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#61
Business and Commerce / Tomato factory showcase for Ni...
Last post by admin - September 02, 2017, 12:45:13 AMhttps://www.reuters.com/article/us-nigeria-farming/ghost-tomato-factory-showcase-for-nigerias-farming-problems-idUSKCN1BA0IZ
KANO, Nigeria (Reuters) - At a state-of-the-art plant in northern Nigeria, shiny machines stand next to a conveyor belt ready to crush tomatoes to satisfy the country's insatiable demand for tomato paste.
But a lonely cleaner mopping the floor is the only sign of activity in Nigeria's biggest tomato factory, equipped with the latest Italian and German technology. There aren't enough tomatoes to run it.
It's a powerful symbol of Nigeria's uphill challenge to build up agricultural production and end costly food imports to feed its 190 million people. The West African nation imports staples from milk to wheat to tomato paste, with funds it mainly earns from exporting oil.
The conglomerate of Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote, launched the plant in March 2016, contracting Italian engineers working for months on a 350 euro-a-day allowances to set up the machines outside Kano, the main city in the north.
On paper this looked like a smart move as Nigeria imports up to 400,000 tons of tomato paste annually. The tinned paste is an ingredient in Nigerian tomato stew, used as the base for a host of traditional meat stews, sauces, soups and rice dishes that are staples of Nigerian cooking.
Dangote Group had thought of every technical detail, even setting up a control room linking its engineers to experts in Italy in case there was a problem.
But it underestimated the difficulties involved in getting tomatoes, despite signing deals with some 5,000 farmers guaranteeing them to pay more than the market price.
Lacking fertilizers and working with their bare hands, the farmers have been unable to produce the quality and quantity the plant needs to make paste. Much of the last season's output was wiped out by a pest.
The plant has been so far unable to find other supplies despite Nigeria producing some 1.5 million tons of tomatoes annually. A lack of good roads due to decades of corruption means tomatoes would perish on the way. Half of the country's output gets wasted.
Bar a few weeks, the plant has been standing idle, said its frustrated manager said A.L. Kaito, the managing director of Dangote Farms in charge of the plant.
"We are trying to weather out the storm, the cost is horrendous," said Kaito. "It's a nightmare."
Dangote spent some 4 billion naira ($12.74 million) on the plant and now plans to set up its own tomato cultivation scheme for around ten billion naira to cover up to 70 percent of its needs, buying land and tractors. Experts from Israel, Mexico and Spain will be flown in.
PROBLEMS
The tomato plant hopes to restart work in January at just half of its capacity of 1,200 tons a day after the next season, in the meantime costing 5 million naira every month.
People walk past baskets of tomatoes in the Yankaba market in Kano, northwest Nigeria August 23, 2017. REUTERS/Akintunde Akinleye
Dangote has kept workers sitting at home on the payroll: the Italians spent months training them on the new machines.
The investment is paltry for its owner, who is spending billions of dollars on cement plants, sugar and rice schemes across Africa. His cement business alone posted revenues worth in 615 billion naira in 2016.
But for President Muhammadu Buhari the idle plant is a major setback after another tomato factory in Lagos threw in the towel in November 2016, unable to import tomatoes due to a lack of hard currency as Nigeria struggles with recession.
Buhari had, since his election in 2015, made it a priority to end dependency on food under the motto: "We must produce what we eat."
To encourage agriculture investments like the Dangote plant, the government has waived duties for greenhouse and processing equipment.
Slideshow (9 Images)
It is also giving subsidies to rice farmers and is considering expanding the scheme to tomato growers, a senior official in the federal ministry of agriculture said.
Officials had hoped to create jobs in agriculture to fight poverty in the north where some unemployed young men have joined an eight-year insurgency by Boko Haram jihadists.
But experts and farmers say, after decades of corruption holding back road and electricity projects and an obsession with producing oil, it will take time to improve the tomato output.
Low quality seed and a lack of power for pumping water means tomatoes can be grown only during the dry season, which creates a glut in March.
