Agro Hub Nigeria

The founder, Afe Babalola University, Aare Afe Babalola (SAN), has called on Nigerian leaders to see agriculture as the surest way out of the current economic recession the country 8s going through. He condemned the abandonment of Agriculture after the discovery of oil and said that the agriculture would create a lot of jobs and bussiness opportunities in the country. Afe Babalola who made the statement in Ado-Ekiti recently stressed that, ‘for Nigeria to overcome the present economic problems, we must add business to agriculture. We need to develop our own technology, improve our own farming practice, innovate, invent and create massive and robust markets for our unique African agricultural products’. “Before the advent of oil, Nigeria was self-sufficient in many things. We made good money from agricultural products. Our Naira was stronger than the British pound and the American Dollar. But after the oil discovery in Oloibiri in 1956, we abandoned that all-important income ea

With an estimated income of more than $100 billionannually, agriculture remains Africa’s largest economic sector. Agricultural production in Africa continues to increase graduallyand is almost at par with South America. However, as Africans become more tech savvy, innovationsare on the rise as technology experts turn their attention to creating mobile solutions for the modern farmer. Analysis have shown that by 2025 half of Africa’s population will have internet access with about 360 million smartphones on the continent. Also based on their estimation, internet technology could increase annual agricultural productivity in Africa by $3 billion per annum.Throughout the continent, farmers, NGOs and scientists are developing solutions to boost agriculture and make the business of farming less labour intensive. Here are some of theapps that seek to solve these problems, while also changing the face of agriculture within Africa. 1.i-cow Created by a Kenyan farmer, this SMSand voice only mob

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh, has disclosed the plans to boost local production of fish species in an attempt to reduce the huge importation of the product into the country and also to conserve foreign exchange in the fishery sector. He made this known during an interactive session with the Management of Triton Group, one of the leading Stakeholders in Nigeria’s fishery sector, during their courtesy visit to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development head office in Abuja. Ogbeh said that a whooping $700 million (about N210 billion) is spent annually on the importation of fish and  it is no longer sustainable for the present administration under President Muhammadu Buhari to continue to spend such amount on fish imports at this period when the Nigerian economy had slipped into recession. The Minister stated that more funds would be provided to research institutes to scale up research work into the local production of other species of

There is an Igbo proverb that says, ‘a man needs to consider the size of his anus before swallowing udala seed’. Prior to the discovery of oil in Nigeria, unemployment was not a major macroeconomic threat to the Country as anyone who was agile had no reason to be idle . Food was sufficient and youths were gainfully employed. After the oil boom comes an era plagued with decline in Agriculture's share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as everyone abandoned farming in order to benefit from the national cake. However, while Nigeria as a Nation was busy relishing the crude oil largess, she failed to take into cognizance the end results and ripple effects of oil on the other sectors of the economy. This was the Genesis of unemployment in Nigeria. The National Bureau of Statistics recently reported that 58.3 percent of Nigerians in the labour force, aged 15‐24 were either unemployed or underemployed in the second quarter of 2016, compared to 56.1 percent in the first quarter. Similarly, o

The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) has decried the hike in the price of fertilisers by suppliers and other middlemen in the distribution chain. The apex farmers’ body claimed  the subsidy paid by the government does not reflect on the price being sold to the final buyer, noting that the price is being hiked by individuals while farmers are at the receiving end. AFAN, speaking through its National President, Arc. Kabir Ibrahim said it is high time the Federal Government took actions against suppliers who have inflated the price of the commodity, hence farmers encountering difficulties accessing and purchasing it. He also called for proper monitoring of government policies and activities to avoid bottlenecks and sharp practices at all levels. Arc. Ibrahim while speaking during the AFAN National Executive Committee meeting held in Abuja identified the major role the organisation played to revive the Nation’s economy through the agricultural sector. Some of the interventions e