SHF) and reputable large-scale processors, thereby increasing agricultural outputs and significantly improving capacity utilisati

Dr Sekinat Farinde, a food scientist at the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IAR&T), Ibadan, has urged the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to develop policies on food processing and production. Farinde said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recently in Ibadan that the Ministry should also articulate broadbase policies on Agricultural food preservation and marketing in Nigeria. She suggested that the policy on agricultural food processing and preservation should specifically focus on quality control and maintenance of standards along the agricultural value chain in relation to global market competition. This, she said, would help ensure adequate food security in the country. Farinde noted that in developing countries, such as Nigeria, food got lost due to poor production planning, premature harvesting, poor storage facilities, packaging, lack of infrastructure and processing facilities. According to her, good linkages and n

Federal Government has released operational guidelines for the implementation of its Graduate and Youth Empowerment Programme (GYEP). Speaking at the inauguration of the programme in Abuja recently, Suleiman Adamu, Minister of Water Resources, said GYEP is an agricultural scheme for the unemployed youth in the country to play a significant role national development. Adamu said the Federal Government had realised that with optimised agriculture potential in all River Basin Development Authorities (RBDAs), Nigeria could promote food security and socio-economic development. “The highest threat to our nationhood today is the army of unemployed youths on the street. “The Graduate and Youth Empowerment Programme and the guidelines that we have inaugurated will therefore redirect the energy of the Nigerian youth positively to agricultural productivity and making them successful entrepreneurs. “I, therefore, urge the RBDAs and all other stakeholders to abide by the guid

Kano State Government has expressed its readiness to partner investors from the private as part of efforts to boost tomato production in the state. Alhaji Nasiru Gawuna, Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kano recently. Gawuna said the state government was ready to allocate farms to private investors to produce the commodity in large commercial quantity for sale to the Dangote Tomato Processing Company and individuals. He said under the plan, the state government would allocate the farms to interested private investors who would produce the commodity and sell it to people for local consumption.  According to him, the initiative would go along way in boosting production of the commodity in addition to providing Tomato Processing Companies with adequate raw materials for their operation. “This is what the government did at Kadawa where it set aside many farms for tomato production

In Nigeria, purchases of cocoa have slumped as most of the beans for the ongoing harvest failed to fully develop. In addition to this, there is also the relative low weight of matured beans, revealed buying agents in the country’s cocoa-producing region which is in the southwest. Benjamin Adeyera, a cocoa-buying agent, in a phone interview with Bloomberg, attributed the high incidence of “flat beans” or beans that did not fully develop to the late arrival of rains in the early months of the year. He added that recent purchases ranged between 230-240g per 100 beans (as compared to 260-270g usually). “Most exporters are no longer advancing money to buying agents because of the high prevalence,” he revealed. Nigeria was ranked as the world’s seventh cocoa producer after its output estimate for the 2015-16 season was lowered to 190,000 metric tons from 270,000 tonnes by the International Cocoa Organization.

Lagos State Government has fully compensated the five communities affected by its recent acquisition of 500 hectares of land in Eluju-mowo, along Itoikin-Epe Road for Farm Estate Initiative. Commissioner for Agriculture, Lagos State The beneficiary communities whose crops were affected by the initiative received their cheques during a presentation ceremony at the Ministry for Agriculture in Ikeja, the state capital. Mr. Ganiyu Okanlawon Sanni, Special Adviser to the state governor on Food Security, said the compensation which earlier been agreed upon with residents of the communities paves the way for the state government to frontally address the various challenges facing agriculture in the state. Sanni said the acquisition would alleviate the challenges of declining land for agricultural activities, encroachment by land speculators, as well as, promoting the utilisation of agricultural land for intended purposes. He explained that the initiative which is also gear

Q&A with Liam Condon, head of Bayer’s Crop Science division and management board member, Bayer AG, to reflect on last week’s Global Forum for Innovations in Agriculture Liam, you were a keynote speaker at last week’s Global Forum for Innovations in Agriculture (GFIA) in Utrecht on the topic of “Visionaries shaping the future agriculture innovation landscape.” What excites you most about the future of farming? Liam Condon : We are in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution and I’m most excited about the major advances we are seeing in science. The reality is clear: new technologies must be developed so farmers can become even more efficient and more sustainable on their current farms, to meet the demands of a growing global population. New technologies and breakthrough innovations will revolutionize farming and ensure customized solutions for growers, large and small, so that they can produce more food with less land and fewer resources. These possibilities excite

The management of Dangote Farms Limited’s tomato-processing factory in Kano has for the second time within a year closed the factory as a result of poor supply of tomatoes by farmers contracted to produce the raw material exclusively for the factory.   Aliko Dangote Chairman, Dangote Group According to Abdulkareem Kaita, Manager of the factory, the management took the tough decision of closing down the factory again because the quantity of tomatoes produced by the farmers cannot meet the needs of the company. He, however, promised that the factory will reopen as soon as supplies improve well enough to meet the needs of the company’s operation. The tomato-processing factory was established by Dangote Farms to end the cycle of waste in the tomato trade where about 60 percent of the country’s annual output of 1.5 million tonnes rots away while the country imports about 300,000 tonnes of the product every year from China. Meanwhile, Dangote’s tomato-processing factory has

