AgroLens Unveiled!

AgroLens is a blog with a focus on Agriculture designed to serve up-to-date, quality and concise news on innovations, trends and happenings in the Agricultural Industry. It also focuses on Agric-business, Agric-jobs and entrepreneurship and seeks to address the dearth of quality and useful information in the Agricultural industry in Nigeria and Africa in general , hence the name AgroLens.
The vision of the blog is to be the choice destination for those seeking qualitative news on Agriculture in Nigeria and also Africa. Welcome to our World!

WORLD HEADLINES: 1. INVESTING IN AGRICULTURE IN AFRICA 'IS NOT A BAD THING'- OKONJO-IWEALA.

The increasing interest from Asia and Middle East countries to lease agricultural land in Africa "is not a bad thing" but must be handled properly and in a transparent way, a top World Bank official said on Thursday.Speaking at the Reuters Food and Agriculture Summit, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, managing director at the World Bank, said it matters how those foreign investments are made.
"What we need to do is look at the political and social consequences of this," said Okonjo-Iweala, a former finance minister for Nigeria.
"As far as I'm concerned it is a good thing ... but you must make sure that you do it transparently and everyone in the country understands why is it being done, who is benefiting and how will ordinary people benefit," she added.


Okonjo-Iweala said such large commercial farming investments by foreigners could benefit local farmers by giving them access to new technology, irrigation and marketing.
In Madagascar, she said, demonstrations against President Marc Ravalomanana involved unhappiness over a deal to lease half of the Indian Ocean island's arable land to South Korea to grow food.
Okonjo-Iweala said the World Bank was trying ensure that countries who want to farm the land of others know the socio-economic issues there and that there are proper contractual arrangements that above all also benefit the local population.

She said only 5 percent of land in Africa is irrigated and countries in the region could benefit from investment and expertise from Asia and the Middle East.
"There has been quite a movement. Some of the countries in the Middle East and elsewhere don't have the land or the water to farm enough for their populations, so they want to invest elsewhere where there is ample opportunity," she said, "It's not such a bad thing but the issue is how is it done."

source: REUTERS.

Govt. begins payment to farmers who suffered loss due to bird flu #Nigeria

Third batch of poultry farmers affected by bird flu attack in
Kano State have started receiving compensation as promised by the
Federal Ministry of Agriculture as part of the FG's commitment to
agricultural development in the nation.
Speaking to newsmen in Kano, Chairman Kano State Poultry Farmers
Association, Dr. Muhammad Auwal Haruna, stated that, in February,
1st batch of payment was done when the Federal Ministry of
Agriculture approved the payment of N100 million as compensation to
affected farmers in the state after the initial discovery of the outbreak
of the avian influenza in Kano in January.

Rainfall destroys fish farm in Abuja, Nigeria

Fish farmers in Dutsen Alhaji, Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital
Territory (FCT), last week, suffered losses as heavy rainfall, which
lasted from Wednesday till Thursday morning, flooded many farms and
swept away thousands of fishes.
The heavy and prolonged rain caught the farmers unprepared as it has
been irregular this season.
Recounting his ordeal, one of the farmers, Mallam Bala, said, "I went to
the farm after the heavy rain that lasted throughout the night, only to
discover that some ponds were seriously affected, especially those
located along the bank of waterways.
Another farmer, Alhaji B.S. Abubakar, who already negotiated with a
buyer, said he woke up to discover that his 1, 000 fishes were reduced
to just 80 kilograms.
"I had already negotiated with a buyer who even went to the farm to
assess the fishes a day before the disaster happened, only for me to
wake up in the morning with the sad news of what happened the
previous night," he lamented.
Another farmer in the area, who lost over 5,000 fishes due for harvest,
was forced to harvest the remaining ponds due to the fear of what
might happen again.
When Daily Trust visited the area, some farmers were seen taking
preventive measures to protect their farms from being washed away by
flood.
"I have widened the water-releasing channel in my ponds so that water
can easily flow out," Mr. Bitrus Yusuf, one of them said.

