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Four Shell staff bag Society of Engineers fellowship

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Four Shell staff bag Society of Engineers fellowship

Managing Director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo), Bayo Ojulari, and three other senior engineers with Shell companies in Nigeria have been conferred with the fellowship of The Nigerian Society of Engineers, the highest professional recognition in engineering practice in Nigeria.

NSE-Shell
L-R: President, The Nigerian Society of Engineers, Otis Oliver Anyaeji; Engineering Manager, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo), Debo Oladunjoye; and Managing Director of SNEPCo, Bayo Ojulari at the investiture of Oladunjoye and Ojulari as Fellows of the Nigeria Society of Engineers in Abuja

The three others are SNEPCo’s Engineering Manager, Debo Oladunjoye; Projects Delivery and Assurance Manager of Shell Petroleum Development Company, Walter Egemba; and Project Manager, Bonga South West Project, Woji Weli, who bagged the NSE fellowship early in the year.

Each of the four conferees has nearly three decades of engineering practice in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria and overseas.

“We found them worthy not only in knowledge and character, but also in practice, experience and professionalism to deserve their admission into the board of fellows of the distinguished society of engineers,” said NSE President, Oliver Anyaeji, at the conferment ceremony in Abuja on Friday, December, 15, 2017.

Ojulari’s honour came barely a year after he received the prestigious PSRG-Richardson Special Achievement Award in Health, Security, Safety and Environment (HSSE), and also the 2016 Professional Award by the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN), an association of indigenous technical oilfield service companies.

Speaking shortly after his induction as an NSE fellow, Ojulari described the recognition by the engineering body as a further challenge to do more for the profession through selfless service to the oil and gas industry for the development of Nigeria.

NSE-Shell
L-R: Projects Delivery and Assurance Manager of Shell Petroleum Development Company, Walter Egemba; Project Manager Bonga South West of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company, Woji Weli; Vice President, Shell Nigeria and Gabon, Peter Costello; Managing Director of SNEPCo, Bayo Ojulari; and SNEPCo Engineering Manager, Debo Oladunjoye; at a reception by Costello for them as Fellows of the Nigeria Society of Engineers in Lagos

“I thank Shell for giving me the opportunity to attain this level of professionalism but the best gratitude is to rededicate myself to further development of local capacity in the Nigerian oil and gas industry in a manner that demonstrates exemplary leadership and professional discipline,” he said.

Reacting to the conferment of NSE fellowship on four engineers of Shell companies in Nigeria within a year, Shell’s Vice President, Nigeria and Gabon, Peter Costello, commended the NSE for seeing the value that Shell companies and their crop of professional engineers bring not only to the profession but also to Nigeria. “This goes a long way to validate Shell’s commitment to indigenous manpower development and its encouragement and support to staff to attain the peak in their professional careers,” said Costello who is also an engineer with decades of experience.

New ICRAF atlas features suitability maps for 54 species

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New ICRAF atlas features suitability maps for 54 species

Current and future suitability maps for 54 species that are commonly used as shade in agroforestry systems in Central America are the main feature of a new Atlas by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in collaboration with Bioversity International and The Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Centre (CATIE).

Kauê de Sousa
Kauê de Sousa of Bioversity International

The Atlas is titled “‘Suitability of key Central American agroforestry species under future climates”.

The 54 species that were selected include 24 species of fruit trees, 24 timber trees and six species used to improve soil conditions.

“The main objective of the Atlas is to address a current knowledge gap in detailed information about suitable areas for key agroforestry species in Central America,” said Kauê de Sousa of Bioversity International who is the main author of the study. “The agroforestry practice of integrating trees within cocoa or coffee, silvopastoral or smallholder timber systems is key to the development of strategies for climate-smart agriculture in the region. It is important to know where a species remains suitable under future climatic conditions to be able to give practical advice to farmers and tree growers.”

The Atlas is said to address the knowledge gap by providing detailed suitability maps for each species. Detailed mapping was possible by substantially expanding previously available data sets of known presence locations (locations where a species was documented to be suitable in Latin America and the Caribbean) and by applying powerful species distribution modelling methods. The future climates correspond to Representative Concentration Pathways RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 for the 2050s. Four RCPs (RCP 2.6, 4.5, 6.0 and 8.5) were introduced in the latest assessment report of the IPCC. These scenarios describe possible future climates that depend on potential changes in greenhouse gas emissions. RCP4.5 represents an intermediate emissions scenario, whereas RCP8.5 is a high emissions scenario.

