3-hectares moringa farm can generate N5m annually’

Meet Oluwadara Adekunle, a 22-year-old graduate of engineering, who wants to generate N5m annually from her moringa farm. She is still doing her NYSC in Abuja. Daily Trust caught up with her recently where she was exhibiting her product.

As an engineer, what prompted you into agriculture?
Personally, I feel agriculture is a way of life. The fact that we eat we should be able to farm as well. And also looking at the production I am into at the moment which is moringa Oleifera, aside its nutritional benefits it is also an antioxidant plant. The seed when processed into oil can be used as bio-fuel. That is what actually caught my interest in the moringa plant.
Do you have a moringa farm?
Yes I do.
Where?
In Kaduna.
Is that where you process the product?
Yes.
How is the market?
Generally, the demand is high and people are getting to know about the product, although much awareness is still needed because people still come to ask questions like: what is it all about? So the awareness is increasing and it is making the market good.
How much do you make from this farm?
Although I have just started, I am trying to do an estimate of three hectares of moringa farm. It can generate above N5 million if well marketed, both the seeds and the leaves.
Averagely how much do you make from the farm?
I make about N15, 000 a month.
Do you also intend to go into other crops?
I could expand to cassava and the likes. But for now, it’s moringa and all the chain of processing.
Do you supply your products to pharmaceutical stores?
Yes I do. I have met some of them and I told them about what I do. I also met some pharmaceutical stores where my moringa products are being sold at the moment.
What sort of assistance would you want from government?
I would like government to create the awareness because moringa is very nutritious and should be used in school feeding programme to tackle malnutrition. That will increase the usage and expand the market.[SOURCE: DAILY TRUST]

Smallholder farmers lament neglect

A small scale farmer, Bayo Arogundade, has complained of lack of access to market information, finance, hybrid seed and inputs capable of enhancing production, adding that the government has neglected farmers.

Arogundade, who manage an 800-bird poultry farm at Oko-Oba area of Agege in Lagos, maintained that nobody cared about smallholder farmers who, he said, were rendered incapable of  making sufficient production.
He mentioned one of the challenges facing smallholder farmers as limited incentives to produce more than what is needed for their own livelihoods, adding: “This is primarily caused by the limited access to the inputs, support services, markets and credit, which would enable us to increase our production and sales volumes.”
He complained that most of the government’s intervention funds for the farmers and agribusiness operators were not accessible by the real players in the business as the funds were usually diverted to other things by those at the helm of the scheme.
Arogundade disclosed that even those who benefitted from the funds went through rigorous processes and received insufficient amounts that failed to boost their businesses.
Another farmer who has a small vegetable farm at Oko-Oba, Boladotun Agbaje, said he has severally tried to grow his business but lack of access to funds undermined his efforts.
He said accessing facilities was either too cumbersome or given on man-know-man basis.
Continuing, he said: “Government needs to properly monitor all the agric enhancement programmes embarked upon to make sure that the right people who really need these interventions are the ones befitting. A situation whereby everything is portrayed in the media as if the grassroots farmers are now having access to improved farming tools and grants is not too good when in the real sense we are still at the level we have been operating for decades.”[SOURCE: DAILY TRUST]

“Organic Agriculture, Capable of Feeding the Whole Nation” – Professor Adeoye

With the ongoing crusade to ensure food security in Africa, the National President – Association of Organic Agriculture Practitioners in Nigeria (NOAN), Professor Gideon Olajire Adeoye has called on farmers and stakeholders in Nigeria to embrace organic agriculture based on its capability to feed the nation with proper implementation and sustenance.
Adeoye, at a recently held meeting tagged “Mainstreaming Ecological Organic Agriculture into National Policy Strategies and Programmes in Africa” at the NOAN Secretariat, University of Ibadan, said “with sustainable organic agriculture, there can be an improvement in the quality of urban and rural livelihoods. We can manipulate the environment without destroying it and through that, waste generation and recycling can be done to suit our organics need.”