Farmers then lay out their tomatoes alongside highways hoping motorists will buy them. Anything that does not get sold within 24 hours is usually wasted due to a lack of cold storage.
They also ship some to Lagos, the southern megacity 1,000 km (600 miles) south of the factory. A basket of tomatoes sells for 2,000 naira in Lagos, but only around 10 percent of that ends up in farmers' pockets as traders and truckers take their cut.
"We don't have fertilizers and there is no power for cold rooms," said Sani Yadakwari, chairman of the some 10,000 tomato farmers in Kano state. "We need subsidies for our production."
Dangote has been supplying farmers with a Dutch seed which is expected to gradually boost the yield to 50 tons of tomatoes a hectare from 10 to 15 tons now, said Kaito.
But Adamu Sani, an agronomist working for the World Bank, was skeptical production would rise soon as farmers needed to get trained to use the new seeds which had not been tested yet on a large scale in Nigeria.
Dangote calls the plant the biggest in Africa. But the size might be a disadvantage: "The minimum capacity of the Dangote plant is too high for the little volumes you can get from farmers," Sani said.
KANO, Nigeria (Reuters) - At a state-of-the-art plant in northern Nigeria, shiny machines stand next to a conveyor belt ready to crush tomatoes to satisfy the country's insatiable demand for tomato paste.
But a lonely cleaner mopping the floor is the only sign of activity in Nigeria's biggest tomato factory, equipped with the latest Italian and German technology. There aren't enough tomatoes to run it.
It's a powerful symbol of Nigeria's uphill challenge to build up agricultural production and end costly food imports to feed its 190 million people. The West African nation imports staples from milk to wheat to tomato paste, with funds it mainly earns from exporting oil.
The conglomerate of Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote, launched the plant in March 2016, contracting Italian engineers working for months on a 350 euro-a-day allowances to set up the machines outside Kano, the main city in the north.
On paper this looked like a smart move as Nigeria imports up to 400,000 tons of tomato paste annually. The tinned paste is an ingredient in Nigerian tomato stew, used as the base for a host of traditional meat stews, sauces, soups and rice dishes that are staples of Nigerian cooking.
Dangote Group had thought of every technical detail, even setting up a control room linking its engineers to experts in Italy in case there was a problem.
But it underestimated the difficulties involved in getting tomatoes, despite signing deals with some 5,000 farmers guaranteeing them to pay more than the market price.
Lacking fertilizers and working with their bare hands, the farmers have been unable to produce the quality and quantity the plant needs to make paste. Much of the last season's output was wiped out by a pest.
The plant has been so far unable to find other supplies despite Nigeria producing some 1.5 million tons of tomatoes annually. A lack of good roads due to decades of corruption means tomatoes would perish on the way. Half of the country's output gets wasted.
Bar a few weeks, the plant has been standing idle, said its frustrated manager said A.L. Kaito, the managing director of Dangote Farms in charge of the plant.
"We are trying to weather out the storm, the cost is horrendous," said Kaito. "It's a nightmare."
Dangote spent some 4 billion naira ($12.74 million) on the plant and now plans to set up its own tomato cultivation scheme for around ten billion naira to cover up to 70 percent of its needs, buying land and tractors. Experts from Israel, Mexico and Spain will be flown in.
PROBLEMS
The tomato plant hopes to restart work in January at just half of its capacity of 1,200 tons a day after the next season, in the meantime costing 5 million naira every month.
People walk past baskets of tomatoes in the Yankaba market in Kano, northwest Nigeria August 23, 2017. REUTERS/Akintunde Akinleye
Dangote has kept workers sitting at home on the payroll: the Italians spent months training them on the new machines.
The investment is paltry for its owner, who is spending billions of dollars on cement plants, sugar and rice schemes across Africa. His cement business alone posted revenues worth in 615 billion naira in 2016.
But for President Muhammadu Buhari the idle plant is a major setback after another tomato factory in Lagos threw in the towel in November 2016, unable to import tomatoes due to a lack of hard currency as Nigeria struggles with recession.
