FG To Close Down Unregistered Poultry Farms

As a way of enforcing bio-security measures in the poultry industry, the federal government has resolved to close down all unregistered poultry farms in the country.

This was revealed by the minister of agriculture and rural development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, when he received members of the National body of the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) in the ministry’s  headquarters in Abuja, recently.

Ogbeh charged poultry farmers to be more disciplined on the issue of hygiene in the operations of their farms and urged them to always report incidences of diseases to avoid further losses, saying that it is only by registering with government and the poultry association (PAN) that effective containment and control of outbreaks of diseases could be successful.

The minister assured the poultry farmers of government’s resolve to revisit the issue of compensation by conducting a verification exercise to ensure the authenticity of claims by farmers affected by the Avian Influenza with a view to finding possible ways of paying.

He promised to take up the issue of multiple taxation and Value Added Tax (VAT) on maize with the presidency as it is affecting the production of poultry products in the country. According to him, government may consider the release of part of the maize in the strategic reserve to support the poultry industry because the demand for maize has become so high, and stated the need for subsidy on agriculture products, saying this would ensure the success of the proposed school feeding programme, especially with regard to eggs, milk, and poultry meat.

Ogbeh explained that the Egyptians and Americans have found vaccines for Avian Influenza but government was still studying the effectiveness of the vaccines, noting that poultry farmers would be informed on government’s decision on the issue.

On the restructuring of the Bank of Agriculture (BOA), the minister said that plans were ongoing to ensure that farmers owned the majority shares of the BOA and even sit on the board of the bank, saying that this would enable the farmers draw more benefits. He said that a dedicated website would soon be opened by government to educate Nigerians on the dangers and health implications of consuming smuggled goods.

Also in his remarks, the minister of state for agriculture, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, described as unacceptable a situation where other countries export agro-products and Nigeria imports, and gave advise on the need to take the issue of food security seriously, adding that research institutes’ outcomes should be able to change the status of the country.

Earlier in his remarks, the national president of the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), Dr Ayoola Oduntan, pledged the readiness of the association to work with government and other relevant government agencies to produce affordable products for Nigerians. Oduntan said that the poultry value chain has contributed, among others, over 25 per cent to the GDP the economy with a current worth of $8 billion, and urged government to give adequate attention and protection to the poultry industry by putting up strong measures to immediately control, contain, and bring to a halt the further decimation of the 

Source: Leadership news online

Dangote Opens Tomato Factory to ward off Chinese Imports

The Dangote Group, owned by Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote, has opened a tomato-processing factory near Nigeria's northern city of Kano aimed at vying for the local market with imports from China.

"We have fully started operations today and the target is 1,200 metric tons per day," the managing director of Dangote Farms Limited, which runs the plant, Abdulkareem Kaita, said Tuesday in an interview with Bloomberg.

"We are going to work with the farmers, they can afford to produce more because there's a processing factory and they don't have to suffer losses like they did before."

The plant that will produce 1,200 metric tons per day was built following a 2011 Central Bank of Nigeria study that showed it was cheaper to process tomato paste locally than import from China, the source of about 300,000 tons a year worth $360 million.

Yet the country produces 1.5 million tons of tomatoes annually of which about 900,000 tons rot, according to the Agriculture Ministry.

Dangote's facility will produce more than 400,000 tons of paste annually, with most of its raw material coming from farmers in the Kadawa Valley in Kano state.

Farmers will receive a guaranteed price of about $700 per ton compared to an average of less than $350 now, according to estimates by the central bank, which helped organise the farmers and arrange credit from banks.

The Dangote Group owns businesses including cement plants, flour mills, fruit canning plants, palm oil refineries, salt and oil assets.

Soource: allAfrica.com 

NAFDAC ‎bans beans importation

THE Nigerian Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has on Thursday said it has placed a ban on the importation of beans in the country.

The Acting Director General of the Agency, Mrs. Yetunde Oni, said the ban is not for the ones produced in the country, but ‎on the ones that are imported.

 

 

She said this in Minna during an Awareness/Sensitisation Workshop on Safe and Responsible use of Regulated Agricultural inputs for Stakeholders in the North Central Zone, adding that only beans screened by the Agency would be allowed into the country.