STARTING YOUR OWN FARM WEBSITE

In 2011, Indiana farmer Brian Scott decided he was tired of reading about what other people thought of agriculture. 

“If there are no farmers talking about how food is grown, somebody else is telling that story,” says the corn, soybean, wheat, and popcorn grower. 

So Scott started a blog, even though he says he didn’t really know what he was doing. While that may have been true initially, Scott has grown to be a powerful agvocator who uses multiple social media platforms to share the work that’s done on his farm. 

In fact, he is now on the AgChat Foundation board, giving advice to other farmers interested in agvocating. His technology skills have grown, and he now shares videos he shoots with a GoPro and a drone, which he swears to his wife is also for crop scouting. 

He is no longer a tech novice, but his blog is still on WordPress. He selected WordPress originally because the platform makes it easy to set up a website. Scott (no relation to the editor) continues to use it because it makes updates painless. 

If you’re considering launching a blog or website, WordPress may be the best content-management system for you. WordPress is free, user-friendly, and responsive, so your website will automatically change sizes to fit the device users are viewing it on. 

This is why half of the websites on the internet are on WordPress. You, too, can be online in just four easy steps.

1. PICK A DOMAIN NAME.

This will be your website name. Scott chose thefarmerslife.com. Other farm websites incorporate their farm name or their last name, such as yostfarm.com or hildfamilyfarms.com.

2. REGISTER THE DOMAIN NAME AND SET UP A HOSTING SERVICE.

You can do both of these steps through a web-hosting platform, such as ehost.com, bluehost.com, or hostclear.com. Select a hosting company that has one-click installation for WordPress. (That will make Step 3 much easier.)

Prices vary for these services. Some will allow you to register the domain name for free and will then have a low monthly rate in the $2 to $6 range. 

3. INSTALL WORDPRESS.

There are two options for getting WordPress installed to your domain name. The first is to use the one-click installation process available through your hosting company. You will see this after you’ve logged in to your account on your hosting company’s website.

If necessary, you can manually install WordPress. Be warned that this will require more steps and time. You can find a more detailed overview of this process at codex.wordpress.org/installing_wordpress.

4. LOG IN TO THE DASHBOARD.

Go to yourdomain.com/wp-admin. This is the dashboard you will use to customize your site, add pages, new posts, etc. 

There are a lot of options at this point. In the beginning, make sure you update the following three areas.

Themes. WordPress has a variety of premium and free themes available. To only see the free ones, select this from the drop-down menu on the Themes page. After you’ve selected a theme, you will need to install and activate it.

Pages. You can add pages by pushing the “add” button next to Pages in the left-hand rail. The format is similar to Microsoft Word, making it easy to add a page with text and images. (Blog posts are added in the same way by pushing “add” next to Blog Posts.)

Menus. After you have created pages, you can add these to the website menu by clicking on the Menu tab. This screen will let you add new pages to the menu as well as rearrange the menu. 

For more information on getting WordPress up and running, visit wordpress.org

source: successful farming

CROP DIVERSITY PAYDAY

When crop prices are slumping, it isn’t easy to change the norm. Growing corn and soybeans is what many of you know and do all too well. But look closely to see the cracks forming in the corn-soybean foundation that dominates the Midwest. 

• Low crop prices that threaten the economic viability of a monoculture crop sequence.
• Herbicide-resistant weeds that can be hard to kill in this rotation.
• Slumping soil organic matter that can impair the soil’s ability to function as a system.

Farmers of a few generations ago grew a number of crops in addition to corn and soybeans. These may have included flax, clover, oats, or buckwheat, and these crops may have been harvested for grain, fed to livestock, or plowed under for green manure. 

Great-Grandpa was onto something. He didn’t have a lot of the agronomic problems that plague today’s farmers. Over time, however, farmers became less diversified, and focused on a few cash crops, says Dwayne Beck, who heads the Dakota Lakes Research Farm near Pierre, South Dakota. Government programs, the availability of commercial fertilizers, and improved machinery helped hasten that movement.

