The Indian High
Commissioner to Nigeria, Amb. Ajjampur Ghanashyam has urged Nigeria to
introduce Integrated Farming and Drip Irrigation to boost food production in
the country.
Ghanashyam gave the
advice at a Forum of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday.
He said that drip
irrigation, currently being practiced in India, would help to improve dry
season farming in Nigeria, especially in the Northern parts of the country.
He said that the
introduction of drip irrigation and integrated farming would encourage export.
"Agriculture is
one area in which there is tremendous potential. India has 1.5 million square
kilometers of land which is arable.
"We grow
sometimes three crops from the same piece of land because of desperation and
when there is an emerging need, you have to innovate. That is what happened to
us.
"Today, in some
northern states, we are doing drip irrigation because water is a problem in
those states.
"Drip irrigation
is one subject which we have developed in India and now it has become very
popular. Exactly what is required in Northern Nigeria.
"We are now
developing a concept called integrated farming. Integrated farming means the
farmer has his field, but takes out a part of his land to grow vegetables and
fruits and takes out a little bit more area around his house to have a goat
farm, poultry farm and have a bee keeping corner.
"So when the crop
fails, he has vegetables he can sell, he has fruits and he has poultry, eggs
and chicken which he can sell, he does not become desperate and think of the
wrong thing.
"Nigeria with its
available land can feed itself, feed the rest of Africa and still have surplus
to export to China and India.
"That is the
quality of your soil. You have the capacity and competence to do it. It is just
that someone has to get up and start saying, yes, now is the time to
start."
Ghanashyam said that
integrated agriculture had the capacity to improve the living standard of
Nigerians if properly deployed.
He added that the
farming method serve as an alternative to oil.
The high commissioner
said that India was currently working closely with some Northern states in
Nigeria to promote drip irrigation, but observed that the availability of water
was a challenge.
According to him,
Africa owns 60 per cent of the arable land in the world and 20 per cent of the
land mass of the world.
He said that Nigeria
had one-quarter of the wealth in Africa and 20 per cent of Africa's population.
Ghanashyam said that
the volume of trade between India and Nigeria stood at 17 billion dollars
between 2014 and 2015 and had remained so in spite of the fall in the prices of
oil.
He appealed to the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to sign a Turn Around
Maintenance agreement with the National Oil Company of India as part of efforts
at increasing oil production in Nigeria.
He called for the
incorporation of the policies of the Federal and state governments to suit
foreign businesses in Nigeria.
"Most times,
Federal and state government policies do not support, complement or supplement
each other and this is affecting foreign businesses in Nigeria," he said.
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201506290335.html
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