24 — VANGUARD, FRIDAY, MARCH 8, 2013
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akin Adesina and PIP Director in COLEACP, Guy Stinglhamber, after a strategic meeting on Nigerian horticultural market development in COLEACP office, Brussels, Belgium.
FG to concession agro input centres to private sector — Perm. Sec
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HE Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mrs Ibukun Odusote, has said the Federal Government will soon concession all the 80 One-Stop agro inputs centres being constructed across the country to the private sector. Mr Ewaoche Ameh, the Senior Information Officer at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, revealed this in a statement made available to the press recently. ‘’The projects, after completion, are envisaged to be concessioned to the private sector through approved concession process in accordance with the Federal Government Concession Act,” the statement quoted Odusote as saying. She spoke at the inauguration of the One-Stop shop agro inputs centre in Iseyin, Oyo State, saying the concessioning would ensure that the centres remain viable. Odusote said that the Iseyin centre, like others, has the capacity to accommodate a minimum of 500 tonne storage capacity for fertiliser, seeds and agro-chemicals. She said the centres were also designated to be service delivery units for tractor hiring, primary processing and extension support services as covered by the Growth Enhancement Support (GES) scheme. The permanent secretary observed that not less than 774 of such centres would have been established across the country by the end of 2015.
(L - R) Aseyin of Iseyin, Oba Adekunle Salau, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agric & Rural Development, Mrs. Ibukun Odusote and the ministry’s South West regional director, Mr. Lekan Quadri, at the commissioning of the onestop-shop agro-input centre, Otiri, Iseyin, Oyo State, on Wednesday.
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HE Bank of Agriculture, BOA in Nigeria has stated its readiness to promote Agricultural Biotechnology for the production of food. Managing Director of the Bank, Dr. Muhammadu Kudu Santuraki told Vanguard in an interview at the Sultan Palace on Wednesday that the Bank would “definitely support biotechnology for food.” According to him, although it was an emerging field in the country, biotechnology had attracted the attention of the bank. “Biotechnology is an emerging field in Nigeria and this is an area that has attracted our attention. In fact, we have signed an MOU on Biotechnology Institute and we are working with them to see how we can promote biotechnology,” Santuraki told Vanguard. On how the Bank intends to support biotechnology, he explained, “It also depends on how you look at biotechnology because people come to me to say they want to borrow money
BOA is interested in biotechnology for food, says MD By ABDALLAH EL-KUREBE to grow crops for fuel. That is good but that is not the mandate we are supporting right now. Because we are trying to
ATA director hails Jigawa’s e-wallet fertilizer distribution
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HE Director, Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) in Jigawa, Alhaji Usman Dunama, says the e-wallet model of distributing agricultural inputs adopted by the state government has been effective and successful. Dunama said on Tuesday in Dutse that the policy had ensured that the inputs reached genuine farmers in the remote areas effectively. “There are problems actually, but the system has been effective,” he said. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the government introduced the policy last year to distribute fertiliser and other farm inputs to farmers in the state. Dunama however
acknowledged that the little problems recorded through the use of the GSM networks were surmountable. He saidcommunity leaders and officials of farmers’ groups liaised with ATA officials to identify the real farmers for distribution of the inputs in remote areas where there were no networks. Dunama said the ATA programme in Jigawa focused on farmers who were registered through cooperative bodies. “Each farmer that was registered collected 50 kg bag of improved rice seeds free of charge and three bags of assorted fertiliser,” he said. According to him, NPK and Urea brands of fertiliser were also sold at 50 per
cent subsidy by the Federal Government, with the farmers paying the remaining 50 per cent.
grow crops for food now.” “The challenge for Africa now is that of food. Most countries in the west are growing crops for fuel but for us in Africa, it should be for food. Unless Africa can feed itself, its a problem,” the Managing Director stressed. He added that BOA had released a total of N43 billion in the last 10 years to finance farmers and Agricultural value chain in categories ranging from N250,000 for macro farmers; N5 million for medium scale farmers and above N5
million for large scale farmers. We are also cooperating with various states governments to launch their specific programmes in their regions, adding that Sokoto state government and the Bank were signing an MOU for N1 billion. “The Bank and the state government will put N500 million each to support farmers that are engaged in both dry and rainy season farming.” He further said that the Bank was also supporting other NGOs who are stakeholders in the Agricultural sector.
Lawmaker distributes improved seeds to women
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N a bid to improve the lot of women at the grassroots, the Senator representing Southern Kaduna, Mrs Nenadi Usman, on Tuesday distributed improved seeds to them. The improved seeds — tomatoes, soya beans, groundnuts, okra, carrot, maize and cucumber — were distributed to various women associations and religious groups. Speaking during the exercise at Kagoro in Kaura local government area of Kaduna State, Usman said that the initiative was aimed at empowering
women to be self-reliant and acquainting them with modern farming techniques. She said that experts from Osprey Investment Group, a UK-based agricultural company would train the women on the techniques to ensure maximum productivity. One of the experts, Mr Paul Kaizar said the firm would not only provide the needed training but a ready market for the produce. Kaizer described the initiative as a bold step towards actualising the Vision 20:2020 in the agricultural sector.