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The Federal government through the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has announced the deployment of 10,000 agro rangers across the country.  

This is in a move to curtail insecurity across the food producing belt of the country which has negatively impact food production across the country in recent times. 

The Special Assistant to President Tinubu on New Media, Olusegun Dada disclosed this in a post on his official X handle. 

According to the statement, the agro-rangers initiative is a partnership between the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corp (NSCDC) noting that agro rangers will help protect farmers against malicious destruction of farmlands as well as farmer herder conflict. 

The post reads, “As part of ongoing efforts to enhance food security in the Northern region and other parts of the country, the FG through the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps(NSCDC) has deployed over 10,000 Agro Rangers across 19 states and the FCT.” 

“The Agro Rangers will, among other things; safeguard farmlands and protect farmers from escalating attacks, mediate conflicts between farmers and herders, and prevent malicious destruction of farmlands. While the food inflation crisis in the country is a function of many factors, insecurity has been a long term challenge and this collaboration between the NSCDC and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security is expected to solve a major challenge faced by farmers across the country.” 

Backstory 

The deployment of agro-rangers stems from earlier plans by the federal government through the National Economic Council (NEC) in February this year to establish agro-rangers as a short-term solution to the insecurity in the country pending when the long-term solution of state police is achieved.  

Widespread insecurity, particularly in the northern region, has forced many farmers to abandon their lands, resulting in a significant decrease in food production and contributing to the rising food prices nationwide. Just last week, attacks on farming communities in Benue State, known as the nation’s food basket, led to the tragic deaths of over 20 people. 

As of July 2024, food inflation has surged to 40.87%. In response, the federal government has floated the idea of establishing state police forces. However, this proposal cannot be implemented through executive orders or solely by an act of parliament from the National Assembly, even though the bill to create state police has already passed its second reading in the legislature.

THE OCCASSION OF FARMERS FIELD SCHOOL FOR OIL PALM FARMERS  ON NURSERY ESTABLISHMENT, FIELD ESTABLISHMENT, HARVESTING AND MARKETING HELD AT HOTEL CODIAL LIMITED, CHIME AVENUE, NEW HEAVEN, ENUGU, ENUGU STATE, ON WEDNESDAY, 25^TH AUGUST, 2021.     

Please recall that approval was given for the Value Chain to convene Farmers Field School on nursery establishment, field development, harvesting and marketing for oil palm farmers/associations  from the twenty four (24) oil palm producing States; Abia, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Rivers, Bayelsa, Imo, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Delta, Edo, Ondo, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Ekiti, Benue, Kwara, Kogi, Nasarawa, Plateau, Taraba, Adamawa and Kaduna at Hotel Codial Limited, Chime Avenue, New Heaven, Enugu, Enugu State. The workshop which held on Wednesday, 25^th August, 2021 was organised by the Oil Palm Value Chain and is aimed enhancing the capacity and skill of oil palm farmers in areas of nursery establishment, field development and maintenance, harvesting and marketing.

            The training/capacity building was attended by 80No. participants, drawn from Abia, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Rivers, Bayelsa, Imo, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Delta, Edo, Ondo, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Ekiti, Benue, Kwara, Kogi, Nasarawa, Plateau, Taraba, Adamawa and Kaduna. Representatives from Enugu Young Farmers Association (ENSYFA), NIFOR, Oil Palm Value Chain and Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural development (FMA&RD), News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Radio Nigeria, NTA, TVC News also attended the training.

Welcome Addresses

The welcome address was delivered, by Mr Nwaogu Peter N, Enugu State Coordinator. While welcoming participants, he underscored the importance of the training and encouraged them to make good use of it, to enable them improve their knowledge and skills for effective nursery establishment, field development and maintenance, Harvesting and marketing.

He concluded by thanking the Ministry for organizing this training and encouraged participants to transfer the knowledge and skills that would be acquired to other oil palm farmers.

Address by the Honouable Minister, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

            The representative of the HMA, Mr B. C. Ukattah (Deputy Director-Tree Crops) in his address informed the participants that oil palm value chain is among the commodity value chain being promoted by FMARD. He further disclosed the objectives of the Value Chain and the strategies for addressing the shortfall such as production and distribution of improved tenera oil palm seedlings for hectarage expansion, encouraging Semi–Wild Grove (SWG) Yield enhancement by the gradual replacement of old and unproductive palms with improved planting materials, promoting the use of motorized harvesters, medium scale processing equipment (MSPE) and automated nut cracker separator (palm kernel recovery), to enhance farm operations and increase production as well as building the capacities of oil palm farmers along the entire Value Chain etc. The HMA stated the main objective of the training which is to enhance the capacity and skill of oil palm farmers in areas of nursery establishment, field development and maintenance, harvesting and marketing.

