Over 12 states in Northern Nigeria have benefitted from efforts to boost local production of leather and tomato, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) has disclosed.
In a scorecard chronicling milestones from their activities since November 2015 to November 2016 shared with Independent, FMARD said it has provided not less than 2,283 bags of industrial salt to hides and skin dealers in 12 targeted states, including Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Jigawa, Kano, Bauchi, Gombe, Taraba, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Adamawa and Katsina.
In the same report, the ministry stated that it has supported training of skin buyers/collectors, butchers/flayers, hides and skin inspectors on standard methods of slaughtering and bleeding, hides and skin-flaying, curing/preservation and inspection to ensure good quality hides and skins are supplied in desirable quantities and acceptable quality to the tanneries.
The ministry said it also supported the procurement and distribution of 3.5Kg indeterminate hybrid tomato seeds to 1,750 fresh produce farmers sustain production in 1,750 net houses; and support for the establishment of 6 tomato processing plants and farmer clusters as out-growers.
On specific note, the ministry said: “it has successfully inaugurated the Standing Inter-Ministerial Technical Committee on Zero-Reject of Agricultural Commodities and Produce / Non-oil Exports in Nigeria.”
The committee, according to the report is co-chaired by Honourable Ministers of Agriculture & Rural Development and Industry, Trade and Investment, with membership drawn from Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), National Agency for Food Control and Administration (NAFDAC), Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Federal Ministry of Finance (FMF), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Customs Services (NCS), and others.
Sequel to this, the ministry said it has succeeded in the development, validation and adoption of the Methodologies of Conduits of Excellence for public administration/Single Window Platform and has commenced work on the development of a 5-year (2017-2021) action plan on Single Quality Control Management Plan, as recommended by the European Union, for meeting international standards, inter-state trading and global acceptance of our commodities.
On the rising spate of hostilities and attendant insecurity arising from clashes between crop farmers and nomadic herdsmen, the report stated that the FMARD, within the past one year, has commenced efforts towards resolution of pastoralists-farmers conflicts through the provision of 55,000 hectares of land by 11 States.
This, according to the ministry is part of the 5,000 hectares each expected from the 19 Northern States for the development of pasture/paddocks grazing reserves. The Ministry said it has also commenced efforts towards establishing improved varieties of grasses for supporting livestock as efforts toward settling the pastoralists in ranches gain traction.