Ensemble suitability methods were applied using the BiodiversityR package, an open-source software package developed by Roeland Kindt, a senior ecologist at the World Agroforestry Centre and one of the co-authors of the Atlas. The software modelled species distributions with bioclimatic variables obtained from WorldClim for the baseline climate (1960–1990).

Distribution maps for the middle of the 21st century were obtained via future climate data generated by 17 global climate change models. Ensemble future distribution maps for each RCP are based on consensus among 17 future distribution maps generated for each species. Maps projecting future distribution were compared with the current distribution maps to evaluate the potential changes in the distribution of each species.

Reflecting on the results, Maarten van Zonneveld of Bioversity International and scientist in diversity analysis for conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources, mentioned that the results indicated that the modelled distribution for 30 species reduces under both climate change scenarios. The most threatened species include N-fixing ice-cream bean trees (Inga spp.), the delicious cherimoya (Annona cherimola), the economically important avocado (Persea americana), and the solid timber species Handroanthus ochraceus. Ten species are expected to increase their distribution under both climate change scenarios including the underutilised fruit species Averrhoa bilimbi, coconut (Cocos nucifera), cocoplum (Chrysobalanus icaco), Spanish lime (Melicoccus bijugatus) and the majestic rain-tree (Albizia saman).

Jenny Ordonez of the World Agroforestry Centre and a specialist in agroforestry systems and functional ecology emphasises that “the atlas provides a first approximation of this kind in the region, to assess which species might be vulnerable or tolerant to expected climate change. Agroforestry practices are one of the main strategies for developing climate smart agriculture and as such are widely advocated by research and development organisations alike in this region. The results of the Atlas are therefore an important tool to support the design of agroforestry practices taking into account potential impacts of climate change. The maps provided should be used in combination with other information sources from technicians and farmers to fine-tune the selection of species for designing climate proof agroforestry systems.”

Jonathan Cornelius, regional coordinator from ICRAF, concludes that “many of the trees that farmers are planting and managing now will need to remain productive up to and beyond 2050. This important publication provides a firm foundation for building the climate-smart agroforestry that farmers need, based on the best currently available information about future climates and species’ requirements.”

This work was made possible through the financial support of the CGIAR research program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA; supported by the CGIAR Fund Donors); the CGIAR research program on Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS; supported by the CGIAR Fund Donors) and HIVOS.

2017 on course to be one of top three warmest years

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2017 on course to be one of top three warmest years

The 2017 global land and ocean temperature will likely end among the three warmest years on record, and is expected to be the warmest year without a warming El Niño.

Petteri Taalas
WMO Secretary-General, Petteri Taalas

The first 11 months of the year were the third warmest on record, behind 2016 and 2015, with much-warmer-than-average conditions engulfing much of the world’s land and ocean surfaces, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Arctic and Antarctic sea ice coverage remain at near record lows.

NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) and the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Copernicus Climate Change Service said the past meteorological year (December 2016 to November 2017 is the second warmest on record.

“What is more important than the ranking of an individual year is the overall, long-term trend of warming since the late 1970s, and especially this century,” said World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) senior scientist, Omar Baddour. “Along with rising temperatures, we are seeing more extreme weather with huge socio-economic impacts,” he said.

The WMO will combine datasets from NOAA, NASA GISS, and the Met Office Hadley Centre and Climatic Research Unit (UK) for a consolidated temperature ranking for 2017. WMO uses data from ECMWF and Japan Meteorological Agency, and reanalyses with a much wider range of input data, including measurements from satellites. They provide better coverage of regions, such as polar regions, where observations are historically sparse.

The consolidated global figure harmonises the datasets, which show different results because of the way they represent the relatively warm conditions that have predominated over both the Arctic and the Antarctic. Differences in estimates of sea-surface temperature are a further factor.

NOAA said the month of November was the fifth warmest on record, whilst NASA and ECMWF Copernicus Climate Change Service both said it was the third warmest.

La Niña conditions prevailed across the tropical Pacific Ocean during November 2017. According to WMO’s latest Update, weak La Niña conditions are expected to persist through the Northern Hemisphere winter.

