Video - Nigerian palm oil farmers seek government input to maximize output

Nigeria is one of the largest producers of palm oil globally with small-scale farmers being essential to the country's annual output of more than one million metric tons. However, the farmers and industry players are struggling to realize their full potential due to various reasons. CGTN Africa spoke to stakeholders in the Nigerian capital Abuja to find out the reasons behind their struggles and what can be done to improve it.

Nigerian billionaire Dangote launches $2.5 billion fertilizer plant as prices soar

Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote opened a 3-million-tonne fertilizer plant at a cost of $2.5 billion on Tuesday to target African and foreign markets even as the war in Ukraine has driven up prices for natural gas, a key ingredient for making urea.

Dangote said exports from the plant will go to Brazil, which relies heavily on Russia for imports of fertilizer. Shipments will also go to the United States, India and Mexico, he said at the launch.

Fertilizer prices have been rising at a time when planting usually picks up around the world, especially after Russia, the world's biggest exporter of fertilizer, invaded Ukraine last month. The war has also disrupted shipping.

The plant, commissioned by President Muhammadu Buhari and located at the Lekki Free Zone in Lagos State, is designed to produce 3 million tonnes of urea per year and supply all the major markets in sub-Saharan Africa.

Many in Nigeria hope the Dangote plant will help alleviate chronically low crop yields in Africa's most populous country, partly due to insufficient access to fertilizer.

Agriculture accounts for 20% of Nigeria's gross domestic product, with crop production contribution the highest with the farming subsector.

However, low fertilizer production and the high cost of importing fertilisers has reined in seed production. Fertilizer consumption in Nigeria ranks below its African peers.

According to the World Bank, Nigeria consumed around 20 kg of fertiliser per hectare of arable land in 2018, compared with 73 kg in South Africa and 393 kg in China.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has barred the use of its foreign exchange for fertiliser imports as part of a raft of controls aimed at boosting domestic production.

Other producers in Nigeria include Notore (NOTORE.LG), which has the capacity to produce 500,000 metric tonnes per annum of urea, and Singapore-owned Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals Ltd, which plans to double its annual output of urea fertilizer to 2.8 million tonnes.

Reuters

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Video - Aljazeera speaks with Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote

 

 

 

 

Video - Nigeria bans foreigners from buying farm produce directly from local famers

 

Nigeria has banned foreigners from purchasing agricultural products directly from local farmers. This means that only registered local buyers can purchase from farm gates - and then sell to foreigners. The government says the policy is geared towards mitigating the exploitation of local farmers. CGTN's Kelechi Emekalam reports.

Agriculture Remains Backbone of Nigeria's Economy, Says CBN

Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, says agriculture remains a strong pillar and saving grace for the Nigerian economy. Emefiele said this at the weekend while addressing journalists during an inspection tour of a palm plantation at Odighi Village in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State.

The CBN governor expressed satisfaction with the level of interest shown in agriculture and the tremendous impact the sector had had in the last six years. He wondered how the country could have coped with the rising prices of food and commodity items across the world without the foresight to revamp agriculture.

Emefiele said the central bank had assumed a pivotal role in agriculture since 2015, when President Muhammadu Buhari directed that "we produce what we eat and eat what we produce". The apex bank had come up with several initiatives aimed towards repositioning the sector with a view to creating employment opportunities as well as growing the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), he said.

Shortly after the assessment of farm, Emefiele attested to the giant strides already being recorded in the production of maize and cassava and expressed optimism that in the next 12 months, palm produce harvests would have commenced. He acknowledged the significant role played by Edo State Government, under the leadership of Governor Godwin Obaseki, who he said had matched words with action by making sure that arable land was made available to those genuinely interested in agriculture.

He appealed to other state governors to emulate Edo State, which had so far made available about 70 per cent of the promised arable land.

On the socio-economic impact of the CBN interventions, Emefiele mentioned the Anchor Borrowers' Programme (ABP), among other interventions schemes, which revolutionised agricultural practice whereby smallholder farmers, who hitherto could not approach commercial banks for loans. He said the farmers were now being granted credit facilities in the form of inputs, like seedlings, fertiliser, and herbicides.

He said the smallholder farmers could now cultivate and produce enough for their families and sell produce for loan repayment with ease.