“Farmers 150 years ago, used essentially zero fossil fuels,” Beck says. “Now we’ve gotten pretty good at taking fossil fuels and making stuff, then shipping it out. We’re mining energy. We fail to look at soil as a resource. It’s just there, a vessel that we take stuff out of.” 

Diversifying crop rotations can help make you more sustainable and add profit potential, too. Take the example of Dan Forgey, agronomy manager at Cronin Farms, near Gettysburg, South Dakota. 

In the 1970s and 1980s, the farm averaged 30-bushel-per-acre winter and spring wheat, and 50-bushel-per-acre corn. They fallowed some land and worked the ground first with a sweep plow, and they later added a rodweeder. By 1991, the farm included 5,150 acres and employed four people. A quarter of their acres lay in fallow each year. “We thought it was the best we could do. We were good farmers!” Forgey says.

At Beck’s urging, they switched from minimum-tillage to no-till and kept the same rotation: spring wheat, winter wheat, corn, and sunflowers. New problems emerged, though. “Cheatgrass figured out our crop rotation, so we changed it,” Forgey says. “We put three years of broadleaves into our crop rotation – rather than just two years – and got cheat under control.”

That simple move spurred change on Cronin Farms. 

“I’ll fix an agronomic problem with crop rotation rather than use a chemical. It took me a while to learn that I needed to work with Mother Nature rather than against her,” Forgey says.

“If you have an agronomic problem, you have given Mother Nature an opportunity,” Beck adds. “With herbicide-resistant crops, you might have thought you didn’t have to worry about crop rotation, and soon you had resistant weeds.”

DRAWBACKS GALORE

There are plenty of reasons to not diversify the crop rotation. Having to change equipment to plant and harvest a new crop, plus find a market for them are two drawbacks. Farming is hard enough without diversifying enterprises. 

Adding a crop like wheat, for example, is particularly unappealing due to the commodity’s record-low prices (adjusted for parity).

FOR THE SOIL

However, Forgey believes there is opportunity, too. To date, his Cronin Farms operation has adopted more than 13 crop rotations, none of which is fixed. This includes more than 20 crops, including teff, field peas, lentils, forage sorghum, sunflowers, radishes, millet, sudan, field peas, and more. “I like the challenge of growing different crops, but I love the diversity they give the soil,” he continues.

Furthermore, he has added cattle to the operation to consume some of those crops and to diversify the farm’s income stream.

“I’ll fix an agronomic problem with crop rotation rather than use a chemical,” says Dan Forgey.

You may not choose to incorporate the array of crops that Cronin Farms does. However, tweaking the crop rotation just a little bit breaks up disease and pest cycles. 

“That’s an effect that’s really visible and easy to see. The impacts are there. People have seen those effects for centuries,” says Lisa Tiemann, assistant professor of soil biology at Michigan State University. 

Studies at the University of Wisconsin show a 19% yield bump for corn and soybeans when grown in a rotation rather than in a continuous system. The reason has not been defined, but it is likely due, in part, to reduced disease and insect pressure.

BELOW THE SURFACE

Tiemann, meanwhile, believes yield increases can also be attributed to what happens in the soil. 

She and her colleagues have studied more than 300 crop-rotation comparisons involving single-crop systems, two-crop systems, and more diverse systems.

Adding one cash crop to a monoculture increases by 21% soil microbial biomass, or all the microorganisms living in the soil. 

Further, organic carbon and organic nitrogen concentration tend to increase dramatically in soils on which diverse crops are planted, as opposed to a monoculture. In a crop rotation, Tiemann sees increased stability of larger soil aggregates, which indicates the formation and accumulation of soil organic matter (SOM). 

Add a cover crop to the system and soil organic matter accrues 15 times faster than rotations without a cover crop, she adds. 