Buhari had, since his election in 2015, made it a priority to end dependency on food under the motto: "We must produce what we eat."
To encourage agriculture investments like the Dangote plant, the government has waived duties for greenhouse and processing equipment.
Slideshow (9 Images)
It is also giving subsidies to rice farmers and is considering expanding the scheme to tomato growers, a senior official in the federal ministry of agriculture said.
Officials had hoped to create jobs in agriculture to fight poverty in the north where some unemployed young men have joined an eight-year insurgency by Boko Haram jihadists.
But experts and farmers say, after decades of corruption holding back road and electricity projects and an obsession with producing oil, it will take time to improve the tomato output.
Low quality seed and a lack of power for pumping water means tomatoes can be grown only during the dry season, which creates a glut in March.
Farmers then lay out their tomatoes alongside highways hoping motorists will buy them. Anything that does not get sold within 24 hours is usually wasted due to a lack of cold storage.
They also ship some to Lagos, the southern megacity 1,000 km (600 miles) south of the factory. A basket of tomatoes sells for 2,000 naira in Lagos, but only around 10 percent of that ends up in farmers' pockets as traders and truckers take their cut.
"We don't have fertilizers and there is no power for cold rooms," said Sani Yadakwari, chairman of the some 10,000 tomato farmers in Kano state. "We need subsidies for our production."
Dangote has been supplying farmers with a Dutch seed which is expected to gradually boost the yield to 50 tons of tomatoes a hectare from 10 to 15 tons now, said Kaito.
But Adamu Sani, an agronomist working for the World Bank, was skeptical production would rise soon as farmers needed to get trained to use the new seeds which had not been tested yet on a large scale in Nigeria.
Dangote calls the plant the biggest in Africa. But the size might be a disadvantage: "The minimum capacity of the Dangote plant is too high for the little volumes you can get from farmers," Sani said.
#62
Islam / SAYYID QUTB – THE EVER ONE AMO...
Last post by Abu-Safwan - August 27, 2017, 10:20:46 PMSAYYID QUTB – THE EVER ONE AMONG THE MUSLIM THINKERS
On 29th of the same month of August, 1966 the great Shaheed Sayyid Qutb Ibrahim was martyred (via execution) by the notorious Egyptian regime of Jamal Abdul Naseer, the then Pharoah of Egypt, on false accusation. On the same date of 29 of this current Month I will, by God's leave write few details on this great personality in my subsequent post. But before then, let us hear what scholars say about this great revivalist personality:
'Sayyid Qutb was an outstanding personality from amongst the great figures of Islamic thought, from the men of contemporary Islamic Awakening....He possessed the true Imaanic stance, a person of Jihad, struggle, sacrifice, and sincerity to the Ummah. He enriched the Islamic heritage with masterpieces of work from literature and thought.'
(Shaykh Ahmed Fareed, In Mawaaqif Imaaniyah )
'I say that there is a chapter in this book (Milestones) which is of great benefit, called '
La ilaha illallah minhaj hayah'......he (Sayyid Qutb) has written some words which I believe are like light from light ilham (inspiration)'.
(Shaykh Nasiruddeen al-Albani, 'al-I'tidal fee Sayyid Qutb' - Q&A with Shaykh Al-Albani)
'
Sayyid Qutb is....'the most famous personality of the Muslim world in the second half of the 20th century.' (Robert Irwin, Is this the man that inspired Bin Laden?)
'Sayyid Qutb based his life upon, and what he dedicated his pen for: the Da'wah (call) towards Tawhid (monotheism) of Allah "in ruling and legislating," rejecting the man-made laws, and confronting those who committed that (legislating and ruling by other than Allah's rule).'
(Shaykh Bakr Abu Zaid, Office of the Presidency of Islamic Research and Legal Verdicts)
'Sayyid Qutb (is) among the scholars of the Muslims and among the people of da'wah. Allah has brought benefit by (him) and through (him) He has guided many people.'