During November 2017, warmer-than-average temperatures dominated across much of the world’s land and ocean surfaces, with the most notable temperature departures from average across the Northern Hemisphere. Parts of the western contiguous U.S., northern Canada, northern and western Alaska, western Asia and Far Eastern Russia had temperature departures from average that were +2.0°C (+3.6°F) or greater, according to NOAA.

 

Arctic warming

As an indication of swift regional climate change in and near the Arctic, the average temperature observed at the weather station at Utqiaġvik has now changed so rapidly that it triggered an algorithm designed to detect artificial changes in a station’s instrumentation or environment and disqualified itself from the NCEI Alaskan temperature analysis.

The omission was noticed by the National Centres for Environmental Information (NCEI), which realised that data from Utqiaġvik, Alaska, had been missing for all of 2017 and the last few months of 2016.

Utqiaġvik (pronounced OOT-ki-aag’-vik) sits near Point Barrow, the northernmost point in America, on the Arctic Coast of northern Alaska. Now recognised by its Iñupiat place name, it is still commonly known as “Barrow”.

Elsewhere in the Arctic, a separate analysis from the ECMWF Copernicus Climate Change service said that November’s temperature was more than 6°C above average in parts of Svalbard, as it was in October.

Arctic temperatures continue to increase at double the rate of the global temperature increase.

A NOAA-sponsored report shows that the warming trend transforming the Arctic persisted in 2017, resulting in the second warmest air temperatures, above average ocean temperatures, loss of sea ice, and a range of human, ocean and ecosystem effects.

Now in its 12th year, the Arctic Report Card, is a peer-reviewed report that brings together the work of 85 scientists from 12 nations.

“While 2017 saw fewer records shattered than in 2016, the Arctic shows no sign of returning to the reliably frozen region it was decades ago,” said the Arctic report card.

A separate report, published in the “Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society” (BAMS), said that last year’s record global average temperatures, extreme heat over Asia, and unusually warm waters in the Bering Sea would not have been possible without human-caused climate change.

“This report marks a fundamental change,” says Jeff Rosenfeld, editor-in-chief of BAMS. “For years scientists have known humans are changing the risk of some extremes. But finding multiple extreme events that weren’t even possible without human influence makes clear that we’re experiencing new weather, because we’ve made a new climate.”

China to launch world’s largest emissions trading system

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China to launch world’s largest emissions trading system

China has detailed plans for the world’s largest emissions trading system covering more than 1,700 power companies and three billion tonnes in total greenhouse gas emissions.

China
National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) Deputy Director, Zhang Yong, addressing a press conference in Beijing

The market will be set up to “control and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote green low-carbon development,” said National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) Deputy Director, Zhang Yong, at a press conference in Beijing on Tuesday, December 19, 2017.

Trading will begin after a period of “preparatory work” and will “gradually expand market coverage” to include “other high-energy-consuming and high-emission industries,” said Li Gao, Director, Climate Department, NDRC.

The national emissions trading system was approved last week by China’s State Council. Pilot schemes have been set up in seven provinces and cities in China, the first in 2013.

“China joins a growing number of jurisdictions, such as California, the EU and South Korea, which are using market-based measures to cut climate emissions in a cost-effective and efficient way,” said Dirk Forrister, President and CEO of the International Emissions Trading Association, in reaction to the news. “China will have the world’s largest carbon market, drawing lessons from these other markets to ensure that it works in harmony with other national policies. We commend the Chinese government for taking these steps to realize its long-term vision.”

Some 42 national and 25 subnational jurisdictions are pricing carbon. The European Union Emissions Trading System, currently the largest carbon market, covers about 1.75 billion tonnes of emissions.

AUPCTRE, ERA, others kick against national assets sale

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AUPCTRE, ERA, others kick against national assets sale

After the New Year break, the Federal Government may have some axe to grind with Nigerians if it goes on with its proposed sale of national assets to finance budgets.

ERA national assets
L-R: Achike Chude of Joint Action Front (JAF); Akinbode Oluwafemi, Deputy Executive Director of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN); Benjamin Anthony, National President of Amalgamated Union of Public Corporation, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Service Employees (AUPCTRE); and Yusuf Zambuk, Secretary-General of AUPCTRE at the press briefing in Lagos on Tuesday, December 19, 2017

It will have to contend with different labour unions, associations and civil society organisations (CSOs) who have mapped out plan of action to stop the proposed sale of national assets.