It’s hard to visualize diversity within the soil, and Tiemann reckons it may be a few years before you see financial gain due to crop rotation. She points out, however, that you can reverse the decline in SOM by incorporating crop diversity. 

“Whenever soil is tilled, you lose organic matter. If you want to start thinking about building it, do it now,” she says. 

Building SOM by 1% has real benefits. In 1 acre, 10,000 pounds of soil carbon – and 1,000 pounds more inorganic nitrogen – are added. Also, water-holding capacity in those soils increases, up to ¾ inch more per foot. 

South Dakota’s Forgey notes that SOM levels average 5.1% in native grass near Gettysburg. In 2001, soils that had been farmed conventionally for years had an average SOM of 2.8%. By 2012, SOM in those same soils increased to 4.1%. 

“You may not see an economic advantage right now, but think about the future and the legacy you’ll leave behind,” Tiemann says.

source: successful farming

PARIS INTERNATIONAL AGRIBUSINESS SHOW

SIMA, Paris International Agribusiness Show, will be held in Paris Nord Villepinte (France) from 26 February to 2 March 2017. Taking place every two years, SIMA is one of the biggest international events for the agricultural sector. It is the exhibition of all technologies and solutions for high-performance and sustainable agriculture.

Click register for SIMA Paris Internation AgroBus Show.

SIMA IN A GLANCE

238 848professional
entries

23%international 
visitors

Visitors from5continents

1740companies

MOREREVIEW OF SIMA 2015

A COMPREHENSIVE RANGE OF PRODUCTS

• tractors and power equipment
• spare parts and accessories, embedded electronics
• tilling, sowing, planting
• harvestry (fodder, cereals, root, fruits and vegetables, etc.)
• post-harvestry (cleaning, sorting, drying, conservation)
• equipment for tropical and special crops
• handling, transportation, storage, and buildings
• breeding equipment
• dairy and milking products
• breeders and breeder association
• creation and maintenance of rural and wooded areas
• pro equipment for green spaces
• sustainable development, renewable energy
• professional organisation, services, consultancy
• management and IT software

source: sima website

The Ever-green potential of ‘Cucumis Sativus’

“Cucumis Sativus” generally known as Cucumber is a vegetable fruit that is loaded with benefits not known to many. It is best grown in farmlands close to a waterbed. This is expedient as cucumbers are usually more than 90 per cent water. It is also pertinent to note that cucumbers need to be grown in a rich humid soil as they are often planted in raised beds of about 6 inches high.

Cucumbers are very easy to cultivate and only need about 36 days before harvesting depending on the climate. Some of the seeds can produce 500kg, 200kg or 50kg cucumber per hectare while others can produce up to 1 tonne, 2 tonnes or 3 tonnes.

The health benefits that abound in “Cucumis Sativus” include:

–         Weight loss and digestion

–         Rehydrates the body

–         Cures diabetes

–         Boosts skin care

–         Reduces cholesterol

–         Helps in hair care

Nigerians are encouraged in the spirit of greenness to seize the opportunities in the abundant and ever-green potential of “Cucumis Sativus”.

Madumere urges Corps Members to advance ‘Buy Made In Nigeria’ Campaign

Imo State Deputy Governor, Eze Madumere, has urged National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members to join the campaign for patronage of Made in Nigeria goods towards developing locally made products to address present economic challenges.

Madumere who addressed corps members during the official opening of the Orientation Course for the 2016 Batch ‘B’ Stream II Corps members deployed to Imo State stressed that buying Made in Nigeria products would help galvanise Nigerian economy and put it on the part of growth and sustainable development.

“The initiative will not only encourage Nigerian investors but will spur other Nigerians to put to work their ingenuity in bringing solutions to Nigerian myriad problems since there will be a guaranteed market thereby saving foreign exchange,” he stressed.

The deputy governor, however, called on the corps members to partner with the state government in its Back to Land Policy, which is part of efforts to boost agricultural activities and agro-allied business in the State.