Farmers to benefit from enhanced Irrigation #rwanda

Farmers in the Eastern and Southern provinces are to benefit from two
projects aimed at enhancing small scale irrigation technologies (SSIT)
and water resources management.
The two projects announced last Friday in Kigali are intended to
empower farmers by providing subsides on SSIT equipment and
capacity development.
Tony Nsanganira, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture,
said they would complement and speed up existing initiatives.
"Studies have shown that we have 600,000 hectares that need to be
irrigated to make them more productive. Yet today, only 30,000
hectares are irrigated, which means the projects will help us increase
the irrigated area and enable us achieve our 100,000 hectares target by
2018," he noted.
"Small scale irrigation and other types of irrigation are not new. They
are interventions we started over ten years ago to address a number of
constraints in terms of climate change. The projects are part of the
solution to complement other existing initiatives like ponds, dams and
others".
Boroto Ruhiza, the senior water resources officer for the Food and
Agriculture Organisation's (FAO) regional office for Africa, said the
projects would help in agriculture management which contributes to
both climate resilience and food security.
"These are projects to strengthen integrated water management in
order to strengthen and enable environmental management and
maximise the contribution of agriculture in poverty reduction focusing
on smallholders," he explained.
The first three-year project worth $2m - dubbed "More effective and
sustainable investment in water for poverty reduction" is funded by the
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). It will cover six
countries; Rwanda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Madagascar, Mali and Niger.
The project will focus on impact assessment and achievements in
efficient water resources management, research and policy dialogue.
The second project worth $340,000 is dubbed; "Enhancing small scale
irrigation technologies in Rwanda". It is estimated to last two years and
will focus on activities dealing with communities producing equipment.
It will be managed by FAO and the government of Rwanda.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, small scale irrigation costs
$1,500 (about Rwf800,000) per hectare, while a more complex
irrigation costs between $10,000 and $15,000 (about Rwf8 million) per
hectare.
The small scale irrigation is subsidised up to 50 per cent, although the
subsidy varies depending on the farmer's status and profitability of the
project. Individual farmers, communities, special groups like the Young
Farmers Clubs and cooperatives are eligible to apply for the subsidy.

Rice husks to be used for energy #rwanda

Government will soon start generating energy from rice husks as part
of push to absorb greenhouse gases and as a strategy to fight
deforestation.
The 'Rice husks to power project' is being implemented in Nyagatare
District to produce green energy.
Bright Ntare, the programme manager of National Climate Fund
(FONERWA), said the project is among 17 climate change adaptation
projects under implementation in the country.
Speaking on the sidelines of the South-South meeting in Kigali last
Thursday, convened to discuss financing climate compatible
development, Ntare said the projects are being funded by FONERWA at
a tune of Rwf22 billion.
The three-day meeting drew experts from Bangladesh, Colombia,
Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kenya, Mozambique, Peru and Rwanda to discuss
different funding alternatives for projects initiated to mitigate effects of
climate change in developing countries.
It was organised by the Climate and Development Knowledge Network
(CDKN) in collaboration with Rwanda Environment Management
Authority (REMA).
Participants said green technologies by private investors need funding
to avail renewable energy in rural areas.
Ntare said the 'Rice husks power project', whose implementation
started last year, could be ready in two months.
Ankush Chhabria, the managing director of Novel Renewable Energy,
(the implementing firm), said the produced energy will be connected to
national grid.
The pilot project will produce 70 kilowatt per hour and could be rolled
out to other areas of the country next year, he explained.
"When the husks are left in the soil by farmers and rice millers, they
emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere that contribute to climate
change but once the power machinery is completed in two months...
.the ash from the processing will be distributed to farmers as a
fertiliser," Chhabria said.
The company has signed a contract with rice millers for the distribution
of husks.
Under the technology, husks are burnt in well-constructed facilities and
machinery that finally store the gas into clean energy for use.
A part from funding public institutions, FONERWA also gives
innovation grants and credit line funds that focus on research and
technologies to private sector investors.
Ellie Marsh, who works with global development advisors from
Switzerland, noted that there is need to create opportunities for private
sector, build investors' confidence and foster public participation into
adaptation mechanisms to develop such technologies in developing
countries.
She also stressed that implementation and sustainability level of the
climate plans needs to be strengthened.

Botswana Engages private agriculturists

Assistant Minster of Agriculture, Mr Fidelis Molao, is aware
of the general shortage of agricultural extension workers including the
Nata-Gweta constituency.
Answering a question in Parliament, Mr Molao said the problem was
not unique to the Nata-Gweta constituency because it was presently
unaffordable for government to have staff in all the extension areas in
the country.
However, he said to counter the shortage, his ministry had re-
organised its services so that extension areas without officers were
serviced by officers from other stations.
He further said the ministry had also embarked on an initiative to
engage private agriculturalists to provide extension services.
The assistant minister added that the services were to be paid partly
from savings made on overtime expenditure, which had been
substantial for the ministry.
He said Nata-Gweta constituency stands to benefit from such an
initiative.
Nata-Gweta MP, Mr Polson Majaga had asked the minister if he was
aware that there was shortage of agricultural demonstrators and
veterinary officers in the Nata-Gweta constituency.