He ended his address by encouraging farmers to be attentive and make best use of this opportunity to improve their knowledge and skills on nursery establishment, field development, harvesting and marketing.

Technical Session

            During the technical session lead paper was delivered by Mrs. Philomena Ehionehen on Best Practices in oil palm Nursery establishment/principles and practices in oil palm plantation development; this paper amongst others disclosed, the procedures for establishing and managing a good oil palm nursery as well as Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) for oil palm plantation development.

Practical Session/field demonstration on nursery establishment/Field development:

Participants were taken to the field, and the technician conducted Field demonstration on how to prepare oil palm nurse
ry and field establishment.

  Questions/Issues/Discussions

After the presentation by the resource person, and the practical session, participants made the following appeal practices.

• Need for the Ministry to conduct more training for farmers to enhance their skills in good agricultural
• Need to provide free inputs such as improved tenera sprouted nuts to farmers
• Need for the Ministry to continue to provide support for farmers in the areas of oil palm processing, for value addition.
• Need for the value chain to tackle the challenge of importation of crude palm oil into the country.
• Adequate support for plantation development, research and the need for the Value Chain to go through commodity associations in implementing its activities.
• Need for the Ministry to reach out to farmers/Associations (OPGAN and NPPAN) directly.

            Response

In response to the above, the following comments were made.

• Participants were informed that the Ministry will continue to train farmers in nursery establishment/field development for best agricultural practices.
• The participants was also informed that the Ministry will continue to give out inputs such as improved tenera sprouted nuts free to farmers for plantation expansion
• Participants were encouraged to replicate the knowledge, skills/techniques acquired to other oil palm farmers in their localities.
• On the issue of support for processing, research and plantation development, it was indicated that the Value Chain was already promoting the use of Medium Scale Processing Equipment (MSPE), Automated Nut Cracker Separator (palm kernel recovery) etc., for production of premium crude palm oil and vegetable oil products, and encouraging farmers to access credit from Bank of Agriculture (BOA), to realize their agricultural projects.
• Participants were informed that the Value Chain was in active collaboration with NIFOR in the areas of research and seedling production for plantation development.
• They also, were informed that the Value Chain is in active collaboration with different commodity associations in the Value Chain.

OIL PALM VALUE CHAIN STAKEHOLDERS FORUM HELD AT HOTEL CODIAL LIMITED, ENUGU, ENUGU STATE   ON TUESDAY, 24^TH AUGUST, 2021.

The one-day Oil Palm Value Chain Stakeholders Forum, organized by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development was held on Tuesday, 24^th August, 2021 at Hotel Codial Limited, Chime Avenue, New heaven, Enugu, Enugu State, with the theme: Addressing issues towards sustainable development of oil palm. The objective of the meeting was to discuss issues that can contribute to Nigeria’s Sustainable Exploitation of Oil Palm for economic development, address challenges faced by farmers as well as fashion out a robust roadmap for oil palm industry.

The meeting was attended by 73No participants drawn from Oil Palm Growers Association of Nigeria (OPGAN), Plantation Owners Forum (POFON), National Palm Produce Association of Nigeria (NPPAN), News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Nigeria Television Authority (NTA), Nigeria Export Import Bank (NEXIM), and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Enugu State Young Farmers Initiative, Enugu State Chapter, State Ministry of Agriculture and FMARD.

WELCOME ADDRESS

The Welcome Address was presented by Mr. Matthew Idu, the Honourable Commissioner of Agriculture, Enugu State. He expressed delight at the impressive attendance of States and other stakeholder representatives. He underscored the importance of the stakeholders meeting which is to critically examine/discuss issues that can contribute to Nigeria’s sustainable exploitation of oil palm for economic development, address challenges and chart a way forward for the oil palm industry.

The Hon Commissioner ended his speech by thanking the FMARD for organizing the stakeholders meeting which is apt under the Federal Government view to diversify the economy. The Hon Commissioner thereby wished all a fruitful deliberation.