The groups, including Amalgamated Union of Public Corporation, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Service Employees (AUPCTRE), Centre for Social Change and Citizenship Education (CENSORCHANGE) and Joint Action Front (JAF), made this known in Lagos on Tuesday, December 19, 2017 at a press conference anchored by the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN).

Ben Akabueze of the budget office had hinted that government would have to dispose of some national assets like the National Theatre, Iganmu, and the Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS), Onikan, all in Lagos, to fund national budgets from 2018 to 2020.

Urging government not to sell off Nigeria’s national assets, the coalition vowed to mobilise Nigerians to ground the country, if government fails to hearken to their advice.

Deputy executive director of ERA/FoEN, Akinbode Oluwafemi, wondered what would happen when government has no more assets to sell.

“After selling the national assets, what else? Probably they would resort to selling citizens to finance budgets,” he said.

According to him, even America, the capital of capitalism, cultural national assets and monuments are still preserved.

The national president of AUPCTRE, Benjamin Anthony, said the union “is against the sale of our national assets.”

He noted that if the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) generated over N1 trillion in 10 months as reported and with the revenue from crude oil, “why should we be selling assets to fund budget?”

For him, Nigerian leaders believe strongly in corruption, otherwise “why don’t they sell Railway?”

National secretary-general of AUPCTRE, Yusuf Zambuk, described the sale of national assets as prodigality.

He said with all the resources in Nigeria, human and material, how could a government not generate enough money to fund budget?

“If you have serious set of people in government, would they leave the old Federal Secretariat in Ikoyi to be rotting away?” he asked. “That can be converted to a hotel and generate capital therefrom.”

Capitalism, he added, is about borrowing from banks to produce goods and make profit; “it is not about selling national assets.”

Achike Chude of JAF, a coalition of about 25 CSOs, said the Nigerian government is peopled by a rapacious set with no interest other than theirs.

He lamented that “they have continued borrowing to finance budget deficit for over 25 years”, adding that it is not sustainable.

Describing government’s privatisation policy as assets stripping, he noted that “we have been complacent for over issues like this for too long. We need to properly mobilise because we believe we will win this war.”

The pioneer chairman of AUPCTRE, Lagos chapter, Ayodele Akele, commended AUPCTRE, adding: “I am stigmatised across governments and I don’t have any apology for that.”

He vowed to mobilise as many groups as he could to join AUCPTRE in the agitation to stop the sale of national assets.

By Innocent Onwuji

IITA to carry out field trials of GM cassava

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IITA to carry out field trials of GM cassava

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has been granted a permit to carry out Confined Field Trials (CFT) of genetically modified (GM) cassava (AMY3 RNAi Transgenic lines).

Nteranya Sanginga
Dr Nteranya Sanginga, Director General of the IITA

This is contained in a statement signed by IITA Head of Communication, Mrs Catherine Lopez, and made available to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday, December 19, 2017 in Ibadan, Oyo State.

The statement said that the research, carried out in collaboration with ETHZ Plant Biotechnology Lab in Zurich, was aimed at reducing starch breakdown in storage roots of cassava after pruning the shoots, prior to harvest of the crop.

It also said that the objective was to obtain storage roots with lower post-harvest physiological degradation, without any loss of the nutritious starch.

It noted that cassava was an important starchy food crop in sub-Saharan Africa as well as other tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world.

The statement said that one of the challenges facing cassava farmers in the country was the high level of post-harvest losses, caused by rapid deterioration of the starch-rich roots which occurred naturally after harvesting.

“Though the post-harvest deterioration can be reduced by pruning the shoots of cassava plants without unearthing the roots, but this poses a problem.

“The problem is that the desirable starch, stored in the root, can be degraded by the plant after pruning, which, in turn, lowers the harvest yield and root quality.

“To address this, a research project was conceived at ETH Zurich where cassava plants using cultivar 60444 were generated.

“They were generated using RNAi as the tool to try to reduce starch breakdown in the root after pruning of the shoots.

“Extensive testing was carried out in greenhouses in Switzerland, where the plants were grown for three consecutive years.