(Shaykh Ibn Jibreen, Office of the Presidency of Islamic Research and Legal Verdicts)
'Sayyid Qutb (in) his now-celebrated book, Ma'alim fi'l-tareeq (Milestones)........denounces the existing order in Muslim societies as Jahiliyyahh, provides guidelines for Muslim activists and describes the steps they must take to establish a society based on divine guidance.'
(Zafar Bangash, Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought)
'....We heard that the death sentence....on Imam Shahid Sayyid Qutb.....had been carried out....Such a great loss. Sayyid Qutb....a man who held fast to his religion, trusting in Allah's victory. Read Milestones to find out why Sayyid (Qutb) was executed.'
(Zainab al-Ghazali, Return of the Pharaoh)
On 29th of the same month of August, 1966 the great Shaheed Sayyid Qutb Ibrahim was martyred (via execution) by the notorious Egyptian regime of Jamal Abdul Naseer, the then Pharoah of Egypt, on false accusation. On the same date of 29 of this current Month I will, by God's leave write few details on this great personality in my subsequent post. But before then, let us hear what scholars say about this great revivalist personality:
'Sayyid Qutb was an outstanding personality from amongst the great figures of Islamic thought, from the men of contemporary Islamic Awakening....He possessed the true Imaanic stance, a person of Jihad, struggle, sacrifice, and sincerity to the Ummah. He enriched the Islamic heritage with masterpieces of work from literature and thought.'
(Shaykh Ahmed Fareed, In Mawaaqif Imaaniyah )
'I say that there is a chapter in this book (Milestones) which is of great benefit, called '
La ilaha illallah minhaj hayah'......he (Sayyid Qutb) has written some words which I believe are like light from light ilham (inspiration)'.
(Shaykh Nasiruddeen al-Albani, 'al-I'tidal fee Sayyid Qutb' - Q&A with Shaykh Al-Albani)
'
Sayyid Qutb is....'the most famous personality of the Muslim world in the second half of the 20th century.' (Robert Irwin, Is this the man that inspired Bin Laden?)
'Sayyid Qutb based his life upon, and what he dedicated his pen for: the Da'wah (call) towards Tawhid (monotheism) of Allah "in ruling and legislating," rejecting the man-made laws, and confronting those who committed that (legislating and ruling by other than Allah's rule).'
(Shaykh Bakr Abu Zaid, Office of the Presidency of Islamic Research and Legal Verdicts)
'Sayyid Qutb (is) among the scholars of the Muslims and among the people of da'wah. Allah has brought benefit by (him) and through (him) He has guided many people.'
(Shaykh Ibn Jibreen, Office of the Presidency of Islamic Research and Legal Verdicts)
'Sayyid Qutb (in) his now-celebrated book, Ma'alim fi'l-tareeq (Milestones)........denounces the existing order in Muslim societies as Jahiliyyahh, provides guidelines for Muslim activists and describes the steps they must take to establish a society based on divine guidance.'
(Zafar Bangash, Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought)
'....We heard that the death sentence....on Imam Shahid Sayyid Qutb.....had been carried out....Such a great loss. Sayyid Qutb....a man who held fast to his religion, trusting in Allah's victory. Read Milestones to find out why Sayyid (Qutb) was executed.'
(Zainab al-Ghazali, Return of the Pharaoh)
#63
General Board / Re: Emotions and Passion
Last post by Muhsin - August 27, 2017, 06:54:59 AMHausa is a very simple language to learn. Pursue your dream. The language should not be a barrier, I guess. I can share some good books/materials with you if you want. Share your email address.
Best wishes.
Muhsin
Best wishes.
Muhsin
#64
General Board / Emotions and Passion
Last post by Kyauta - August 27, 2017, 04:16:51 AMI'm in Love with a man from Kano but I don't want language to be a barrier between us as well as his family members, how do I learn Hausa quickly because I don't want to lose him.
#65
Business and Commerce / Kano State partners with Dango...
Last post by admin - August 27, 2017, 04:04:28 AMThe Government of Kano state has entered a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Dangote Group of Companies and Black Rhino Group to develop a new solarpower facility in Zakirai.
Valued at $150m, the MoU will see the construction of a 100MW facility.