4. ADDRESS BY THE PERMAMNENT SECRETARY, FEDERAL MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT

The representative of the Perm Secretary, Mr B. C. Ukattah (Deputy Director-Tree Crops) while welcoming the stakeholders expressed delight with the good attendance of the stakeholders despite the short notice. He maintained that oil palm value chain is among the commodities being promoted by the Ministry. The PS informed the meeting that Stakeholders forum is usually the first series of preliminary activities that are carried out prior to full implementation of oil palm value chain programme.

He further disclosed, the objectives of the Oil Palm Value Chain, which are; to expand area under improved oil palm, achieve import substitution, Improve the productivity of farmers (by increasing the yield), support upstream and downstream processing activities to produce quality crude palm oil and vegetable oil products, create employment opportunities for the youth and build the capacities of farmers along the entire value chain in the 27 oil palm producing States.

Consequently, the Permanent Sec stated that the aim of the forum is to critically examine and discuss issues that can contribute to Nigeria’s sustainable exploitation of oil palm for economic development, address challenges faced by farmers as well as fashion out a robust roadmap for oil palm industry, he however noted that this forum will avail all the stakeholders in the oil palm industry the opportunity to rub minds together in order to chart better ways towards moving the sub-sector forward for the benefit of farmers across the entire value chain.

The PS ended his address, by urging all to discuss exhaustively  and proffer appropriate solutions/recommendations that will help to address the challenges of the oil palm industry and move the oil palm subsector forward.

5.0       GOODWILL MESSAGES

Oil Palm Growers Association of Nigeria (OPGAN)

The OPGAN president, Barr Joe Onyiuke in his good will message thanked the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development for convening this stakeholders meeting which is aimed at gathering the who and who in the oil palm sector to brainstorm and map out strategies towards the development of a sustainable oil palm subsector. He also expressed gratitude to the HMA for the numerous grants and subsidies the Association has benefited so far through the provision of free improved nuts from NIFOR and oil palm equipment/machineries such as oil palm tricycles, oil palm mills, nut crackers and separators, motorized harvesters at subsidized rates.

Barr Onyiuke further noted that the thriving oil palm sector is an imperative for economic growth and development of the Country and that the oil palm value chain will not only contribute significantly to the economy but can also serve as impetus or economic diversification.

He also thanked the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele for his massive investment under the anchor borrowers programme to boost local production which he noted has reduced annual oil palm importation by about 22% from $500 million to $42.5 million in the last one year. He underscored the need for massive sustainable funding of the organized smallholder oil palm farmers/growers since they consist about 80% of the market.

In conclusion, he assured all in Oil Palm production that the nation is richly blessed as the sector holds the ace and will propel Nigeria to her economic growth and development.

OP Nursery JV Limited

The General Manager, OP Nurseries JV Ltd, Kehinde Sotonwa in his good will message welcome all the stakeholders while noting that the meeting was to identify and proffer solutions to the issues bewildering oil palm production in Nigeria.

He informed the forum, that the OP Nursery JV Limited is into a joint venture with the NIFOR for seeds/seedlings production, which he noted is a vehicle to mitigate the proliferation of un-guaranteed, low quality oil palm seed/seedlings that is almost becoming a norm.

He stated that their mission is to strengthen NIFOR’s capacity and quarantined availability of high yielding Tenera seeds/ seedlings to oil palm smallholder farmers and plantation nationwide.

He concluded by congratulating the HMA and the staff of the oil palm value chain for convening the stakeholders meeting and wished all a successful deliberation

Solidaridad

The Programme Manager, Solidaridad-Nigeria, represented by Mr. Ernest Ita, in his goodwill message applauded FMARD for convening the Stakeholders’ meeting, which he noted is very apt especially now that the Federal Government is geared to diversify the economy. He further informed the meeting that they have signed an MOU with FMARD  to attain self-sufficiency in agriculture and diversification of her economy by providing  technical support to government in the development of the oil palm sector.

Mr. Ita also enumerated some of their achievements to include; Profiling 15,500 smallholder oil palm farmers, mapping of 9,600 smallholder oil palm farms,  increase women participation in oil palm and vegetable oil production, technological upgrade for 8 Artisanal palm oil mills, set up 16 oil palm nurseries with 36,000 improved sprouted nuts from NIFOR etc.

He informed the meeting that Solidaridad has built a rich database for farmers across the country, which he said will be of help to the Ministry in executing its policies in the development of agriculture, he thereby wished all fruitful deliberations.

