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Minister Rallies Farmers to Embrace Buhari’s Economic Diversification Plan
Minister Rallies Farmers to Embrace Buhari’s Economic Diversification Plan
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Sabo Nanono, is rallying farmers in the country to support the economic diversification agenda of the Buhari administration through increased agricultural production, processing and value addition.
His ministry is also strengthening ties with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in a bid to develop a strategic plan for the Nigerian cashew industry spanning the next 10 years.
The ministry in a statement said Nanono signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the USDA-West Africa PRO-Cashew Project to expand the value chain and create more job opportunities.
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Cashew value chain receives boost as FG, US sign MoU to increase productivity
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By Gabriel Ewepu – Abuja
Cashew production and export received a boost at the weekend, as the Federal Government and the United States Department of Agriculture, USDA, West Africa PRO-Cashew Project, signed Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, to develop the nation’s cashew industry.
This was contained in a statement signed by the Director, Information, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Theodore Ogaziechi, where the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mohammed Nanono signed on behalf of Nigeria with the team from USDA, West Africa PRO-Cashew Project.
There are strong indications that Nigeria’s efforts to claw back some of the foreign-exchange earnings lost to falling oil prices are causing delays in exports ranging from cocoa beans to cashew nuts, and adding to a problem the central bank sought to address in the first place.
Nigeria is the world’s fifth-biggest producer of cocoa beans, a key ingredient in chocolate. As Africa’s largest economy, it also fell into a recession last quarter.
A Bloomberg report Friday quoted Pius Ayodele, president of Cocoa Exporters Association of Nigeria, as saying that about 100,000 tons of cocoa beans are trapped at the ports and another 100,000 tonnes of a variety of agricultural commodities are in warehouses around the country.