Further commenting on agriculture in Africa, “there is a problem of food security across Africa and the main issue now is that man, animals and environmental health is threatened as a result of the adoption of conventional agricultural system where the use of chemicals, insecticides and even fertilizers have poisoned our lands and by extension foods produced.”
While applauding the Federal Government for various initiatives and policy implementation, Adeoye reiterated the fact that small holder farmers who are predominantly producing for the Nigerian populace would continue to receive training until the entire country goes organic.
“Government can do a lot by sustaining the organic agriculture initiative and create more awareness so that more youths, women and farmers- alike can be part of the revolution” he added.
During his acceptance speech, the newly elected Chairman National Steering Committee of Ecological Organic Agriculture – EOA in Nigeria Professor Victor Adegboye Togun said: “Large scale crop production is possible through organic farming with bumper harvest to show for it on a yearly basis.”
He thereafter called on government’s collaborations on the initiative especially now that researchers, large scale agricultural entities and higher institutions of learning in Nigeria are keying into it.

FG Commissions the Largest Silos in West Africa

As part of the agenda to unleash hope for farmers, assure markets for farmers and secure our food supply as a nation, President Jonathan recently commissioned a 100,000 MT Silos in Abuja.
The significant event which was a showcase of Nigeria’s capability to become the food house of Africa, is a step towards rapidly building the nation’s storage capacity to store food and reduce food losses.
According to Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, CON, Honorable Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, the silos with its capacity is the largest in West Africa bringing the total of the nation’s silos capacity to 1.3 million MT.
He further noted that in 2011, only 35 percent of the silos in the country were completed but by December 2014, all the network of silos will be completed and ready for use.
On the potential for continental food security, Adesina said “One can only imagine, if our farmers could produce an additional 21 million MT of food between 2012 and 2014, without tractors or mechanized equipments, they will definitely feed the world if they have a fully mechanized agricultural system. Together with our network of silos we will secure our food supply and those of other African countries.”

Amaechi Launches Distribution Of 1,000 Tiller Machines To Sokoto Farmers

Gov. Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State on Friday in Kasarawa village, Wamakko local government of Sokoto State, launched the distribution to farmers 1,000 tiller machines purchased by the state government.

The News Agency of Nigeria ( NAN) reports that Amaechi began a two-day official visit to Sokoto State on Wednesday.

Speaking at the event, he said that the only plausible solution to most of the problems of Nigeria was “heavy” investment in agriculture.

” It creates employment for skilled workers, hence makes them to be engaged productively.”

He appealed to the beneficiaries to utilise the machines properly, to boost food production and food security.

Amaechi further urged that leaders desist from dividing Nigerians using religion.

The governor advocated the reduction of the existing wide gap between the rich and the poor in Nigeria.

” This is absolutely necessary to ensure even socio-economic development, unity, peace and prosperity,” he added.

The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, said that the machines would empower farmers and enhance their productivity.

” Most of the rural dwellers in the state and Nigeria in general, are farmers and they need to be assisted with such tools.

“Farmers should be further encouraged and assisted to keep on producing food for the nation and for export.

” A hungry man is an angry man and most of the violence and insecurity in Nigeria is due to hunger,” Abubakar said.

The sultan thanked Amaechi for the visit, which he said would strengthen the bonds of peace, unity and understanding among Nigerians.

Gov. Aliyu Wamakko, in his speech, maintained that agriculture is the occupation of over 90 per cent of the people of the state and Nigeria in general.

” The gesture is to encourage the people to farm and live happy as well as be peaceful.

” The economy of the nation should be diversified to avoid the unpalatable consequences of total dependence on oil revenue.”

He further underscored the importance of food to mankind, saying: “With food all other sundry needs can follow.”

The Agriculture Commissioner, Alhaji Arzika Tureta said that the tiller machines were aimed at mechanising the agricultural sector in the state. ( NAN)

Nigeria to generate $1.5bn from cocoa export –Adesina

The Minister of Ag­riculture and Ru­ral Development, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, has said that Nigeria is expected to generate $1.5 billion from cocoa ex­ports in 2014.