Emefiele also commended the efforts of the promoting company, Agri-Allied Resources and Processing Limited and its parent company, Tolaram Limited, for heeding the clarion by the CBN to source their critical raw materials locally. He pointed out that the company had painstakingly embraced backward integration principle by acquiring farmland, measuring about 18,000 hectares, for the cultivation of oil palm, cassava, and maize - the critical raw materials used by the group.

Earlier, Managing Director of Agri-Allaied Resources, Mr. Madhukar Khetan, said the company had so far accessed a 10-year loan in the sum of N15 billion at single-digit interest rate with two-year moratorium, under the Commercial Agricultural Credit Scheme (CACS), for the project.

The farm currently has a workforce of about 1,000.

By James Emejo

This Day

Video - Food shortage in Nigeria: Farmers in north face ongoing threat

In Nigeria, armed group violence and kidnappings are affecting the farming sector, on which people hugely rely for their livelihoods. Al Jazeera's Ahmed Idris reports from the northwestern state of Katsina, Nigeria.

Video - Strawberry farming in Nigeria

Strawberry farming in Nigeria is currently an untapped goldmine. Thwe fruits cultivation is mostly done in the North Central state of Plateau due to the cold climate there.And now young Nigerians are turning to strawberry farming as a viable source of income.

Video - Nigeria spent $4.65 billion on food importation in 2020

 

Nigeria's government spent 4.65 billion dollars on food importation between January and September 2020. That's a 62 percent rise compared to the previous year. CGTN's Kelechi Emekalam reports that the increase in food costs was despite the West African nation imposing a land border closure aimed at boosting local production.

Floods, food shortages threaten to push Nigeria into food crisis

Mal Shehu Ladan took a boat across what was, until this month, a growing rice paddy. Now, like thousands of hectares of rice in Nigeria's Kebbi state, it is under water.

"Almost all my farm has been flooded. I didn't harvest any rice," Ladan told Reuters News Agency. "It's going to be devastating."

Floods early this month across northwest Nigeria destroyed 90 percent of the two million tonnes that Kebbi state officials expected to harvest this autumn, the head of the state branch of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria told Reuters. The loss amounts to some 20 percent of the rice Nigeria grew last year, and the waters are still rising.

Further south, outside Nigeria's capital, Abuja, chicken farmer Hippolite Adigwe is also worried. A shortage of maize forced him to sell most of his flock of more than 1,000 birds, and the 300 he has left are hungry. Chicken feed prices have more than doubled, and he is not sure how long he can cope.

Twin crises, floods and maize shortages, come just after movement restrictions and financing difficulties caused by COVID-19 containment measures complicated spring planting.

Some farmers and economists said it could push Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, into a food crisis. Rice is the country's staple grain, and chicken is a core protein.

"There is a real fear of having food shortages," Arc Kabir Ibrahim, president of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria told Reuters. "The effect on the food system is going to be colossal."

Nigeria took roughly 4,000 tonnes of millet and sorghum from the regional economic bloc's (ECOWAS) strategic stocks last month and released 30,000 tonnes of its own maize. It also gave four companies special permission to import maize.

The prominent Nigerian Economic Summit Group has called for "a complete overhaul" of agriculture policy.

Problems accessing foreign exchange to import food are adding to shortages. In July, the central bank added maize to a list of items for which importers are banned from using its dollars. Rice and fertiliser were already on the list, along with other items that Nigeria wants to be made locally.

Last week, even as food prices spiked, President Muhammadu Buhari promised that not one cent of central bank dollars would go to food or fertiliser imports, as Nigeria would continue encouraging local farmers over imports.

Importers can use dollars from pricier parallel markets. But these are tough to find due to an oil price crash that has cut Nigeria's core source of foreign exchange.

Switching grains

Rice prices had already risen substantially due to a land border closure last year that aimed to stamp out smuggling and boost local production.

Peter Clubb of the International Grains Council said the spike drove consumers to eat maize instead. This, along with a disappointing crop late last year and the foreign exchange issues, boosted maize prices to 180,000 naira ($470) per tonne from approximately 70,000 naira ($183) in March.

Farmers sid that consumers grappling with inflation, as well as the first rise in fuel prices since 2016 and a power price spike, can only pay so much more for food.

