CBN agrees to 5% lending rate for farmers – Ogbeh

CBN agrees to 5% lending rate for farmers – Ogbeh

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has agreed that loans by banks to farmers in the country should attract only five per cent interest, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh, said Tuesday.

Mr. Ogbeh made this known on Tuesday, while delivering a keynote address at the opening of a two-day national workshop on a “New Agricultural Policy for Nigeria”.

The workshop was organised by the National Agricultural Foundation of Nigeria (NAFN) in collaboration with the ministry and All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN).

According to the minister, the agreement followed discussions with key officials of the apex bank on Tuesday morning.

“Just this morning, I have talks with key officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria to bring the lending rate to five per cent

“With those rates, I assure you as a man, who has been in this business – agriculture – since the age of seven years, you cannot make profit in agriculture,’’ Mr. Ogbeh said.

THE NEW FACE OF FMARD – AUDU OGBEH

IDONGESIT — NOVEMBER 12, 2015

The appointment of Audu Ogbeh as the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development was greeted with high commendations from a broad segment of the populace – even the youth who are believed to have little interest in the agricultural sector were seen to approve judging by their comments on the social media. Ogbeh is known for being a man of strong opinions and standards, an attribute which was clearly admitted by the man himself when he was appointed Chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party in 2001; “I do have views of my own and most people who know me know that I have never been able to very cheaply compromise on those views. I do not intend to bully the President and the Vice President, but I intend to reason with them and between all of them, at one time or the other, they will bow to superior argument.” He however has his work cut out for him. “The new Minister is going to be faced with an uphill task given the commendable performance of his predecessor who truly transformed many aspects of the country’s agricultural sector” volunteered Dr. Graham Hefer, Managing Director of Okomu Oil palm Company Plc, a major agribusiness concern operating out of Edo State in the South of Nigeria. According to Hefer, the choice of a practicing farmer as successor to a high flying technocrat is clear evidence of an intention to consolidate on the gains of the ATA, but he pointed out that “more work lies ahead”.

International Potato Center (CIP)

NIGERIA CAN REDUCE WHEAT IMPORTATION BY 25% – PEJU

PEACE — NOVEMBER 3, 2015

The representative of the International Potato Centre, (CIP) in Nigeria, Dr. Phorbee Peju has said the Country can reduce importation of wheat by 25 per cent, if its farmers embraced proper growth of Orange Fleshed Sweet Potatoes, (OFSP). 

Peju, who spoke at the 18th annual lecture of Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute (ARMTI), Ilorin on the topic; ‘Food Security, Employment Generation and Wealth Creation in a Developing Economy: the Role of (OFSP),’ said OFSP, which could be grown in all the 36 states of the Federation could meet some bakery needs in Nigeria.

According to her, the bakery industry – which is the largest industry in Nigeria – can boost farmers’ productivity; improve nutrition and livelihoods if OFSP- in form of puree – can be used in bread baking and other pastry products like cookies, cakes, pies and so on.

She said a composite flour of about 40 per cent OFSP puree has been made into well acceptable bread for commercial purpose in Nairobi while most bakery in Osun State are presently using it.

“EATING IS A RIGHT”- AFDB PRESIDENT

EATING RIGHT QUALITY AND QUANTITY FOOD IS A RIGHT...............Agro Nigeria

The President, African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina has emphasized that food, in quantity and quality, is the right of every human being, noting that what is most important is the safety of the belly.

Adesina who disclosed this at the just concluded conference on agriculture and agribusiness with the theme “Feeding Africa” held in Dakar, said Africa is ready to molt agriculture in a commercial enterprise – a transformation that requires the diversification of the agricultural sector.

The AfDB President is convinced that “Africa has to be the breadbasket of the world, however in order to achieve this, she must release her full potential and make a radical transformation of agriculture.

Adesina stated that according to estimates, the bill for food imports in Africa totaled US $ 35 billion annually. This he said should encourage Africans to develop her agricultural sector and dedicate the budget devoted to food imports to something else.

HarvestPlus’ Yellow Cassava… promoting nutrition through TV

Yellow Cassava

And it was a few minutes past 9pm local time; an important announcement was about to be made. Venue was Expo Hall, Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos. The event was the third edition of the AfricaMagic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMVCA). The hall was packed to the brim with stakeholders in Africa’s Film/TV industry.

The tension in the air was thick enough to be sliced with a knife. Across Africa, in over 50 countries, over 100 million viewers stayed glued to their TV boxes awaiting the biggest news in the entertainment industry. Only five movies, out of over 2,000 entries received by the organizers of the AMVCA from filmmakers across Africa, made it to the final shortlist as Best Movie 2014.

Yellow Cassava, produced by Zeb Ejiro in partnership with HarvestPlus Nigeria, ran neck-to-neck with big budget movies of 2014: Kunle Afolayan’s October 1; Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen’s Invasion 1897, Steve Gukas’s A place in the stars and Frank Rajah Arase’s Iyore.

Nigeria’s Oil And Irish Potato

Irish Potato as a Replacement for Oil in Nigeria
NOVEMBER 6, 2014

By Ademola Adegbamigbe AgriNigeria News

The financial difficulty Nigeria experiences at present reminds me of the Irish, their potato and the famine that hit them like a stiletto, scattering them into the four winds. Between 1845 and 1852, what was popularly referred to as the Irish Potato famine killed over one million people. Worse still, the famine made over a million others to emigrate to the Americas, Australia, Africa, and elsewhere.

Cause of their problem was the introduction of this staple. Before the introduction of potato to Ireland, the people fed on butter, milk and grain products. Initially, potato was food for the “big people” but it later stole its way into the homes of peasants, overtaking what it met on the dining table.

Vitamin A Rich OFSP working wonders in Uganda

ORANGE-FLESHED SWEET POTATOES: IMPROVING LIVES IN UGANDA

A nutritious sweet potato variety is growing in popularity and becoming an important strategy to improve vitamin A deficiency across Uganda. Orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) is rich in vitamin A and is being disseminated with support from USAID under Feed the Future, the U.S. Government’s global hunger and food security initiative.     OFSP has now been adopted by over 55,000 Ugandan farming households, with up to 237,000 households expected to be planting and eating it by 2018. In November 2013, the Government of Uganda released two more varieties of this potato, bringing the total number to six.

Tubers from OFSP harvest

The potato was Introduced in 2007 by HarvestPlus, a part of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health.