BOA

The BOA representative, in her presentation;  commended the FMARD for a successful outing while noting that the usage of oil palm is increasing all over the world and wants Nigeria to catch in.  She stated that the bank is the leading agricultural finance institution with over 40 years’ experience in rural and agricultural finance. The presenter further enumerated some Agric loan/windows being offered by BOA to include;

Youth Agricultural Revolution in Nigeria; which is tagged at youths/individual Cooperative farmers within the age bracket of 16-36. This particular window allows individuals to borrow up to 1million naira without collateral. This particular window is also applicable for women in agriculture. The presenter noted that the loan period will be determined based on the project type/gestation period of the crop. NIRSAL provides 75% credit guarantee scheme.

Direct Credit Product: This is tagged to finance agricultural productions and Agro-allied activities. Loan volume ranges from N5 million and below to individual farmers and above N5 million to corporate organizations. This very window needs collateral/security in form of landed property with 14% interest rate for agricultural production and agro-processing

BOA representative encouraged oil palm farmers to feel free to apply for agric loan that the long gestation period of the crop will be put into consideration for loan repayment.

  TECHNICAL SESSION

During technical session, two (2) papers were presented; (a) Report of the Oil Palm Value Chain Activities and Achievement by Mrs N. C. Okoye and (b) Addressing issues towards the sustainable development of Oil Palm by Dr. Philip Oviasogie.

The Coordinator, Oil Palm, Mrs Okoye N.C. in her paper, disclosed the objectives of the value chain which are to expand area under improved oil palm, achieve import substitution, improve the productivity of farmers (by increasing yield), support upstream and downstream processing activities to produce quality crude palm oil and vegetable oil products, create employment opportunities for the youth and build capacities of farmers along the entire value chain in the 27 oil palm producing States.

Mrs Okoye also enumerated some of the activities of the oil palm value chain to include; production and distribution of improved tenera oil palm sprouted nuts/seedlings for hectarage expansion, encouraging semi wild grove yield enhancement (SWG) by the gradual replacement of old and unproductive palms with improved planting materials, promoting the use of oil palm Chisel/motorized harvesters, procurement and distribution of medium scale  processing equipment (MSPE), Oil palm nut crackers and separators, oil palm cargo tricycles  which were distributed to oil palm farmers/Associations that applied formally to the Ministry at subsidized rate and organizing farmers Field School, Skill acquisition and workshops for oil palm farmers on Good Agricultural and Management Practices, nursery establishment, field development, modern techniques in harvesting, processing, packaging, and marketing of oil palm produce.

Finally, the Oil palm value chain coordinator, summarized the achievements of the oil palm value chain in 2020 to include; increase in crude palm oil production from 0.998 million metric ton in 2016 to the current 1.029 million metric ton, procurement and distribution of 451,500  improved tenera oil palm sprouted nuts to oil palm farmers/associations in the 27 oil palm producing States at no cost., procured and distributed some equipment/machinery such as automated oil palm mills, nut crackers and separators, oil palm motorized harvesters, oil palm cargo tricycles, polybags etc to farmers/Associations and finally conducted capacity building of oil palm farmers on Good agricultural Practices, Good Management Practices etc, as well as support research and development.

The Second paper on Addressing issues towards the sustainable development of Oil Palm was presented by Dr. Philip Oviasogie. According to the paper, Nigeria’s palm oil Industry is highly fragmented and is dominated by smallholder farmers (SHF) which accounts about 80% of local production (largely technical palm oil TPO) with free fatty acid content higher than threshold for industrial use, while established plantations accounts for less than 20% of total market producing special palm oil (SPO) used largely for industrial purposes after refining.

The presenter further streamlined some of the major constraints/challenges in the value chain to include; use of inefficient milling methods; weak/inadequate capital; lack of data, weak rural infrastructure; weak value chain and linkages; high cost of labour especially in plantation operations, high cost of transportation of Fresh Fruit Bunches (ffb) from plantation to farm mill or selling platform, aging palms, access to fertilizer.

In addition, he suggested some remedies/institutional arrangements to address the challenges listed above to include;

1. Understanding the palm oil production life cycle
2. Need to harmonize and refocus all government intervention initiatives and goals of multi-stakeholders platforms (MSPs)

• Need for more intervention by CBN

1. Improved and sustained funding of research and innovation technologies to ensure the use of right planting materials, adoption of best practices, adoption of good plantation establishment etc
2. Need to address sustainability issues with respect to environment matters, land matters, palm oil code of practices
3. Adoption of RSPO principles and criteria (P&C)

He concluded by noting that sustainability in palm oil production entails, having a local and global production system based on socially acceptable and environmentally friendly premises which he said is invariably to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3  to ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all ag

Alhaji Sabo Nanono, the Minister of Ag­riculture and Rural Development emphasized that Nigeria is currently the world’s largest leading producer of Shea nuts with comparative advantage over its African neighbors.