Ayodeji Balogun, chief executive at commodities exchange Afex, said the central bank's lending scheme for farmers has significantly expanded output, and can work long term.

But the coming months will be tough. Fertiliser prices hit a record after a COVID-19 outbreak shut down country's sole urea plant for two weeks, meaning more farmers will skip fertilisers, limiting crop yields.

"The worst is yet to happen," Balogun said. "It is a problem across grains."

Buhari has pledged more support, and Agriculture Minister Muhammed Sabo Nanono visited the northwest area this weekend and promised to provide farmers with high-quality seeds and to set up a special committee to ensure they have all they need to plant new crops as soon as possible.

Adigwe, the chicken farmer, said he thinks barring foreign food in order to help farmers is not a bad idea, but "there are some factors that were not considered."

"Can local production sustain the population of Nigeria?"


Al Jazeera

Nigeria Targets Processed Cocoa Exports With $10 Million Plant

Nigeria’s southeastern Cross River state is setting up a 4-billion naira ($10-million) cocoa-processing plant to start operations in August and target the export market, an official said.

Cross River, which accounts for about 30% of Nigeria’s output, has negotiated with chocolate companies based in Italy to receive supplies from the grinder, Peter Egba, the commissioner for industry, said in a phone interview from Calabar, the state capital.

The factory will receive raw material from local growers as well as farmers in neighboring Cameroon, across the nearby border, Egba said. The government also plans to distribute 10 million seedlings of a cocoa variety that matures in three years to farmers to increase output.

Nigeria is the world’s fifth-biggest producer of the chocolate ingredient, with the Cocoa Association of Nigeria expecting the 2020 main harvest between October and December to yield 148,750 tons. There’s a smaller harvest between April and June. The investment comes at a time Nigeria is seeking to diversify its economy away from oil by boosting agricultural production and processing.

By Emele Onu

Bloomberg

This agricultural enterprise is helping Nigerian farmers expand their business

In 2015, farmer Sule Yohana joined Babban Gona, a social enterprise organization with a focus on providing expansion services to smallholder farmers in Nigeria.

Babban Gona which means 'Great farm' in Hausa language, spoken in West Africa, provides services such as loans, agribusiness training, and provision of storage facilities for subsistence farmers in rural communities.

Yohana, whose farm is in Kaduna state in northern Nigeria, told CNN that since he joined the enterprise as a member he has been able to grow his maize farm from two hectares of land to four.
A hectare of farmland is about the size of the average football field.

"They (Babban Gona) taught me how to farm better, they taught me the best way to store my maize and they supplied me with fertilizers and pesticides," he said.

Promoting Agriculture

Farmers like Yohana make up one of the largest sectors of the Nigerian economy as agriculture contributes 21.9% of the country's overall gross domestic product, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Founder of Babban Gona, Kola Masha says the enterprise was established in 2012 to promote agriculture and reduce the rate of unemployment in the country.

Out of a population of 202 million people, 39 million in Nigeria were unemployed, according to a 2018 report by the NBS.

Masha told CNN that Babban Gona's objective is to bring down the unemployment numbers by expanding crop production in rural communities, thereby creating room for more jobs in the country.

"We set a goal for ourselves that we will create around 10 million jobs by 2030 ... We firmly believe that agriculture is Nigeria's job-creation engine because it is massive, labor-intensive, and has tremendous growth potential," he said.

Babban Gona, which specializes in supporting maize farming is present in six Nigerian states and has so far provided its 100,000 farmer members with different farming-related services to improve their business.

One of the services offered is the provision of storage facilities for farmers during harvest season. Due to insufficient storage facilities for community-level farmers, a lot of farm produce is often wasted.

Investing in spaces to store maize ensures that farmers don't lose their produce and by extension, their income.

"We invested in over 60,000 tonnes of storage where the farmers can store their harvest," Masha said.

Farmer training 

Babban Gona also trains all its farmer members on some of the best farming techniques to improve their production of maize.

The company has a large number of field agents across small communities in northern Nigeria. These agents specialize in teaching water retention, soil analysis, seed planting, and sustainable farming.

Once a farmer joins Babban Gona, he automatically becomes eligible for this training.
Masha says anybody can join as a farmer member and that some people apply to become a part of Babban Gona on their own.

