BENIN CITY-Consul- General of the United States to Nigeria, Mr. Jeffry Hawkins has disclosed plans by the United States government to establish a $250 million fertilizer plant in Edo State.

Mr. Hawkins, who described Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole as one of the most effective governors in Nigeria made the disclosure during a courtesy call and inspection of projects in the state, yesterday.

The Consul-General said the $250 million fertilizer plant is being planned by the Overseas Private Investment Corporation of the United State Government.

“We are here because we are proud that the Overseas Private Investment Corporation of the US government is involved with the Green Petrochemical Company which is making a $250 million investment and we are happy that this important fertilizer plant will have the support of the United States Government. It will create about one thousand five hundred jobs. That is something we are hoping to take a look at when we are here,” he noted.

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The Kano state government has trained 10,000 butchers on beef handling and sanitation, as well empowering each of them with N20, 000 through its empowerment scheme aimed at creating jobs for the teeming youths in the state.

At the graduation ceremony held at the Open Theatre, Government House, Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, said that the one week training was to furnish individual butchers with the new techniques of meat handling and inculcate in them the spirit of cleanness.

Governor Kwankwaso decried the present practice of selling beef in an unhygienic manner and at places of serious sanitary concern, which could pose danger to the health of the consumers, saying the recently signed consumer protection law, will safeguard people from purchasing contaminated meat among other goods.

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THE Lagos State Government has disclosed that 40 per cent of farm produce, especially vegetable harvested within the state yearly are lost through post-harvest activities.

Commissioner for Agriculture and Cooperatives, Mr. Gbolahan Lawal, who disclosed this at the inauguration of Eko Farmers Mart, Ajah and Surulere, said “This has contributed to the huge gap between the farm gate price and market price of agricultural produce without guarantee for quality products in the state.”

According to him, a lot of people are involved in bringing the produce from the local producers in the hinterland to markets in the urban centres with each adding their profit margin to the products, adding that transportation difficulty has also contributed negatively to the landing price of agricultural products.

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Researchers and key partners working under the Support for Agricultural Research and Development for Strategic Crops (SARD-SC) have kicked off activities to improve the productivity of cassava by at least 20 per cent in project sites, increase household incomes and food security, and make the root crop work for the poor.

Four countries namely DR Congo, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Zambia, are the main beneficiaries of the cassava component but the project allows neighbouring countries to tap from technologies that would be generated.

“About 500,000 farmers are to directly benefit from the crop with more than 2 million indirect beneficiaries,” said the Project Coordinator for the SARD-SC, Dr. Chrys Akem, at the launch of the cassava component of the project in DR Congo.

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Benue state government is to partner India in agriculture, poverty alleviation and other areas of economic interest.

This was made known during a dinner hosted by the Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mahesh Sachdev, for Governor Gabriel Suswam at the Indian High Commission in Abuja at the weekend.

Speaking at the event, the High Commissioner said India’s choice of Benue state for the partnership was informed by the abundant human and natural resources the state is blessed with saying: “Benue state has the potential of becoming the ‘bread basket’ of Nigeria.”

“Being a tropical country with fertile land and plenty of unregulated irrigation that can be managed, I think Benue shares a lot of these conditions with India which can be turned into fruitful use for the benefit of both.”

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