Kano State Government Secretary Alhaji Alhaji was quoted by The Nation as saying: "We need energy to make any progress and development anywhere in the world.
"So we believe this is a right step in the right direction and I wish to also reiterate that the Kano Government is very keen on this project and we are doing everything possible, under the leadership of Governor Abdullahi Ganduje to improve the life and living conditions of the people of Kano."
"Inadequacy of supply of reliable and affordable electricity is one of the critical challenges facing the state's economy."
Dangote Group executive director Mansur Ahmed was quoted by PUNCH as saying: "As we all know, Kano's pre-eminent status as a great entrepôt and centre of commerce in the sub-Saharan region for almost two centuries has sadly declined.
"It is an open secret that the gross inadequacy of supply of reliable and affordable electricity is one of the critical challenges facing the state's economy.
"This project will, on completion, add 100MW to the state's electricity supply and is fully in line with our group's strong commitment to contribute to the re-invigoration of the state's economic potential and overall national development."
Based in Lagos, Dangote Group currently serves various business segments such as real estate and manufacturing.
Valued at $150m, the MoU will see the construction of a 100MW facility.
Kano State Government Secretary Alhaji Alhaji was quoted by The Nation as saying: "We need energy to make any progress and development anywhere in the world.
"So we believe this is a right step in the right direction and I wish to also reiterate that the Kano Government is very keen on this project and we are doing everything possible, under the leadership of Governor Abdullahi Ganduje to improve the life and living conditions of the people of Kano."
"Inadequacy of supply of reliable and affordable electricity is one of the critical challenges facing the state's economy."
Dangote Group executive director Mansur Ahmed was quoted by PUNCH as saying: "As we all know, Kano's pre-eminent status as a great entrepôt and centre of commerce in the sub-Saharan region for almost two centuries has sadly declined.
"It is an open secret that the gross inadequacy of supply of reliable and affordable electricity is one of the critical challenges facing the state's economy.
"This project will, on completion, add 100MW to the state's electricity supply and is fully in line with our group's strong commitment to contribute to the re-invigoration of the state's economic potential and overall national development."
Based in Lagos, Dangote Group currently serves various business segments such as real estate and manufacturing.
#66
General Board / Re: How can we make Kano Onlin...
Last post by admin - August 20, 2017, 04:30:00 PMGwanki,
This website is not owned by Kano State Government.
{This web site contains information about and regarding among others, present-day Kano State of Nigeria. However, the information here is not necessarily sanctioned by or is not an official information from the Government of Kano State of Nigeria.}
This website is not owned by Kano State Government.
{This web site contains information about and regarding among others, present-day Kano State of Nigeria. However, the information here is not necessarily sanctioned by or is not an official information from the Government of Kano State of Nigeria.}
#67
General Board / Re: How can we make Kano Onlin...
Last post by Gwanki - August 17, 2017, 04:32:37 PMI am Abubakar A Gwanki :o I knew this website since last 2 years ago. But still I have many questions about this website.
Why this website is named Kano Onlineâ"
Is this website Kano state government ownedâ"
If not so Who is the ownerâ"
Answer please
Why this website is named Kano Onlineâ"
Is this website Kano state government ownedâ"
If not so Who is the ownerâ"
Answer please
#68
General Board / Re: Finagles behind the 'Fulan...
Last post by JeffreyMcDougall - August 12, 2017, 11:22:34 AMFulani herdsmen and farmer crisis in NIgeria ; problem and solution... Why is it that the Fulani herdsmen alleged...
#69
Welcome to the Online Forum / Re: MATSALOLIN JAMIO'I DA KWAL...
Last post by mocool - June 14, 2017, 02:56:19 PMA gaskiya indai ana so mutanenmu su samu ilmi mai sahihanci, to dole ne a yi maganin alfarma a harkar admission.
#70
chit-chat / Re: Kacici-Kacici
Last post by Amsa - May 11, 2017, 10:16:54 PMMr Gwanki, these questions are tough. I shall prepare carrying over the course.