BusinessAgro

THE Kaduna State Government has embarked on the disbursement of loans to farmers in the state under a partnership with the Bank of Agriculture (BOA), with a total sum of N1 billion earmarked for access by farmers.   Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, who spoke at the flag-off of the distribution of cheques to benefiting farmer…

ABOUT 200,000 smallholder farmers has been awarded a grant to help them sell two million tonnes of cassava roots from which processed products like high quality cassava flour, chips for animal feed and cassava starch would be made. It would cover countries such as Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda and Malawi.   In this arrangement known…

• Challenge Of Poor Quality Day-Old-Chicks Face Farms  WITH the massive degradation of the environment and unending oil spillage in the Niger Delta, finding table fish, either from fresh water or marine ecosystem, in naturally likely places as Yenegoa, Port Harcourt, Warri, Calabar and Sapele is getting slimmer by the day. Therefore, and increasingly, fish…

THE National Project Coordinator of West African Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP), Prof. Damian Chikwendu has pledged his agency support and collaboration with the Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi (FIIRO) in the area of agro-industrial research and technology development.      Chikwendu, who paid a working visit to the institute on Tuesday said WAAPP with…

• Nigeria To Earn $534m From Cassava Chips  ALTHOUGH Nigeria is the world’s largest producer of Cassava, it accounts for an insignificant fraction of the dried chips global trade that is put at five billion US dollars per year.   Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Sonny Echono revealed at a five-day training workshop for…

Farm produce, processed products for local, export markets LONG before oil went into a slump and set federal (and state) revenue nose-diving, the Senator Liyel Imoke-administration had made a critical self-assessment of the economic status of Cross River State. The Governor was under no illusion that all was rosy and things would only look up…

A THREE-DAY entrepreneurial and business training workshop is set for 3-5 February 2015 at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Ibadan, Oyo State for local and international participants.  Expected keynote speakers include IITA’s Director General, Dr Nteranya Sanginga and Dr Adesina Akinwunmi, Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. Participants in the training have…

• 11 States Now Affected THE Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has disclosed that the government would compensate the 39 Poultry farms that were affected by Avian Influenza across the country with the sum of N145.145 million within 72 Hours.   Adesina made this disclosure on Wednesday at an emergency Stakeholders’…

TO curtail the scourge of bird flu, sound hygiene on animal farms, bio-security, movement restriction on the farm, provision of footbaths with disinfectants and personal hygiene of the poultry farmer are some of the ways Professor Isaac Adebayo, animal virology and immunology specialist at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, has recommended.   Adebayo said…

THE government of Japan has given a grant of N46 million for the processing of rice, cassava and the construction of a skills acquisition centre in Nigeria.   While the rice-processing project is located in Lafia, Nasarawa state, the casava processing plant is located in Oyo state while the skills acquisition centre is to be…

• Test-runs factory in readiness THE Staple Crop Processing Zone Development ‘SCPZ’ Team of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), in the company of officials of the Kano State government, on Thursday, visited the new Dangote Farms Tomato Processing Factory.  The visit to the 1,200 metric ton capacity factory, described as the…

Bakers Criticise Hike, Millers Blame Naira slide As consumers return to settle down for business in the New Year, there is likelihood they may soon find the price of their beloved staple breakfast, bread, on the upside if bakers make good their veiled threat of turning their baking ovens off.   This would be in…