Many may have given up that the bill on Biosafety will be passed by the 7th National Assembly not to talk of being signed into law by President Goodluck Jonathan before he leaves office on May 29, 2015. But all that doubts changed when the National Assembly passed the bill and it was signed by President Goodluck Jonathan the National Biosafety Agency Bill into law on Monday, April 21, 2015.

ABUJA — THE Rice Processors Association of Nigeria, RIPAN, at the weekend backed the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina as the next president of African Development Bank, AfDB. Chairman, RIPAN, Muhammed Abubakar, disclosed this in Abuja while he while speaking with journalists, where he said the performance of the Minister in the agricultural sector and his track record at various international organisations makes him the preferred candidate for the job.

The accredited laboratories would boost the nation’s diversification and export promotion drive. One cheering news and indeed a key positive development from SON’s establishment of the accredited labs is that once local products are tested and certified, they are automatically accepted to have met local and global standards.

COCOA farmers in Elebisere community near Ofosu in Idanre Local government area of Ondo State watched helplessly as bulldozers mauled down their Cocoa farmland on which they had toiled for over 80years. Tears flowed freely as their source of livelihood was destroyed by agents of a quarry company who stormed the community with armed men ostensibly to intimidate them to submission.

ABAKALIKI—Brand new agricultural equipment imported by the Ebonyi State government for distribution to farmers have abandoned to rust away at the state Civil Service Secretariat, Unity Square, Abakaliki, the state capital. The equipment, which were worth millions of Naira include tractors, harvesters, planters and reapers were heaped at an open space in the Unity Square even as the farmers who were supposed to be the beneficiaries were wondering why the equipment were purchased in the first place.

Instead of young graduates wasting an entire year doing next to nothing, the government should ensure that these youths get the needed training in both the operation and business of agriculture. By the time they finish the service year, you’ll discover that they would not head to the cities for white collar jobs that are simply not there, they are ready for business” he explained.

A LEADING player in Nigeria’s agricultural commodities promotion drive, Elephant Group, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a global organisation, AfricInvest for the purpose of boosting the federal government’s backward integration initiatives on rice, crude palm oil and fertilizer Supply Value Chain across the world.

THE global hectarage of biotech crops has in creased more than 100-folds from 1.7 million hectares in 1996 to181.5 million hectares in 2014 making biotech crops the fastest adopted crop technology in recent times.

A NEW Pan-African project has been launched to strengthen the continent’s great potential for increased trade in fish.

Elephant Group Africa (one of the key operators in the agricultural sector of the economy), has called on the Federal Government to review the Land Use Act so as to lessen difficulties in acquiring land for agricultural purposes by incestors.

Registered farmers numbering 400 have benefited from the wheat value chain initiative of the Federal Government under its Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GESS).

Burkina Faso’s farmers will be cultivating BT Cotton for the eight season this year and they have benefited significantly from it as they had cultivated about 690, 976 hectares as at 2013 compared to 615,796 hectares in 2012, equivalent to a 12% increase over 2012, despite the fact that global hectares of cotton were down significantly by 10 to 15%.

“If any farmer wants to use this first rain to plant, such farmer should ensure the storage of enough water to water their crops if the rain did not continue,”

AGRICULTURE used to be the mainstay of the Nigerian economy. But as oil revenue increased, successive governments out of lack of leadership vision ignored this economic multiplier until President Goodluck Jonathan made it a top priority of his government. Happily government’s agricultural programmes have recorded appreciable gains that can easily ensure self-sufficiency in food production and possibly economic stability in the face of dwindling oil price.

The demand for High Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF) for cassava bread is driving a 520% expansion in cassava processing in the country in the last three years. From just one medium-sized factory and three functional small High Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF) Mills, in 2011, there are today nine medium-sized mills, either fully functional or at advanced stages of planning, and 40 small HQCF mills.