Emulate Kano in agric, Ogbeh tells governors

Audu Ogbeh, minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, has appealed to governors to emulate Kano State in its efforts towards boosting agriculture, increasing food production and providing jobs and livelihoods for the people.

According to the minister, Nigeria has to feed Nigeria and other countries. He said this last week during his visit to Kano when he made a tour of some agricultural projects supported by Kano State government.

Ogbeh said that “there is a request for 37,000 metric tons of maize at N4.2 billion by Namibia. Food business is now the biggest in Nigeria. It is time for the farmers to be legitimately rich.”

The minister has said that slaughtering of pregnant animals should stop in the country and that there is an urgent need to transform the existing abattoirs, warning that continued slaughter of pregnant animals will lead to more losses of foetuses worth millions of naira.

The tremendous annual losses incurred in the process of slaughtering pregnant cows are unacceptable and must stop. We will discourage such practices nationwide and save foetuses worth millions of naira in the next couple of years, he adds.

“Our abattoirs all over Nigeria will be transformed structurally and functionally. The rules of abattoir operations will be strictly enforced. The animals will be slaughtered under the expertise of professionals such that the hides and skins, hoofs and horns could be recovered and processed appropriately. This is expected to revive the ailing leather industry, while providing business opportunities for renderers who convert the other wastes to wealth,” he said.

Under the LIFE programme, the minister promised to transform the rural economy through the new programme called Labour-Intensive Farming Enterprise, under which some support will be provided for rural farming communities to earn incomes. This, it is expected, will boost the economy and ensure inclusive growth in the rural areas, which have been neglected for long.

Sani Dangote, vice president, Dangote Group observed that “there has been some progress on Staple Crop Processing Zone (SCPC) and Nigerian Incentive-based Risk Sharing in Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL). $500 billion investment has been attracted into agribusiness in the last four years,” said during the agricultural council meeting.

Dangote noted that there have been problems in agribusiness investment, such as land, finance, infrastructure and price stabilisation.

“Until we decide that agriculture is no more subsistence, there will be no progress in agriculture.” He promised, however, that, as NABG, “We must work with business people. There is need for priorities, ensuring stability of primary production and agro-processing.” He added that, “until the producers can make money, agriculture will remain subsistence. From our own perspective, agriculture is greater than oil.”

Nasiru Gawuna, Kano State’s commissioner for Agriculture, said his governor has agreed to host other states’ commissioners in a forum to discuss on ways of cooperation. The commissioner called on other states “to partner and not to compete.”

Governor Umar Ganduje of Kano State has earlier disclosed that 729 agricultural extension workers have been employed for the purpose of carrying out extension services in the state. The governor said that the state has 400,000 hectares irrigable land.