The Minister was represented by the Deputy Director, Federal Department of Agriculture, Mr. Ukattah Bernard, who stated that Shea butter, generally known as “Women Gold” is a key raw material in cosmetic and the pharmaceutical industries.

The Theme of the workshop was ‘Building capacity of Shea farmers on Marketing, International linkages and Export promotion’. While welcoming participants at the workshop, he remarked that Nigeria as a nation was yet to exploit the full potentials of the Shea butter industry for employment generation, improve the livelihood of farmers who are predominantly women and children and to provide raw materials for food and pharmaceutical industries, earn foreign exchange, achieve food security and ensure environmental sustainability.

He went on to say that regardless of the benefits of Shea butter, the industry has not been well developed due to lack of knowledge and skills to develop formal small businesses with linkages involved in all the levels of the value chain from nut collectors to consumers and then ready for export. This workshop is therefore relevant as it will teach participants on linkages to exploit export opportunities because the current price per metric ton of Shea butter exceeds that for Shea kernels so that expanding Shea butter exports will contribute proportionally more to export earnings than greater levels of Shea kernel exports.

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in collaboration with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has supported 1,500 small holder rice farmers across 10 states in the country with complete production inputs to cultivate one (1) hectare each during the current wet season farminge, out of which Ekiti state is a beneficiary. This is to boost the ongoing effort of the Ministry on its various interventions aimed at alleviating the negative impact of COVID-19 Pandemic and flood on farmers in order to increase rice production in the country. Basically, the aim of the intervention is to enhance food security and to increase farmers’ income and livelihood.
To this end, each of the 150 small holder rice farmers selected in Ekiti state have benefitted the following complete input package to cultivate one (1) hectare of farmland “at no cost”. These includes 50kg bag of certified rice seeds (FARO 44), 4 bags of NPK, 2 bags of Urea, 1 litre of soil amender, 4 litres of pesticidesand 5 litres of pre/post emergence herbicides.

The programme took place from 14th to 15th July, 2021 at the premises of Ekiti State Office of Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State.

Alhaji Sabo Nanono, the Minister of Ag­riculture and Rural Development, has di­rected the management of the Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR) to ensure that its outstations were func­tional for full scale activities.

Nanono gave the directive in Benin City during the ongoing four days 2021 seed meeting, in-house research review and 2nd annual South-South Refills workshop organised by NIFOR in Be­nin.

Represented by the Executive Sec­retary, Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), Garba Sharubutu, Nanono directed ARCN to ensure full compliance in line with its mandate of coordination, supervision and monitor­ing.

The Opening ceremony was presided over by the Honourable Minister, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, represented by Executive Secretary Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN) Prof. Garba Sharubutu. The theme of the workshop was ‘Sustainable and Climate Smart Production of Palms and Shea for improved Livelihoods and Economic Diversity’. While welcoming participants at the 2^ND Annual South-South workshop, he remarked that the session is coming on the hills of the recent pandemic which resulted in loss of agricultural commodities across the Nation. He said that the government in its endeavor’s in ensuring that agricultural inputs was not lacked by Nigerian farmers in other to mitigate against the problems encountered during the pandemic, were compensated for their losses through the Abuja flag off and  input distribution done earlier in the year.

He informed the session of the importance of the 2021 Annual Review, citing the need to deliberate holistically on agricultural Issues that will change the dynamics of the Nigerian farmer as well as provide additional avenue for technology dissemination across all stakeholders. In his address he noted that, to transform agriculture, we must take it out of the political realm and treat agriculture with the seriousness it deserves, because of its enormous potentials which include job creation for teeming youths.

He submitted that, as a matter of urgency, there is need to diversify our economy away from oil, reduce the current drain on our foreign reserve from food importation while expanding new income sources from exports of agricultural produces/products, such as Oil Palm, Sheanut/Butter, Coconut and Date Palms. This is why these crops are among the top priority commodity value chains being promoted by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in tandem with ideals of this Administration to make agriculture a top priority on the on-going green alternative.

The Executive Director of NIFOR, Dr. Celestine E. Ikuenobe welcomed participants and emphasized the need for effective REFILS and the need for the ADPs to work in synergy with NARIs to sustain the South-South REFILS activities and agricultural development in the Zone