Assuring corps members that the Okorocha-led administration would ensure that they were comfortable throughout their service year, he urged them to uphold the essence of the NYSC scheme which remains unity, love, patriotism and spirit of brotherhood.

AVIAN INFLUENZA: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE

In 1996, an H5 avian influenza was identified in geese in Guangdong, China. Almost 20 years later, a variation of that virus wiped out 48 million birds in the U.S.

How did the virus get from China to the U.S.? Why did it take 20 years? And how did it spread so rapidly? Those are questions that Travis Schaal, internal technical services manager at Hy-Line International, is trying to answer to ensure that the devastation caused by the virus from 2014 to 2015 isn’t repeated again. This effort is particularly important because the bird flu was detected in an Indiana flock earlier this month, prompting the extermination of 400,000 turkeys and egg-laying hens. 

Who is Hy-Line International?

Founded in 1936, Hy-Line was one of the first modern layer genetics companies to incorporate hybridization and hybrid vigor into its breeding program on a commercial scale. These methods were used with genetic selection and scientific statistical analysis to develop and improve one of the world’s most extensive gene pools.

Today, Hy-Line provides the primary breeding stock for nearly half of the world’s commercial egg-laying industry. This stock is housed in Iowa, where there were 77 cases of avian influenza last year. For this reason, Schaal, one of six veterinarians on staff at Hy-Line, was determined to understand how avian influenza was spreading and, more importantly, how to keep Hy-Line’s flocks healthy. 

The spread of avian influenza worldwide

After the first detection of H5 in China, the virus almost disappeared until 2004. When it returned, it did so with a vengeance, sweeping across Asia in 2004, Eastern Europe in 2005, and then moving across the Middle East and the rest of Europe in 2006. 

Avian influenza is spread through the feces and nasal discharges of wild waterfowl. For the most part, wild birds don’t show clinical signs of infection. These seemingly healthy birds continue following their respective flyways. 

There are roughly nine different flyway patterns and, besides the North American flyways, most of these overlap in the North Pole. This is probably where wild birds from Asia, with this lineage of the virus, spread the virus to other wild birds who carried it to their home countries.

This led to a multitude of avian influenza outbreaks in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and parts of Africa from 2005 to 2013.  North and South America, however, remained mostly unscathed. That all changed in December of 2014.

The spread of avian influenza within the U.S. 

The North Pole isn’t the only place where flyways overlap. The waterfowl flyways from eastern Asia and North and South America also converge in Alaska. This is the most likely source of cross-contamination between Eurasian and North American waterfowl populations, according to Schaal. 

Another alternative is that Asian birds with the virus got lost during migration and ended up in North America. “Birds don’t know how to read maps. They don’t have a GPS in their head, so they mess up flyway patterns all the time,” explains Schaal. 

Regardless of how it ended up in North America, once the virus was here, it spread rapidly. From December of 2014 through June of 2015, avian influenza was detected 223 times. The majority of the cases were in Minnesota and Iowa.

In Minnesota, avian influenza was detected on 104 premises – 99 of which were for turkeys and five were laying hens. Almost 9 million birds were killed. At final tally, Iowa lost 31.7 million birds from 77 different sites, split almost evenly between turkey and laying hen premises. The surprising difference between these two states is how the virus spread.

“In 40 of the Minnesota cases, the virus came directly from an infected wild bird to the commercial flock. We can tell this by examining the genome of the virus,” says Schaal. “However, in Iowa this only happened twice. The virus was being spread between farms – not by wild birds.”

Semi trucks driving from infected sites to healthy barns or contract workers who work at multiple poultry facilities may have spread the virus across Iowa. The long life of the virus in cool, wet conditions made it difficult to determine what the cause was on most farms.

"So the virus could be on a farm for 21 days before chickens started dying."

