Agriculture; Nigeria embrace green alternative policy.

Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture has unveiled a new plan aimed at ensuring the protection of local and foreign investments. Audu Ogbeh told journalists after this week’s Federal Cabinet meeting, that his ministry was talking with the Interior Ministry about training personnel, to take up that responsibility. State House correspondent Tai Amodu reports that the cabinet has endorsed a document containing all policies needed to make agriculture the alternative to oil. The document, called “The Green Alternative,” contains objectives, policies and interventions needed to be put in place in order for Nigeria to achieve self sufficiency and become a major importer of agricultural products as it used to be in the 60s and 70s. Ogbeh concedes that times are hard and there is severe shortage of food, noting that this is due to the fact that Nigeria imports a large part of the food it consumes.Read more

BILL GATES AND CLIMATE CHANGE.

Mr. Gates told Mr. Hollande that energy innovation needed to be a top agenda item at the climate change conference now taking place in this airport suburb outside Paris. For years, Mr. Gates had prodded governments to increase spending on research and development of clean technologies. He had sunk $1 billion of his own fortune into start-ups working on new kinds of batteries and nuclear reactors. The June tête-à-tête helped accelerate a sequence of events that led to one of the biggest public-private partnerships to tackle climate change, unveiled at the conference. Mr. Gates, who made billions from Microsoft before remaking himself as a philanthropist, was a linchpin of the effort, acting as an envoy between the worlds of business and policy. His role in sealing the deal offers a peek into how the inner circles of governments and industry intersect. It also underscores how a handful of the world’s wealthiest people can stand with heads of state to spotlight a social, economic and policy issue on the global stage. For Mr. Gates, the world’s richest person and co-chairman of the biggest private foundation, it is another sign of how his vast foreign aid operation and status as a technology icon have turned him into a uniquely influential global diplomat. The seeds for a partnership were planted in January when President Obama visited Mr. Modi in New Delhi. Mr. Obama’s goal was to forge a close relationship with Mr. Modi, in hopes of finding common ground on climate change. During those conversations, Mr. Modi pointed out his challenge: He needed new electricity to help raise India out of poverty, but coal was the cheapest power source. He said India would use clean energy if there were tech breakthroughs that provided that energy inexpensively. Mr. Modi’s message prompted Mr. Obama to consider how to achieve more clean-energy innovation. One idea was a multigovernment coalition to increase spending on clean technology. Read more here;http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/business/energy-environment/bill-gates-takes-on-climate-change-with-nudges-and-a-powerful-rolodex.html?_r=0

LIVESTOCK INSURANCE AND INDUSTRIALIZATION.

              LIVESTOCK INSURANCE AND INDUSTRIALIZATION.

  Agric insurance is important for the growth and development of the agricultural sector in any economy. The essence of agric insurance is to protect farmers from losses resulting from hazards such as accidents, death of livestock, condemnation of carcass, flood,fire,pest,disease and emergency control measures such as in case of outbreaks of African swine fever,bird flu e.t.c

 Agric insurance is also relevant in abattoir operations,with particular reference to condemnation of carcasses,organs in disease conditions and transportation accident.

 The benefits of insurance are enormous,aside the monetary compensation, there is access to professionals who over- see the project. Certified animals are procured to start the project,data of farmers collected..This  encourages proper record keeping and disease control measures.

 When animal husbandry projects are insured,there will be proper management ,food safety will be enhanced and wholesome products will be in our market.

The fear of running at a loss is the reason why producers cut corners, avoid the necessary management protocol such as vaccination,reporting outbreaks,processing dead animals. This results use of unconventional feeding practices and unauthorized drugs in production to attain market weight early.


The possibility of export will increase, if there is a structure that ensure compliance to international standards. This will ensure rapid industrialization in that sector which will promote economic growth.

The agric insurance sector though a growing industry,still has a lot to do to encourage farmers to insure their businesses. A large percentage of farmers dont access this opportunity , because of lack of proper knowledge of the policy.


This is to their detriment and to the loss of the economy on a larger scale.The farmers /producers need financial bodies to work with them,to give soft landing in case of loss and to pay commensurate compensations in cases of emergency control of diseases.

 The farmers cant access certain loans because they are not insured; premium are not fixed and certain diseases are not included in the policies.