"Our team is actively out there at the grassroots level engaging with tens of thousands of farmers to get them to join. So, it is really a community effort, going from village to village, sharing with people about the potential of how Babban Gona can help," he explained.

When a farmer indicates interest in joining, they are subjected to a psychometric test where they are evaluated based on their maize production skills, personality traits, job potential, and abilities.
Those who pass become member farmers.

Yohana, who has been a Babban Gona member for about five years says he has been able to increase his net income as a result of the incentives provided by the enterprise.

"You know I used to plant one maize seed per hole but during my training with Babban Gona, I was taught that I could plant more than one seed with appropriate spacing," he explained.
He said he used to harvest only 40 bags of maize during harvest season, but he now harvests up to 200 bags.

Farmer members like Yohana are offered access to credit for their business and information on the best ways to market and distribute their products, according to Babban Gona founder, Masha.
"We help them to start thinking about turning their farm into a large business, to start making the necessary investments that will make their farms profitable," he told CNN.

Funded by financial institutions

The farmers are charged a small margin for the different services provided to them.
And according to Masha, the social enterprise is funded by leading financial institutions and governments such as the Nigerian Sovereign Wealth Fund, the German government, the Entrepreneurial Development Bank, among others.

Through the funding received, Babban Gona has been able to provide credit facilities for 55,000 farmers and aims to reach a million more by 2025.

CNN

Video - Small scale rice farmers struggle to cope with market demands in Nigeria

The Nigerian government has put drastic measures in place to spur rice production, closing the country's land borders since August. That was to curb smuggling and give a boost to local farmers. But many of them say they are struggling to meet increasing demand, and that the price of rice has increased. Ifiok Ettang reports from Jos, North Central Nigeria.

Video - Indoor farming in Nigeria improves self-sufficiency in food production

Nigeria is experiencing some kind of revolution in agriculture, thanks in part to the government's diversification policy. More young people are taking to agriculture and new methods of farming are springing up as the country aims to achieve self-sufficiency in food production. One young farmer is now driving a method of agriculture new to Nigeria.

Video - Too late to replant damaged crops caused by flood in Nigeria

Food supplies are threatened in northwest Nigeria where floods have destroyed crops. Dozens of people have been killed recently and thousands of homes washed away. Al Jazeera's Ahmed Idris reports from Auyo in Jigawa state, where the local government is struggling to help.

Nigeria becomes first country to approve biotech cowpea

Nigeria has made history by becoming the first country in the world to approve biotech cowpea, thereby adding a new biotech crop to the global biotech basket.

This is according to the Global Status of Commercialised Biotech/GM ( Genetically Modified) Crops in 2018 (ISAAA Brief 54), and disclosed in a news release by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications, ISAAA on Thursday.

The release was issued at the Nigeria Science Cafe and launch of Brief 54, a report on Global Status of Commercialised Biotech/GM Crops event in Abuja. The release, signed by Dr Margaret Karembu, Director, ISAAA AfriCentre in Kenya showed that Africa continued to make steady progress in the adoption of biotech crops.

The ISAAA AfriCentre Director praised Nigeria’s progress in biotech crop development and adoption, noting that the country was leading in agricultural technology approvals enabled by an efficient bio safety system.

“The world is in a technological advancement trajectory, the green revolution that had taken the world by storm in the second half of the 20th century is quickly transitioning into gene revolution. “We are now progressing into genome editing, a more precise and accurate technology to effectively develop more productive, highly nutritious and climate resilient crops for our rapidly increasing population,’’ she said.

In the ISAAA Brief 54 report, a total of 70 countries adopted biotech crops through cultivation and importation in 2018, the 23rd year of continuous biotech crop adoption. Also a total of 26 countries with 21 developing and five industrialised countries planted 191.7 million hectares of biotech crops, adding 1.9 million hectares to the record of plantings in 2017.

The Kingdom of Eswanti, former Swaziland, joined South Africa and Sudan in planting biotech crops in Africa, with commercial planting of insect resistant (IR) Bt cotton on an initial launch of 250 hectares. This brought the number of African countries currently growing biotech crops to three. Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya and Malawi granted approvals for planting biotech cotton as the proof that Africa is ready for biotech crop adoption. The report further indicated that South Africa alone planted 2.73 million hectares of biotech crops in 2018, sustaining its ranking among the top 19 biotech crop countries in the last two decades.

