Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina

The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation on Thursday called for a more pragmatic approach that would help to stimulate the growth of agribusiness in Nigeria.

The UNIDO Regional Director and Representative in Nigeria, Dr. Patrick Kormawa, made the call in Abuja while speaking at a two-day workshop on the development of policy guidelines to engage women and the youth in agribusiness.

He said the approach should be anchored on youth and women entrepreneurship as this would help to promote modern form of agriculture.

This, he noted, would help to resolve the economic, social, cultural and security challenges currently facing the country.

Kormawa said, “Over the past 10 years, the number of youths aged 15 to 24 in Africa has increased from 133 million to 172 million. It is projected that by 2020, that figure is expected to rise to 246 million. This youth bulge could significantly tilt the current social dynamics positively or in a negative direction as shown in the recent North Africa uprisings.

“It is now widely recognised that inclusive growth and development, job creation, significant reduction in unemployment and poverty must be addressed simultaneously to achieve the sustainable growth and development we all want.

“Investing in agribusiness has been singled out as one way to achieve prosperity in Africa. However, stimulating growth of agribusiness is anchored on youth and women entrepreneurship.”

He added that effective participation of the youth and women as entrepreneurs in the agric sector was essential for job creation, poverty alleviation, gender equality and economic empowerment.

Kormawa said, “There are several programmes and projects working to support youths and women in agribusiness. Our experience from several African countries shows that despite the huge investments to this effect, the number of youths taking up agribusiness as profession is not commensurate with the investment.

“In other words, the number of sustainable and decent jobs created in agriculture has not been encouraging, particularly for the educated youth. For this to happen, agriculture needs to be profitable and must provide dignity for women and youths.”

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, said the workshop was particularly relevant in view of the high unemployment rate in sub-Saharan Africa.

The minister said having recognised the recent youth restiveness, security challenges and the abject poverty facing women, the government had decided to revitalise its employment generation strategies to solve the problem of youth unemployment and gender equality.

He said, “With the high involvement of women in agriculture, developing the sector and improving access to productive resources for women is the surest way to achieve food and nutrition as well as other Millennium Development Goals.

“Therefore, we must have the political will to channel the required resources to youth development in order to set Africa on the path of sustainable development.”

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Nigerian Minister of National Planning, Dr Shamsdeen Usman has disclosed that with the upsurge in the local production of rice in Nigeria, the custom revenue often generated from the importation of the staple food has dropped to about 50 percent.

Shamsudeen made the disclosure in Lagos yesterday at a joint press briefing organised by the ministry and Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) ahead of 19th Nigerian Economic Summit slated for Abuja in September 2013.

According to the minister, the transformation effort of the current administration has been yielding positive result especially in agricultural sector to the point that rice importation which used to be a common phenomenon has indeed dropped drastically.

“The transformation agenda of the present administration has yielded lots of positive results in the area of agriculture. In fact the area of rice production, there has been drastic reduction in its importation. There are even fears that the revenue being generated by custom from the importation has drastically reduced by 50 percent.
This is a fact you can cross-check from the banks and the Central Bank of Nigeria. They are the ones monitoring it,” Shamsudeen said.

The Federal Government had prior to this time set 2014 deadline in the importation of rice as it insisted that the nation has the capacity to produce the staple food in abundance without importing from other countries.
Dr Shamsudeen added that already, agriculture has contributed 40 percent to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product between 2011 and 2012.
- Weekly Trust

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Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina

Nigerian farmers and processors would make as much as $800 million from the contract.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Akinwumi Adesina, said on Friday that Nigeria had secured a contract to supply China with 3.2 million tonnes of dry cassava chips.

Mr. Adesina stated this in a paper entitled: “The Value Chain Roadmap’’, which he delivered at the ongoing 9th All Nigeria Editors Conference holding in Asaba, Delta State.

He said arrangement was ongoing with the African Import/Export Bank to finance the processors of the product with a loan facility of $40 million (N632m) to meet the terms of the contract.

Mr. Adesina said that Nigerian farmers and processors would make as much as $800 million (N128 billion) from the contract.

“We are focusing on Cassava chips for export, production of chips for livestock industry, starch, sweeteners, and ethanol.

“A revolution is on its way in Agbadu in Kogi State, where today, Cargill, the world’s leading manufacturer of food, is working with my ministry and the Kogi State Government to set up a 75,000-tonne starch-to-sweetener plant, that will reduce our dependency on sugar imports.

“Over 15,000 hectares have been secured. They are being cleared for farmers to produce cassava for this plant.

“Nigeria has secured a contract to supply China. At the start of my tenure, I said we have to take on the export market for dry cassava chips.

“We set a target of doing 900,000 tonnes by 2015. I am very delighted to let you know that we have already secured 3.2 million tonnes of dry cassava chips contract from China,” he said.

The minister added that President Goodluck Jonathan had approved a N10 billion Cassava Bread Fund for the training of 5,000 master bakers across the country.

He explained that the money would be used to enhance cassava production, support cassava processors to process cassava flour at a lower cost and to enable other bakers to grow the social marketing of cassava bread.

Mr. Adesina commended the Delta Government for allocating 6,000 hectares for the cultivation of cassava at a proposed processing plant at Abraka.

He said that the plant had the capacity to process 72,000 tonnes of cassava and gave the assurance that the ministry would assist the state government to become one of the largest producers of cassava flour in the country.

(NAN)

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