“The virus wasn’t well adapted to chickens,” says Schaal. “So the virus could be on a farm for 21 days before chickens started dying. A producer might think a mistake was made a few days ago when a truck wasn’t washed before coming onto a property, but in reality it could have been an incident three weeks ago that caused the infection.”

Would Iowa producers have lost as many birds if more strict biosecurity procedures had been in place? Most likely not, which is why it’s critical for producers to focus on biosecurity moving forward.

How poultry producers can protect their flocks

Producers should start by implementing a biosecurity plan, which might include hiring a biosecurity officer. The plan should include ways to protect the flocks, including reducing the amount of shared equipment and employees as well as educating employees about how the virus spreads. It should also include a way to depopulate the entire farm within 24 hours of the virus being detected. This proved especially challenging during the 2015 outbreaks, which also contributed to the spread of the disease.

Other factors were found to decrease the likelihood of avian influenza, including having a true wash station for trucks on site, being more than 100 miles from the egg processing site used, and being more than 100 meters from a public road. 

Even something as simple as having cement or gravel around buildings instead of grass can help. “This is what we do at the Hy-Line barns. It allows exposure to sunshine and helps disinfect the site,” explains Schaal. 

What’s next?

H5N2, the specific avian influenza that hit the states, isn’t going to disappear. “Young waterfowl will carry the virus for another season,” says Schaal. “It could continue to affect the globe for the next three to five years. It’s also likely that new viruses will emerge.”

In anticipation of further cases, the USDA and industry experts have explored different ways to stop avian influenza. Vaccines and resistant birds are two possible options that have been discussed in addition to biosecurity. Schaal is hesitant about both.

Using vaccinations could prevent the U.S. from exporting poultry products to other countries. It would also be difficult to match the vaccine exactly with the specific strain of the virus, and the virus could mutate in vaccinated birds, explains Schaal.

Birds that are resistant to avian influenza may operate similarly to today’s wild ducks and geese. They would appear healthy but could still possibly spread the disease to other birds. This would also allow for comingling of the viruses. For these reasons, Schaal feels that biosecurity is the best option moving forward.

The recent H7N8 high and low pathogenic avian influenza in Indiana highlight the dynamic influenza situation. The H7 virus is a North American lineage that likely started as low pathogenic and became high path, as opposed to the Asian lineage H5 that entered the U.S. as a high path virus.

FARMING TRIFECTA: NO-TILL, COVER CROPS, AND A DIVERSE ROTATION

Brian Johnson eyes wheat stubble dotted by a bountiful cover crop of tillage radishes on his family’s north-eastern South Dakota farm. 

“This is the new tillage,” says the Frankfort, South Dakota, farmer, who farms with his wife, Jamie, and his father, Alan. Cover crops like tillage radishes can shatter compacted soil layers on no-till fields like the ones farmed by the Johnsons. 

Cover crops, though, are just one component of the Johnsons’ strategy. They’ve also teamed them with no-till and a diverse crop rotation to help mimic the native prairie. 

Before European settlers broke them, native prairie soils had up to 9% organic matter, says Jeff Hemenway, an NRCS soil scientist based in Huron, South Dakota. Most soils now have one half or less of that amount. Organic matter helps boost soil water holding capacity, aids nutrient uptake, and helps curb soil erosion. 

The good news is, tools like no-till, cover crops, and diverse rotations can build organic matter. It takes time, as just a 1% rise can take 20 years. Along the way, though, you can glean other benefits. Here’s how.

START WITH NO-TILL

The Johnsons’ roots in no-till started way back in 1986, when Alan switched to no-till. At that time, a large challenge was clearing residue for the seed and seed furrow. 

“We had to find the right openers on the planter to plant in a timely fashion,” says Brian. “With the equipment we have today, we can do it.” 

A key was equipping their planter with Yetter SharkTooth wheels. “They are critical for planting through high-residue environments,” says Brian. 

