BusinessDay 24 May 2017

20 BUSINESS DAY C002D5556
Wednesday 24 May 2017
AGRIC
BUSINESS
Expert lists strategies to resolve
herdsmen/farmers conflicts
RAZAQ AYINLA, ABEOKUTA
Olufemi Onifade,
professor of forage
agronomy and
utilisation at the
Federal University of
Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB)
has said that a national herd
count and upgrade of gazetted
112 grazing reserves located in 17
states of Nigeria will be panacea
to the frequent conflicts between
herdsmen and farmers in the
country.
Onifade, who attributed
incessant conflicts between
herdsmen and farmers to
government’s neglect of ranches
and grazing reserves, failure to
conduct herd count, inadequate
departments of pasture and
range management in tertiary
institutions, among others, urging
government to work in partnership
with private sector to provide
urgent solutions for the challenges
identified.
Delivering the 53rd FUNAAB
Inaugural Lecture tagged, “Grasses:
Production and Management for
Sustainable Livestock Industry”
at the institution main Auditorium
in Abeokuta recently, Onifade said
that Nigeria is better blessed in
Aller Aqua trains fish farmers on
proper feed management strategy
JOSEPHINE OKOJIE
Nigeria’s target of
achieving selfsufficiency
in fish
production has
received a boost as Aller Aqua
Limited has trained over 1000
catfish and tilapia farmers on
proper feed management to
boost local production and
reduce the country’s annual
import bill of N238 billion.
“The training is focused
on increasing efficiency and
production of fish farmers
using efficient fish conversion,”
said Dada Folusho, regional
sales manager, Aller Aqua
Nigeria Limited during one
of the training programme at
Agege in Lagos recently.
“With this, a catfish
farmer with 1,200 pieces of
fish can make 24.7 percent
profit margins, having three
production cycles of four
months each and a tilapia
farmer with same pieces of fish
will have 37.5 percent profits,”
Folusho said.
Nigeria’s total annual fish
terms of lush vegetation and land
mass than having issues as regards
conflict between herdsmen and
framers, but for government’s
failure to put things in order.
The Professor noted that
although harsh climatic condition
and varied rainy days from less
than 90 days in the north to 365
days in the swampy southern
areas have prompted southwards
drift and subsequent destructive
actions of herdsmen and
pastoralists on crops which usually
lead to conflicts.
“As the growing season comes
to an end in the semi-arid zone,
southward movement of livestock
in search of green pasture begins.
The 112 grazing reserves gazetted
by some state governments out
of 415 earmarked to cater for the
settling of pastoralists and for
livestock production have been
encroached upon and degraded.
“These reserves were
established based on the
Grazing Reserve Law of 1965.
The vegetation in the reserves
has further deteriorated with the
presence of unpalatable plants,
bare ground and less tree canopy.
In addition, facilities such as
water dams, clinics, schools in
most of the reserves are no longer
functional.
demand is put at 2.7 million
metric tons (MT), while the
country produces only 800,000
MT, leaving a gap of 1.9 million
MT annually, according to data
obtained from the country’s
agricultural road map.
This yawning gap is filled
with fish imports estimated at
about N238 billion (US$625m),
which erodes Nigeria’s
chances of diversification in
the face of FX scarcity.
Also, speaking to
journalists during the
training, Tiamiyu Nurudeen,
managing director, Amolese
Aquaculture Nigeria Limited
said “the essence of this
training is that we want
farmers to understand
better the mechanism of
aquaculture; the feeding
regime and rate, timing
because fish farming is
science and that is the
mistake a lot of farmers are
making thinking it is just a
backyard farming.”
“An average fish farmer
should keep abreast with
knowledge and that is what
L-R: Kashim Shettima, Governor of Borno State; Kenton Dasiell, deputy director general, Partnerships for Delivery at IITA and
Olusegun Obasanjo, IITA ambassador and former president of Nigeria, during the donation of 35,930 kilograms of seeds and 2640
kilograms of rice to Borno State government recently in Maiduguri.
“Concerted efforts by state
governments on the renovation of
this resource base to ‘carry’ more
livestock will, to a greater extent,
reduce unwarranted movement,
number of animals seeking greener
pastures led by pastoralists, an
action which usually results in
conflicts. The renovation of grazing
reserves will necessitate reduction
Aller Aqua is doing today.
Farmers need to get more
abreast of new technologies
and new ideas to be more
profitable,” Nurudeen said.
Farmers blamed the failure
of the country to tremendously
increase its fish production in
recent years on the high cost
of quality fish feeds as a result
of FX volatility which has
constrained the importation
of feeds, while also hurting
the fish farming business.
“The major challenge in
a culture today is that the
industry is highly dependent
on import for its fish feed,
which consists test 75 percent
of total cost,” said Nurudeen
who is also the national vice
president Tilapia Aquaculture
Developers Association of
Nigeria (TADAN).
“Now the prices are high
and the margins are smaller
because we spend more on fish
feeds and this is why smuggling
will not stop because it is
cheaper,” he added.
The training took place in
Ikorodu, Agege and Ibadan.
in number of animals or sales of
bulls for fattening.
“The need to take another
count of the National herd is
urgent to enable proper planning
of resources for the development
of the livestock industry. Lastly, to
effectively monitor the status and
development of fodder resources
in the reserves and across
Kogi seeks World Bank assistance
to boost rice production
VICTORIA NNAKIAIKE, LOKOJA
The Kogi State government
is seeking the assistance
of the World Bank through
its FADAMA 111 AF project
to boost its rice production and
become the largest rice producer
in the north-central region of the
country.
This was disclosed by Kehinde
Oloruntoba, commissioner of
agriculture in the state during a
visit by a team from the FADAMA
111 project in Kogi recently.
According to Oloruntoba the
intervention would enable the
state to attain its desired target of
becoming the largest producer of
rice in the North Central region and
help address youth unemployment
in the state.
“We have just completed
arrangement with a private
investor who will be siting a rice
mill of 50 tons per day at Omi in
Yagba West Local Government of
the state,” he said.
“The Federal Government has
also promised us another 50 tons
rice mill in Ibaji and so, we must
upscale our rice cultivation to
produce paddy rice to feed these
mills,” he added.
the country, and Institute for
Grassland and Pasture Research
should be established”, he said.
While urging Nigeria
government to upgrade gazetted
112 grazing reserves in 17 states,
totalling 956,738 hectares and
possibly, establish more reserves,
he urged the National Universities
Commission to facilitate creation
Adetunji Oredipe, task team
leader, FADAMA III AF in the state,
said the mid-term review mission
team was in the state to re-assess
the intervention programme by
finding answers to some salient
questions on its activities.
“Kogi signed a subsidiary
agreement to access $20 million
but had so far only drawn $3
million for its intervention
projects,” Oredipe said.
He explained that there is still
a window of opportunity to access
the fund with the extension of the
programme by eight months for
the benefit of the devastated North
East states.
The team leader solicited the
support of the government for the
success of the FADAMA projects
in the state by waiving the new
order for all MDAs to operate
on the Single Treasury Account
(TSA) saying that the practice
would impede progress of the
programme.
Oredipe said the four-day midterm
review would enable the
team address issues of assumption
of the success or otherwise of
the programme in the state and
identify specific areas that required
modification or outright overhaul.