“Our greenhouse experiments were an important first step but they cannot be a substitute for genuine field conditions.

“Hence, it is necessary to grow the plants in a tropical climate such as that of Nigeria; IITA is an excellently equipped and well-staffed institute that could perform such a confined field trial.’’

The statement said the CFT permit, which was issued by the National Biosafety Management Agency in accordance with the National Biosafety Agency Act 2015, was for the period between Sept. 22, 2017 and Dec. 31, 2018.

It said that the research was a fact-gathering process, aimed at gaining fundamental knowledge about starch metabolism in the storage root, about cassava as a crop.

“As part of the experiment, re-growth of stem cuttings from the plants will also be assessed, since re-growth may also depend on starch stored in the stem.

“This is important since cassava is normally propagated by stem cuttings and not by seed.

“The primary beneficiaries of the knowledge gained from this research (and its eventual application for cassava improvement) would be cassava farmers in Nigeria and other regions,” the statement added.

By Chidinma Ewunonu-Aluko

Harmattan: Veterinarian advocates insulation of poultry farms

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Harmattan: Veterinarian advocates insulation of poultry farms

A veterinarian, Dr Mutiu Oladele-Bukola of the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IAR&T), Ibadan, on Tuesday, December 19, 2017 urged poultry farmers to protect their birds against the vagaries of weather during harmattan.

Poultry-farming
Poultry farming

Oladele-Bukola gave the advice in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan, Oyo State.

He said that the harmattan season, which occurred between the end of November and mid-March, could be cold in most places and hot in some places, depending on the circumstances.

He said that harmattan wind was considered a natural hazard because during its passage, the wind picked up dust particles and could push large quantities of sand, provoking the spread of wind-borne diseases for thousands of kilometres.

“During this period, chicken easily come down with all sorts of pulmonary (lung) diseases, which really compromise the respiratory processes and eventually hamper poultry performance.

“The best prophylactic measure that could be taken against the adverse effects of the cold, dry and dust-laden wind was to optimise the thermal micro-environment and ventilation by insulating the poultry house.

“Early in the morning and late at night, temperatures always drop and induce cold; therefore, poultry houses (pens) should be well-covered.

“Then, farmers should serve large quantities of more energetic feeds to chickens to generate heat, while in the afternoon, which is assumed to be hot, little or no feeds should be served.

“However, cold water, containing a lot of anti-stress agents (vitamins), should be made available to the chickens, as they serve to cool the body temperatures of the birds,” he said.

The veterinarian also underscored the need to plant highly shady trees around the pen, so as to serve as windbreaks and prevent direct heat on the pen.

He said that carpet grasses could also be planted round the pen to prevent wind from blowing dust and heat from oozing out of the ground.

Oladele-Bukola urged farmers to always provide shade for water tanks to avoid direct exposure to sunrays and increase the number of chicken waterers to enable all the birds to have access to water.

“Sprinklers could be used during afternoon to shower the rooftop, while providing foggers and fans inside the pen as coolants.

“Dusty nets should be cleaned using wet rags or foams; ice blocks could be provided in the water tanks for the birds to have access to cool water, especially in the hot afternoon,” he said.

He, however, called on the government to create farm settlements that would supply all the necessary facilities to poultry houses at affordable rates.

Oladele-Bukola said that all the poultry farm inputs should be provided to farmers at subsidised rates.

He said that the government should also encourage poultry farmers to form cooperative societies or join the Poultry Farmers Association of Nigeria in their neighbourhoods so as to facilitate exchange of ideas on best poultry practices.

He said that the cooperative societies would aid the government’s efforts to have access to the poultry farmers whenever the need arose.

“Government should create various farmers markets to enable farmers to display their products.

“It can also buy produce from farmers at normal price during the time of glut for preservation and eventual sales to the public at subsidised rates during the periods of scarcity,” he added.

By Chidinma Ewunonu-Aluko

Plateau privatises waste management

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Plateau privatises waste management

The Plateau State Government has approved the privatisation and commercialisation of waste collection and management in Jos-Bukuru metropolis.

Simon Lalong
Plateau State governor, Simon Lalong

Mr Abdullahi Abbas, Plateau’s Commissioner for Environment and Mineral Development, disclosed this to newsmen on Tuesday, December 19, 2017 in Jos, the state capital.

