Unemployment: Saraki charges Unilever, other multinationals to increase investment in Nigeria

Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, on Thursday urged the Unilever Group to increase their investment in Nigeria with the aim of providing more employment opportunities in the country.

Saraki while receiving the management of the Unilever Group, led by its President in charge of Africa, Mr. Bruno Witvoet, also urged the conglomerate to source more of their raw materials, especially agricultural produce like palm oil, from the country in order to provide the much needed empowerment for local farmers.

Nigeria: FG to Empower Niger Delta Youths Through Agriculture

The Federal Government on Thursday pledged to train non-militant Niger Delta youths in agricultural activities as a way of empowering them economically.

The Minister of State for Niger Delta, Prof. Claudius Daramola, made the pledge in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

New Guide Shows How Maize, Rice, and Wheat are Grown to Boost Yields, Reduce Environmental Impact

Achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals – especially the crucial goals of zero hunger and zero poverty by 2030 – requires a global transition to more productive, inclusive and sustainable agriculture.

This week, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) makes what we believe are two important contributions to that transition. First, this week it released, Save and Grow in practice: maize, rice, wheat, a new guide which shows how the three crops fundamental to world food security can be grown in ways that boost yields, strengthen small farmer livelihoods, reduce pressure on the environment, and build resilience to climate change.

Nigeria suffers from huge post-harvest losses

Post-harvest loss is a great concern in Nigeria, although the country is rich in agricultural produce, food insecurity remains a huge problem. The majority of farm produce is lost to pests, rodents, and deterioration, due to lack of proper handling, post-harvest processing, packaging and storage. Post-harvest losses are as high as 40% in some cases, according to statistics by the Nigerian Stored Products Research Institute (NSPRI).

Perishables like tomato, paw paw and other vegetables and fruits have constantly faced spoilage; not only does this deprive farmers of income and consumers of food, but it also deprives the nation of a constituent part of it Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Nigeria: Bird Flu Kills 3.3 Million Birds in 24 States

Kano — Katsina, Adamawa Bayelsa and Ebonyi are the latest states affected by bird flu, bringing the total number of states affected since last year to 24. According to the latest data obtained from the Department of Veterinary and Disease Control of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, 96 local government areas have recorded the outbreak while estimated 2.5 million birds have been depopulated and buried.

Wheat farmers cultivate 3,000 hectares of irrigable land in Kano

No fewer than 3,000 hectares of irrigable land is being cultivated by farmers in Kano state under the current dry season farming.

The Chairman, Wheat Farmers Association of Nigeria (WFAN), Alhaji Faruk Rabiu, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kano.

Director, Institute of Agricultural Research and Training, Moreplantation, Apata Ibadan, Prof James Adediran, has urged the Federal Government to invest in agriculture and educate Nigerians on the usefulness of the new vitamin A cassava products.

He spoke a seminar by the college to empower farmers in Ibarapa land.

Nigeria: Can We Really Survive Without Oil MoneY

Last Christmas, after discussing the state of our nation, my little cousin exclaimed: "in fact, why don't we stop everything for this year and just concentrate on building three brand new refineries... These refineries will even provide more than the 500,000 jobs government is talking about... Then, next year we might take our Roads or Power and deal with it". I was surprised at her simplistic and funny solution to a national problem. However, does this not have some little semblance to what HRM Lamido Sanusi said during his senate screening, when he was nominated as Central Bank

Lassa fever: Stop eating rats – Ortom warns Benue residents

He said that after working as Minister of Trade and Investment in the past administration, he foresaw that Nigeria would face some challenges in revenue generation.

Ortom said that when he declared for the governorship of the state, he decided to make promotion of agriculture a major campaign programme.

He said: “we are going to take on the entire value chain; we will look at seedling; we will look at the way we do our cropping, planting, harvesting, storage, processing and marketing.

“An average farmer is not making anything out of his produce for now.

China’s new ideas, policies for Nigeria, Africa

In the bid to deepen bilateral cooperation between Nigeria and China, the Chinese government through its Department of West Asian and African Affairs, Ministry of Commerce, Beijing, China, has expressed the need for the two countries to sustain their diplomatic ties, by way of establishing a Win-Win cooperation to boost their economies.

FADAMA III-AF PROJECT SUPPORTING GRANTS

 Fadama Information & Knowledge Service (FIKS) under the Third National Fadama Development project (Fadama III) received a grant from the Japanese Social Development Fund (JSDF), to establish sustainable Fadama Information, knowledge and business advisory services (FIKS) to increase farm productivity and rural household incomes in the poorest sections of Fadama communities in Nigeria.

Understanding CBN’s Anchor Borrowers’ Programme

CBN

Festus Akanbi examines the dynamics of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Anchor Borrowers’ Programme launched last week, saying the effort, which is part of the CBN’s development agenda will not only create millions of jobs but that it is also capable of lifting thousands of small holder farmers out of poverty

Last week, the Central Bank of Nigeria launched an Anchor Borrowers Programme said to have been pushed by 14 states of Kebbi, Sokoto, Niger, Kaduna, Katsina, Jigawa, Kano, Zamfara, Admawa, Plateau, Lagos, Ogun, Cross-Rivers and Ebonyi for rice and wheat farmers to advance their status from small holder farmers to commercial or large growers.