Zhao Linxiang, Chinese Economic and Commercial Counselor, has said China will invest $6.7 billion to develop Nigeria’s agriculture through training of hundreds of Nigerians to achieve food sufficiency. Linxiang made the disclosure at the China-Nigeria Agricultural Modernisation Cooperation Forum in Abuja on Tuesday. The envoy said China is ready to share its vast experience in agricultural development with Nigeria in order to transform the sector to enhance productivity. ‘‘China, the most populated country in the world and also the biggest developing country, has produced food for 20 per cent of the world’s population. ‘‘China and Nigeria are both major agricultural nations, having a strong complementarity in the field of agriculture development. ‘‘In the past 15 years, Chinese Government has provided agricultural training courses for hundreds of Nigerian candidates which has promoted the level of Nigeria’s agricultural development. ‘‘In 2016, we held the China

Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has said he would sign an Anti-open grazing Bill into law in his state as part of measures to put paid to the incessant killings and violence perpetrated by herdsmen in the state.   Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State Ortom who disclosed this to newsmen after a meeting with acting President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja said the state government will do everything within its power to end the threat posed by herdsmen. He said there is no land for grazing in Benue State because the entire area is meant for cultivation. He, however, noted that there has been a measure of co-operation between farmers and herdsmen in recent times. Ortom, who said the federal government and security agencies had been very supportive in assisting the state with its security crisis, added that his visited the Villa to brief the acting president on the security situation in the state. “I’m here to also brief him on the security situatio

Chief Audu Ogbeh, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, has said the ban on the importation of rice into the country was having severe effects on rice production in Thailand. Thailand used to be the largest exporter of the food staple to Nigeria, until government imposed a moratorium on the importation of rice at the inception of the current administration. Ogbeh, who revealed this yesterday at the 10th mid-term town hall meeting held in Abuja, stated that increased production of rice in Nigeria has led to the closure of seven factories in Thailand. The affected mills are considered to be among the biggest producing rice in the South-east Asian country, he said. Ogbeh said as of 2014, Nigeria was importing 580,000 tonnes of rice from both Thailand and India but the volume dropped drastically by almost 50 per cent to 280,000 tonnes in 2016, thus allowing government to save foreign exchange that would have otherwise gone into importing the commodity. “

Hapreet Singh, Group Director, Stallion Popular farms & Mills, has said the company’s rice output would soon increase following the installation of new milling facilities and the introduction of structured farming techniques. Singh who disclosed this in his remarks at the 2017 Nigeria Agriculture Awards in Lagos where Stallion Popular farms & Mills was declared “Agro Processor of the Year Award”, attributed the recognition as a direct result of President Muhammadu Buhari’s leadership aptitudes and his agrarian-business agenda. He said Stallion hopes to increase locally farmed rice to 1.5million tonnes yearly from 450, 000 metric tonnes, adding that the company is leveraging on the policy impetus of the Federal Government’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda to bring sustainable and scalable growth to farmers. Singh said the farm’s effort to increase cultivated rice yield began in 2007 and has since been at the forefront of paddy agronomists in the country, wor

Chief Audu Ogbeh, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, has said Nigeria is projected to become a net exporter of key agricultural products such as rice, cashew nuts, groundnuts, cassava and vegetable oil by 2020.   China-Nigeria Agricultural Modernization Cooperation Forum  Ogbeh who disclosed this at a meeting tagged “China-Nigeria Agricultural Modernization Cooperation Forum 2017” in Abuja on Tuesday said the government is working very hard to make agriculture the main driver of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with an average growth rate of 6.9 percent. Agriculture currently accounts for 23 percent of Nigeria's GDP and employs 38 percent of the working population. The forum which was organized to discuss how China can assist Nigeria to achieve an increase in agricultural productivity, food security and poverty reduction toward overall sustainable diversification of its economy is part of an effort to strengthen agricultural cooperation betwee

Chief Audu Ogbeh, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, has said the Federal Government will henceforth use revenue from agric produce export to pay the nation’s debts. He said this in response to appeals from stakeholders for the government to start off the second phase of the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP) in Nigeria.   Chief Audu Ogbeh Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Ogbeh said: “A portion of any loan we take now will be dedicated to encouraging agricultural production and exportation of products grown by young people and women. We just have to earn more foreign exchange because we must pay our debts. According to statistics, we are spending 66 per cent of all our tax revenues on servicing debts. “If we are servicing debts and not paying the principal, in another 10 years, this country will be in such debts that will make us to be facing major embarrassment. So, we will take part of our loans and invest it in

Adepeju Adebajo, Commissioner for Agriculture in Ogun State has said farmers in the state that participated in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Anchor Borrower Programme are not making the best use of the loans granted to them. Adebajo who said this during a one-day workshop organised by Vanguard Pharmaceuticals in conjunction with ADAMORE Nigeria Limited to train farmers across the state expressed disappointment at the attitude of the farmers towards the programme. She said the loan scheme, a CBN initiative designed to promote agriculture productivity, would elevate the status of the farmers and boost agriculture development if the targeted beneficiaries had taken full and proper advantage of the loan. The commissioner represented by Mr.Tunji Kanimodo, Director in the ministry, urged the farmers to form cooperative groups in order for them to be able to access the loan and improve their businesses. “Farmers can benefit from the programme by forming cooperative groups

Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State has said the state government is planning to create a master plan for rubber production as part of efforts to boost foreign exchange earnings and reposition Edo as the leader in cultivation and processing of rubber. The governor who disclosed this while receiving the management of the Rubber Research Institute of Nigeria (RRIN) at the Edo Government House in Benin on Monday said the state government is fully ready to collaborate with RRIN to achieve the goal. He said the state government would rely on the institute to determine the location of soil types that can support cultivation of rubber in the state so that agreement can be reached on the amount of land that will be provided for rubber cultivation, the quantity of yield to expect and to know the key investors. While reminding the RRIN delegation that rubber once served as a source of foreign earnings for the country before the discovery of crude oil, Obaseki said the state has