Jimitota ONOYUME

PORT HARCOURT: MINISTER of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Akinwumi Adesina has enjoined Nigerians to grow the agricultural sector of the economy, stressing that it has the capacity to change the future of the country.

The Minister who spoke during a one day tour of Notore Industrial complex, Onne said investment in the agric sector had gotten many countries out of poverty.

According to him, Malaysia was a food deficit country for several years until they took the decision to change their country by investing in agriculture. He said at the moment Malaysia was a major exporter of food in the world .

Dr Adesina further appealed to farmers in the country to use more fertilizers if they have to improve on their yields which he said were too low at the moment.

He said the country uses about 8,000 metric tons of seed, describing it as one of the lowest in the world. that the government would grow the seed sector, he said he was hopeful that the Notore plant would raise the metric tons of fertilizer to about 600,000 this year.

The Minister said the Federal Government was set to invest heavily in the agricultural sector, adding that the sector would no longer be a mere development project to the government. He said the government would focus on the whole value chain in the area.

The Minister said it was regrettable that the nation spends about 356 billion naira yearly on rice importation just as he stressed on the effort of government to increase local rice production.

Dr. Adesina said government had concluded plans to ensure it stopped importation of rice for local consumption by 2015.

According to him,  the government had evolved measures to ensure the nation’s food security would not be at risk. He said by 2015 the nation would grow sufficient rice for local consumption, adding that the government would also grow the seed sector in the country. The Minister stressed that with sufficient fertilizers in place, farmers would grow better yields in the country.

Earlier, the Managing Director, Notore Chemical Industries Limited, Mr Onajite Okoloko said the firm would soon hit 50% production of fertilizer needed locally.

According to him, the firm would increase production to about 2 million metric tons, adding that it had sealed up plans to expand its capacity by 2015.

He said the firm would continue to focus on commercial production of fertiliser and educating farmers on input and best practices, adding that it would make effort to reduce supply chain costs.

Mr Okoloko said the firm would raise its production of Urea to 403,000 mt this year and also raise export to 84,000mt. On Ammonia, he said Notore would raise production to 285,000 mt this year and export 40,198 mt. He appealed to the federal government to link Notore plant to its rail project, stressing that this would reduce cost of transportation. He also spoke of dredging Notore channels.

“Notore has achieved nameplate capacity recently in reaching the highest levels of recording a daily production of 1489 MT of Urea from January 2012 and 994 MT of Ammonia in February 2012.”

“After successful completion of scheduled turn-around maintenance in 2011, the plant has experienced improved performance and increased consistency of operations, and Notore is working to sustain these records”.