VANGUARD, FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 2013 — 23
Expert calls for policy on food security BY BOSE ADELAJA
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From left: Osayande Ihase, Dr. Chukwuemeka Eke both of National Institute for Oil Palm Research, Benin-City; Moses Adebayo, LAUTEC, and other scientists at the dialogue and training workshop on plant breeding, genetics and biosciences for Africa, in Abuja.
African countries to benefit from maize, cassava, intervention N
IGERIA and 19 other African countries will directly benefit from the African Development Bankfunded initiative known as the Support for Agricultural Research for Development of Strategic Crops (SARD-SC), but the multiplier effect of the project is expected to affect other regional member countries in the continent. Direct beneficiaries of the intervention include farmers in Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, DR Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. “But the project will have a positive spin off effect in the other member countries,” according to the Project Coordinator, SARD-SC, Dr Chris Akem at the country launch of the project in Abuja which ended today. Scientists, other stakeholders and policy makers say the initiative will help narrow the yield gap facing Africa’s strategic crops even as most countries on the continent embark on agricultural reforms. “SARD-SC is a huge opportunity for Nigeria to bridge the yield gap through increased local production,” says the Executive Secretary, Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), Prof Baba Yusuf Abubakar. Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture, Dr Akin Adesina, who was represented by Dr Martins Fregene also welcomed the project, noting
that it would compliment ongoing efforts to transform agriculture. Maize, cassava, rice, and wheat are considered crops of strategic importance for Africa. In Nigeria for instance, about 20 per cent of households consume maize at different times, according to ARCN. The crop is consumed by millions of people as either roasted or boiled and eaten off the cob or as dish prepared
from raw or fermented flour, says Dr Sam Ajala, IITASARD-SC Maize Commodity Specialist. The country also imports about 3.4 million metric tons of wheat annually to meet its demand. Rice importation is also huge while cassava is both a food security and cash crop. Prof. Abubakar said that the project would provide leverage for ongoing reforms especially the Agricultural Transformation Agenda.
Scientist urges northern states to plant date palm trees for agriculture, desertification BY ABDALLAH EL-KUREBE
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PLANT Physiologist with Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research, NIFOR, Benin City, Dr. Chukwuemeka Eke, has called on northern states of Nigeria to plant date palm trees for agriculture and to check desertification. Presenting a paper in Abuja during a media training workshop organised by Biosciences for Farming in Africa (B4FA), he observed that if state governments in the north intensified efforts in the production of date palm tree, the region stands to gain immensely both in desertification control and agriculture. According to him, “Apart from Agriculture, growing date palm trees will also address the problems of
desertification in Sahelian Nigeria, Dr. Eke stated. He disclosed that since “world producers of date trees include Sahelian countries of Iran, Iraq, Israel, Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and other middle East countries, Nigeria could do the same by replicating date palm tree production in the northern states.” Eke emphasized that the demand for improved materials already exists and that one hectare could produce as much as N6,048,000 (farm gate price of N560,000 per tonne, 10.8tonnes/ha), adding that “large-scale commercial date palm micropropagation should be enhanced in order to produce enough for the demand.” “Nigeria can become a date producer of importance and has a number of favourable factors.
NSTITUTE of Professional Agriculturists of Nigeria has called on the federal government to develop a policy capable of creating appropriate national development framework for increased food security and well being of the Nigerian people. Also, it said, government at all levels, should develop institutional framework to ensure good governance for sustainable development and food security which is possible through good leadership, availability of new technologies and fresh ways of doing things. At a communique issued at the end of its18 th annual conference with theme, “Enhancing Effective Agricultural Productivity and Resources Utilization in Nigeria”, held in Sondghai Rivers farm initiative Bunu Tai Rivers State, the institute noted that the nation must make fundamental paradigm shift by seeing agriculture as a business and not a development programme. ‘’It must be structured, developed and financed as a business for
us to fully unlock our agricultural potential,’’ said the institute. At the conference which was declared open by the Rivers State Honorable Commissioner of Agriculture and Rural Development Hon. Emmanuel Chindah, the institute noted that there is need for a new ‘’Green Revolution” where small scale farmers would be massively empowered to grow food in cluster arrangement and common market. ‘’Nigeria population which is growing at an exponential rate has stretched the capacity of agriculture to meet the food and feeds needs of man and livestock without sacrificing the environmental integrity of local landscape. ‘’As a matter of national urgency, a policy should be developed that would be predicted on a “One State, One Agricultural Export Policy ”. Every state in the Federation should be made to developed one agricultural produce which has a comparative advantage for local consumption and export sinceall the 36 states in the country has various potentials,’’ it said.
Uduaghan revolutionizing agriculture in Delta —Okwuada BY VICTOR AHIUMAYOUNG
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RIOR to the discovery of crude oil in commercial quantity in Nigeria, agriculture used to be the main stay of the nation’s economy. In fact, agriculture was the greatest employer of labour in Nigeria before the discovery of the ‘black gold’ otherwise known as crude oil as more than 70 per cent of the total work force of the nation was actively engaged in agriculture. Today, the reverse is the case as Nigeria has, unfortunately moved from the league of food and cash crops exporting countries of the world to food importing nation. It is absolutely ridiculous to note that over one trillion naira is spent annually on food importation by the country. This, no doubt, has become a source of great concern to many Nigerians as it is becoming obvious that we can no longer feed ourselves as a nation. However, the good news is that conscious efforts are now being made by the federal and some state governments in the country to resuscitate the once booming agricultural sector of the nation’s economy. One of the states that had been in the forefront in the
crusade for the revamping of the agricultural sector is Delta State. In an interview with, a renowned Veterinary Surgeon, Agriculturist, and Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Phed Breeder Farm and Hatchery Limited, Dr. Philip Okwuada, he spoke on food security in Nigeria and efforts by Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan led administration in Delta State, towards boosting agriculture in the state among other issues relating to agriculture. Okwuada who defined food security as unfettered and continuous access to affordable food with adequate nutritional value, said that Nigeria with a whooping population of over 150,000,000 people is suffocating under a severe burden of food importation, adding that food importation leads to rise in unemployment. He listed the advantages of food security to include the availability of surplus funds for national development; improvement in the overall well-being of individuals in the country; increased mental and physical ability; improvement in the human capital output and increment in the overall human, social and capital development.