Abbas explained that the government’s decision was to allow citizens’ participation in environmental cleanliness and health promotion.

“The programme will give citizens a voice in environmental cleanliness and health.‎

“Government will be engaging reputable private waste collectors to collect refuse from all waste points in the Jos-Bukuru metropolis,” he said.

The commissioner said that the refuse collectors would collect the refuse and discharge same at designated dumping points at a monthly fee to be paid by the residents.

“The private waste collectors will commence the evacuation of waste in the metropolis from January, 2018,’’ he added.‎

Abbas further disclosed that the metropolis would be carved into zones and ‎assigned to different private operators for efficient and effective operations.

He said that the programme would be extended to the 17 Local Government Areas in no distant time.

By Blessing Odega

Schools shut in Tehran due to alarming air pollution

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Schools shut in Tehran due to alarming air pollution

Kindergartens, schools and high schools in Iran’s capital Tehran will remain closed for a third consecutive day on Wednesday due to heavy air pollution, local media reported on Tuesday, December 19, 2017.

Tehran
Air pollution blankets the skyline of Tehran

Local media reported that Tehran Province’s Air Pollution Exigency Committee decided in a meeting on Tuesday to keep kindergartens, primary schools and high schools shut for another day on Wednesday.

The air pollution in Tehran, with over 12 million population, is more than three times the level considered safe.

The committee also extended restrictions on the movement of cars in Tehran, and people were advised not to participate in group exercises in parks and green spaces.

Officials said the pollution was expected to stay above Tehran until Dec. 22 when winds are expected to move the stagnant air.

“Low-speed wind, which has been forecast for the next few days, is not strong enough to clear the capital’s sky and air pollution will most probably continue to shroud the city,” Mohammad Rastegari, deputy for environmental monitoring at the Department of Environment, was quoted as saying by Financial Tribune daily as saying.

Other metropolises including Karaj, Isfahan, Tabriz, Arak and Urmieh also experienced poor air quality this week that reached its critical level on Monday.

Schools in Tabriz and Urmieh were also closed due to poor air quality.

In the past years, Iran’s government and parliament made several efforts to solve Tehran’s air pollution, including imposing restrictions on the city’s traffic flow, passing measures urging safer fuel and replacing old, inefficient cars with new ones.

Benue farmers to get fertiliser early in 2018 cropping season

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Benue farmers to get fertiliser early in 2018 cropping season

The Director of Agricultural Services, Benue State Ministry of Agriculture, Mr Thomas Unongo, has assured farmers in the state of early supply of fertiliser during the 2018 cropping season.

Benue farming
Participants at the meeting

He gave the assurance in Makurdi on Tuesday, December 19, 2017 when he spoke at the meeting of Agricultural Vision Group and Agricultural Innovative Group, organised by Synergos Nigeria.

Unongo said that the state government was making concerted efforts to provide fertiliser to farmers before April 2018.

He said that the fertiliser blending plant in the state had commenced operations, adding that the government had also partnered with other fertiliser companies to supply the input to farmers.

Unongo, however, encouraged farmers to make use of organic manure, which abounded in the state, to boost agricultural production.

He stressed that the organic manure also had the capacity of making crops to thrive and yield bountiful harvests.

Also speaking, Mr Saa-Aondo Anom of Paradiso Farms advised farmers to insure their farms in order to enable them obtain compensation in the event of natural disasters.

Mrs Maureen Kajo, an official of Federal Ministry of Agriculture, urged Synergos to sensitise rural farmers to the ideals of nutrition-sensitive agriculture to enable them to eat balanced diets.

Mrs Ngizan Chahul, the President of Women in Agriculture, called on the Federal Government to establish agro-based industries in all the six-geo-political zones of the country to encourage people to venture into agriculture.

Chahul said that the proposed industries should be established in line with the specific crops in which each geo-political zone had a comparative advantage.

Mr Lucky Izobo, the Director of Research, Statistics and Planning, Benue Ministry of Agriculture, urged farmers to be more innovative in their efforts to boost agricultural production.

Mr Zaki Igyo-Ali of Igyo-Ali Farms said that some modalities had been introduced to make mango one of the major export crops of the state.

By Damian Daga and Nicholas Dechi

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