No-till also requires fertilizer application adjustments. “Placing nitrogen fertilizer in proximity to the row is a must,” says Dwayne Beck, who manages the Dakota Lakes Research Farm near Pierre, South Dakota.  He adds that popup starter fertilizer containing phosphorus is also a normal practice under no-till. 

DIVERSIFY ROTATIONS

Building healthy soils also means diversifying rotations. Fifty years ago, spring wheat was the “it” crop in northeastern South Dakota. These days, the region mirrors a mini Iowa, with corn and soybean fields dotting the landscape. 

Part of the reason is the prolific precipitation that the area started receiving in the 1990s and into most of the 2000s. “It was frustrating because, for about 10 years, we could not plant spring wheat,” says Brian. 

In recent years, though, the weather has dried out enough that spring wheat can once again diversify their corn and soybean lineup.  

“With a corn and soybean rotation, you end up getting a platy soil structure,” says Hemenway. “That makes it tough for roots to penetrate.”

Diversifying the rotation with spring wheat (as the Johnsons have done) can alter soil aggregates that encourage roots to more easily branch out. 

Wheat can also spark more profits when inserted into a row-crop rotation. Data from a 2013 Dakota Lakes Research Farm rotational study showed the impact that rotational diversity has on corn yields. 

• Continuous Corn: 203 bushels per acre  

• Corn-Soybean: 217 bushels per acre 

• Corn-Corn-Soybean-Wheat-Soybean: 235 bushels per acre  

Producing wheat costs less than does corn and soybeans. Diverse rotations also help reduce  disease potential and weed and insect resistance in those crops.  

“Basically, the production costs for these are 50% of what a corn and soybean rotation would be,” says Beck. “So essentially, they can grow wheat for free.”

Wheat’s benefits aren’t just limited to the Great Plains. A 12-year University of Illinois (U of I) study found that adding wheat to a corn-soybean rotation boosted corn yields by about 10 bushels per acre and soybean yields by 3 to 5 bushels per acre, says Emerson Nafziger, a U of I Extension agronomist. 

ENTRY WAY FOR COVER CROPS

Wheat also helped the Johnsons pave a way to plant cover crops. 

“With the precipitation we’ve had, we started having some saline and compaction issues with no-till,” says Brian. To help curb the effects from these stressors, they began planting tillage radishes into wheat stubble following harvest. Any surviving radishes and volunteer wheat are terminated the following spring prior to planting the field to corn or soybeans. 

“We want to keep something growing,” says Brian. “Every year, we get a little better at it.” 

Cover crops do require an investment, as seed costs for them normally hover around $16 per acre, says Brian. He believes, though, that it helps stimulate soil microbes that help increase soil fertility and soil health. 

Keeping soil covered also helps slice soil erosion potential. Another way the Johnsons protect the soil is by planting corn and soybeans in 20-inch rows. 

“It covers the ground better than wider rows,” says Brian. 

It’s also a way to boost soybean yields. It’s backed by U of I research that showed, on average, narrow-row soybeans outyield those in 30-inch rows by 2 bushels per acre.

There’s an if, though. Yields for narrow-row soybeans may be less if the field has a white mold history, say U of I agronomists. 

LONG-TERM BENEFITS

In the short-term, steps like no-till, diverse rotations, and cover crops may not immediately boost yields. They can set the stage for improved soil health that bodes well for future yields and long-term soil health.

It’s also a way for farmers to return to a time when they included perennials like pasture or alfalfa for a few years before returning the land to small grains or row crops, says Beck. 

Perennial plants have likely come the closest to emulating native prairie. “Perennials can root down as deep as 9 feet, which can suck out the excess water and nutrients in the soil profile,” says Beck. 

ROTATION DETERS CORN ROOTWORM

Corn-on-corn and corn rotated with soybeans are king in the Corn Belt. Farmers aren’t the only ones who love them. Insects also love tight rotations like corn and soybeans, says Dwayne Beck, who manages the Dakota Lakes Research Farm near Pierre, South Dakota. 