Most farmers in the country have adopted plant biotechnology with 87 per cent of adoption of biotech maize, 95 per cent biotech soybean and 100 per cent of biotech cotton.

The report further stated that Sudan planted 243,000 hectares of BT cotton, and a total of 3.14 million hectares of biotech crops in Africa. The report highlighted among others, that the top five countries with the largest area of biotech crops planted by U.S., Brazil, Argentina, Canada and India collectively occupied 91 per cent of global biotech crop area.

It showed that biotech soybean reached the highest adoption worldwide, covering 50 per cent of the global biotech crop area. The report indicated that farmers in 10 Latin American countries planted 79.4 million hectares of biotech crops among others. It said that with the continuously increasing adoption of biotech crops worldwide, farmers were at the forefront of reaping numerous benefits.

Vanguard

Video - Banker in Nigeria leaves finance sector for farming

One Nigerian farmer is redefining the sector in a bid to get younger and educated women to embrace the trade. In a country where most young people are swirling towards white collar jobs, Amaka Chukwudum left a thriving career in banking to pursue a life time passion in organic farming. Here's CGTN's Deji Badmus with the story of Chukwudum, one of Nigeria's leading advocate for organic farming.

Video - Invasive foreign plant species choking rivers and dams in Nigeria

The water hyacinth is a foreign weed introduced in the early 1990s to Nigeria, Since then it has spread rapidly to two-thirds of the country's rivers. It has caused immense damage to boatmen’s and fishermen’s livelihoods as it blocks waterways and sunlight to aquatic life. But despite its bad reputation, some scientists have discovered other ways it can be put to good use.

Nigeria planning on investing $500 million in palm oil production

Nigeria plans to increase its palm oil production 700% over the next eight years to help improve its foreign-exchange earnings that are largely dependent on crude oil exports.

The new policy will boost local production to about five million tons from 600,000 tons a year by investing as much as 180 billion naira ($500 million) beginning this year, the trade and investment ministry said in a report.

“Our policy objectives over an eight-year period (between 2019 and 2027) will see that we locally produce 100% of local crude palm oil demand by 2027, increase revenue from importation via duties and deliver 225,000 full time jobs and at least 450,000 seasonal jobs,” it said.

The new policy also seeks to remove the 75% duty rebate granted on refined palm oil imports and extend a current three-year tax holiday for all producing and processing companies to five years. It will introduce a five-year restriction of crude and refined palm oil importation to large-scale refineries and crushing-plant owners.

Farmers will be given access to loans at 9% per year through a central bank-administered lending to expand cultivation by at least three million hectares.

Presco Plc, the country’s largest producer of palm oil, is driving an expansion plan that expects a 500-ton capacity refinery to begin operating in first quarter of 2020, with an additional increase of its milling capacity from 60 tons an hour to 90 tons an hour by next January, Chief Executive Officer Felix Nwabuko said in a conference call with investors on Thursday.

By 2022, the company expects to push capacity to 210 tons an hour, with an additional 60 tons per hour in milling facilities, he said.

The West African nation’s palm oil imports rose from 302,000 tons in 2017 to 600,000 tons by end of 2018, costing the country as much as $500 million, despite placing the commodity on a forex-exclusion list, central bank figures indicate.

While Nigeria wants to grow quickly in palm oil, it’s still likely to be a small part of a market dominated by Indonesia and Malaysia. The country currently ranks as the world’s fifth-biggest producer in palm oil, accounting for less than 2% of global production, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

By Ruth Olurounbi 

Bloomberg

Video - Nigeria new initiatives helps farmers bypass banks to go directly to investors

A new initiative is helping farmers in Nigeria increase crop yields and connect with investors through a technology that combines peer-to-peer lending with a stream of videos and photographs of the type typically seen in crowdfunding campaigns.

Video - Shrinking Goronyo dam threatens livelihood of millions in Nigeria

The lives and livelihoods of two million people in Nigeria are under threat because of a lack of water.

Video - Nigeria looking to achieve rice self-sufficiency by 2020

Nigeria is the world's 2nd largest importer of rice. The government is now looking to support local farmers and has set a goal of achieving self-sufficiency in rice production by the year 2020. Some economists feel that target may be a little ambitious.