Adesina who disclosed this recently in his paper entitled, “Nigeria’s High Growth, Low Develop­ment Gap: Harnessing the Untapped Potential of Agriculture for Inclusive Growth,” at the first Con­vocation Ceremony of the Land Mark University,  Aran, Kwara State, said that foreign exchange earning from Nigeria’s cocoa exports had grown from $900 million in 2012 to $1.2 billion in 2013.
According to him, the cocoa revolution in Nigeria is receiving global attention as Hershey, one of the larg­est chocolate companies in the world, has invested $20 million to procure cocoa from over 20,000 certified cocoa farmers in the coun­try.
He said Nigeria has also launched into local manufacturing of Nigerian chocolates through a strate­gic partnership with a US-based company, the first of such in the manufacturing history of the country.
Adesina said, “we are revamping our cocoa plan­tations, replacing old trees with high yielding cocoa hybrids that give farmers five times the yields they currently obtain. Over the past two years, we have distributed 1.1 million pods or 39 million seedlings, free of charge to farmers, enough to plant 40,000ha of new cocoa fields.
“We are working hard to drastically mechanise our agriculture from reli­ance on hoes and cutlasses. Hoes and cutlasses are for museums not for modern agriculture. To allow farm­ers to acquire and or lease modern mechanised ma­chinery, we have launched 600 agricultural equipment  hiring enterprises run by the private sector to pro­vide full complements of tractors and pre- and post-harvest machinery to farm­ers,” he added.
The minister explained that farmers would be pro­vided subsidised mecha­nised services via electron­ic vouchers on their mobile phones, for mechanisation support, to allow them to hire agricultural machinery from private sector opera­tors. He said these centers would create employment for agricultural engineers, as operators, managers or owners of agricultural mechanisation centers. [Source: DAILY SUN]

Improving National Agricultural Output

THE basic fundamental of all economies is agriculture and all industrial nations know this. That their economies are on solid rock is basically because they have galvanized their agricultural potentials, which is also the offshoot of their industrial development That is why concerned citizens of Nigeria have continued to warn on the dangers of continued dependence In the nation on crude oil which is today the mainstay and sustaining source of the Nigerian economy.

THE traditional focus of the Nigerian economy before the discovery of crude oil in commercial quantity was agriculture and it played a fundamental role in shaping the economy of the nation and regions as Nigeria was then constituted in its immediate post independence era.
IN the 1960s, each region of the country was noted for producing some cash crops such as cocoa, groundnut and palm oil as well as rubber in co quantities. Basically, the Wet tern region, now the political South West except Lagos which was the Federal Capital, was noted for producing cocoa in large commercial quantities for export. The revenue from cocoa helped in shaping the infrastructure and economic environment of then Western Nigeria and its legacies and landmarks were -very very visible, as they affected virtually all aspects of life of the people.

IN the Northern region, groundnut was the mainstay of the economy, to the extent that the volume produced in the region was typified by the “groundnut pyramid”. It symbolized the success of the crop as a veritable earner of revenue which impacted economically on the life of the people.

IN the Eastern region, palm oil was its predominant feature and similarly, it was a success in boosting the economic atmosphere of the country and tile region. Interestingly, it is now an irony that Nigeria has been relegated to the background in palm oil production and has been overtaken by Malaysia, a country which took the Nigerian specimen of the plant, palm kernel, and adapted it to its own climatic condition and is today a leading producer of palm oil, which is a major derivative of palm kernel.

SIGNIFICANTLY, the Midwest region was noted for its rubber plantation and was quite a huge success as the crop played its role as a major economic transformation agent to shore up principally the economy of the region.

WE are concerned that there is slow progress in returning to the traditional focus of reviving these cash crops as major sources of revenue for the Federal Government.

HOWEVER, we are aware that not too long ago, the Federal Government launched the Cocoa Rebirth Initiative, as launch pad to regenerate interest in the crop and encourage farmers who have abandoned the plant to come back on the scene to make cocoa play its role in the national economy.

THE NIGERIAN OBSERVER implores the Federal Government to similarly create avenues for other cash crops as well as sensitise farmers to take proactive action towards their cultivation.
WHILE the Federal Government has shown the interest to refocus attention to agriculture, there appears to he so much disinterest in the way it has pursued the goal.

THERE is no conscious effort to empower small scale Earners to undertake mechanized farming for greater yields, as this is still the exclusive preserve of the elite farmers. Thus, farmers who are interested in expansion have no way of coping with the financial demands to undertake mechanized farming. Access to bank loans is uncertain with high interest rate, serving as enough scare to discourage the desire for any expansion.

WHILE the banks may have played significant roles in the past in assisting farmers, they did so purely on the initiative of the individual farmers and therefore expect in the new arrangement as already envisaged, a friendly lending terms that will encourage investment in the agricultural sector. THE NIGERIAN OBSERVER now calls on the Federal Government to consider an upward review of allocation to the agricultural sector. Amounts always allocated in the budget have been a pointer of the genuineness of government’s commitment to the agricultural sector.
WE assert that improving the national agricultural output should be devoid of any prohibition that will limit access to the fund by small scale farmers whose contributions to agricultural development for part of the concerted effort of the production chain that will lift the nation out of the continued dependence on oil. [SOURCE:  THE NIGERIAN OBSERVER]