In some areas like east-central Illinois, the western corn rootworm variant has thwarted the corn-soybean rotation by laying eggs in adjacent soybean fields. When farmers plant corn on that soybean ground the following year, rootworm eggs hatch and infest the corn. 

Meanwhile, extended diapause in some areas prompts eggs to delay hatching until two years after they are laid. That’s just in time for rootworm larvae to feast on corn that’s planted after an interim soybean year. 

That’s why including a small grain like wheat into a corn and soybean rotation can help manage corn rootworm, says Beck.

source: successful farming

FG accesses $67m World Bank loan to develop Dam in Jigawa State

The Federal Government of Nigeria has accessed a $67m World Bank loan to rehabilitate Hadejia Valley Dam in Jigawa.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Water Resources, Senator Ubale Shittu, who informed News agency of Nigeria in Dutse explained that the project was aimed at enhancing irrigation, water supply and fish farming in the area.

The senator, representing Jigawa North-East said the $60m would be used to repair and expand the dam by 1,000 hectares while the remaining $7m would be spent on dredging of the river from Tiga Dam in Kano State to Koli in Kirikasama Local Government Area of Jigawa state.

He explained that the contract for the project would be awarded next month while work is expected to commence by the end of first quarter.

He also informed that 25 per cent of similar projects had been injected into 2017 budget presented to the National Assembly.

Lauding the efforts of the Federal government towards agricultural development, Shittu reiterated that the present administration’s commitment to the development of dams across the country was to boost agriculture.

Consumers’ health is a priority – Agric Minister

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh has said that the safety of food consumed needs to be given priority attention.

Ogbeh, who made this statement while examining the new model of grinding machine for soup condiments in Abuja, decried the alarming increase in food poisoning cases in the country which he opined could be as a result of the metal chips in grinding machines that operate by friction.

“The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has interest, not just in agriculture but in food and health. All kinds of self-poisoning is going on, and is related to how we process and package our food”, he said.

The minister stressed the need for a campaign against food poisoning and intimated that the mode of food processing is very important to the ministry.

He also pointed out his concerns about the increase in reported cases of liver and kidney problems among children and youths.

“Ironically, it is young people that come down with kidney and liver problems. Many of these people don’t drink alcohol. We have to get rid of metal poisoning, polypropylene and review how fish is smoked. Poisoning, a lot of these is something the ministry is working on slowly”.

AgroNigeria urges proprietors to advance youth participation in Agriculture

In a bid to advance youth involvement in agriculture, AgroNigeria is determined to promote increased agriculture literacy, academic competition and excellence.

This was disclosed by the Executive Director, AgroNigeria, Idongesit Mbaram at the meeting of National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), Oshodi/Isolo Chapter held at Mafoluku, Lagos State.

Mbaram noted that the economic challenges facing Nigeria are such that can be surmounted by properly unlocking the growth potentials inherent in the agricultural sector, but very little progress can be made without maximizing the potentials of the teeming Nigerian youths towards achieving agro-economic resurgence.

She explained that as part of efforts to maximize these potentials, AgroNigeria has designed a platform to promote increased agriculture among Nigerian students.

Highlighting the key propositions and opportunities in agriculture that AgroNigeria has made available to students, which includes: comprehensive re-orientation program every quarter training and capacity building for teachers of agriculture and an Agriculture Essay Competition which will form the youth component of the 2016 Nigeria Agriculture Awards (NAA), she expressed optimism that with various projects to encourage youth participation in agriculture, the students would be better groomed to contribute to national development through agriculture.

Also emphasizing the benefits of the essay competition, she said winners of the essay competition will be offered huge cash awards and certificates.

She however stressed the need to revitalize the junior Agriculturists and called on the cooperation and support of the proprietors and urged them to encourage their students to participate in agricultural projects

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Association, Clement A-Yiadom, has assured AgroNigeria of their support.

He said the proprietors will take the message to their schools and work with the students.

Source: AgroNigeria Magazine