Snail Farming In Nigeria (THY Consultancy)

Nigeria's economic recovery programmes have necessitated a radical shift from total dependence on government for job to self-employment. One such attractive area for self-employment is snail rearing. It is a great money-spinning business that can provide a substantial source of protein to complement Nigerian carbohydrate meals. Sadly Nigerians inclination to go into business in the fields where thousands have already made their fortune has led to the ulter neglect of such lucrative area of snail farming in Nigeria or export at international market. You see snails stick to a tree stump, hide under stones or leaves, what impression do you have of them? When you see them displayed in the market places, do you view them as one of those edible animals meant for the soup pot? Many people see snails here and there. Some people take it as meat. But quite a number don't know how to go about rearing them. This is made worse because snails, which belong to the family of animal called MOLLUSCA, is an hermaphrodite. It has both the female and male sexual organs; so one cannot really distinguish between the male and female specie of it.

Many who are into snail farming in Nigeria are also unwilling to let others know about the farming methodology. The techniques are often shrouded in secrecy. But the plain truth is that snail farming is as easy as ABC. The only thing the snails may constantly demand from you is your attention and care. They hardly fall sick. You don't have to buy their food and you may not have to spend much to create an abode for them. The beauty of it all is that the snails reproduce rapidly. They are capable of producing hundreds of eggs, which hatch into snails. It is now possible to produce 1,000,000 snails worth more than N5 million twice a year.

This lucrative figures are made possible because of the availability of very highly prolific ACHATINA ACHATINA species of snails, which lay 200-400 in one batch 2-3 times a year in Nigeria.

HUGE INCOME EARNING OPPORTUNITY

One of the Personnal Entrepreneurial Characteristic (PEC) that makes a big different between a successful entrepreneur and an unsuccessful one is opportunity seeking. That is seeking, recognizing and acting on new business opportunities. This is the use of contacts or networking to obtain useful information. It is in view of the above fact that, we at THE THY CONSULTING are introducing this wonderful opportunity to you. This is golden opportunity that will enable readers to create for themselves, the targets and lofty goals for huge success.

In order to assist a lot of Nigerians to tap into this highly lucrative venture, our organization, THE THY CONSULTING, has written a manual titled "THE BEAUTY OF SNAIL FARMING",and also produced a VCD on PRACTICAL COMMERCIAL SNAIL BREEDING IN NIGERIA, to enable them know all the techniques and secrets of commercial snail farming. Our organization has spent huge money, time and efforts to acquire valuable information through attending seminars, conferences, surfing Internet and researches on how to set up commercial snail farming successfully. All necessary, compressive and step by step guide on how to embark on the business and make huge financial success from it as we are currently enjoying; are contained in the well researched manual on "THE BEAUTY OF SNAIL FARMING." and the VCD on PRACTICAL COMMERCIAL SNAIL BREEDING IN NIGERIA.

If you are interested in obtaining this manual, please contact me at
THE THY CONSULTING
4, Ismail AbdulAzeez Street, Singer Bus Stop, Ewupe-Ijaniye, Sango Ota, Ogun State.
Tel: 08023050835 ask for Ismail AbdulAzeez or Kabirat AbdulAzeez.
E-mail:the_thy2002@yahoo.co.uk

Wrtitten by By Ismail AbdulAzeez

Youth are the future. Invest in them!

With more than 200 million people aged between 15 and 24 years (comprising over 20% of the population and 70% of the population being under 30 years old), Africa’s future seems bright. Young people usually bring new skills and abilities to the table, and tend to be highly competitive into sectors that use innovative technologies (such as ICT, social media or even agriculture).
But presently this is not the case in Africa. According to the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) Youth Policy Case Studies, while approximately 70% of youth live in rural areas and represent almost 65% of the workforce there. On average, 74% of the youth population in Africa lives on less than US$2 per day lacking the resources and skills to be competitive. With this potential, Africa’s transformation could have started “yesterday”. But because of poor support Africa’s youth can now consider themselves a minority.

Although access to education has been improved in the past years due to massive international support and many young brilliant Africans had the opportunity to study abroad, mass education is still unavailable, not because universities not exist, but because there is no standard at Africa level of how these programs should look like, what should they contain, what kind of skills should they develop and they are not linked to the everyday challenge of the African community.Moving away from training young people as agronomists, but developing them to be food security experts should be a good start. Africa needs to focus its energy, passion and resources on solving those stringent issues that affect both its present and future.

Although many say that (over-) specialization might end up killing the creativity in youth, I personally believe that if youth will learn more about a certain field of expertise, they will want to use/promote that knowledge through a multidisciplinary approach, being more inclined to acquire more information on how other technologies might impact their field and/or how their own field might influence other.This simple process might end up being the most cost effective strategy that African policy makers can support in order to ensure that the future farmers, future policy makers, future leaders, future researchers and future drivers of Africa’s social and economic development will be the ones that will transform Africa’s future.

Building on Africa’s human capabilities starts with the FARA Africa Agriculture Science Week where a full day is dedicated to youth development and empowerment. On Day 2 (July 19th) the focus will shift from policy making to how we can practically feed Africa. Education and human resources development will constitute key points of the discussion due to the high importance of youth in Africa’s agricultural transformation. While reporting from side events organized by FARA, YPARD, CTA and others, the discussions will focusing on providing a quality education to students from African universities and how capacity development fits into Africa’s competitiveness strategies.

And to end on a positive note I would like to quote the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon: “The energy of youth can spark economies … The future belongs to them and they have a clear vision of the world we need to build together: peace, the preservation of our beautiful planet, the opportunity to make a better life.”



by Codrin Paveliuc-Olariu
Experienced Policy Advisor, exploring innovative ways of ensuring food security through agricultural policies design & currently one of the AASW social reporters.

Follow Codrin on Twitter @codrinPO

FAO Award For Nigeria's Work Towards Ensuring Food Security

The Food and Agricultural Organization has commended and handed an award to the Federal Government of Nigeria for its sustained work towards ensuring food security to its citizenry. FAO data shows a noticeable drop in number of chronically under nourished individuals in the country from 19.31 million. (1990 -1992) to 13.38 million (2010-2012) which translates to a drop from 19.3% of the population to an impressive 8.5%. This positive figures indicates that the country is moving faster than the forecasted targets of 9.7% by 2015 in line with the MDG projects

The Minister of Agriculture & Rural Development Adewunmi Adesina confirmed this while handing over the award to the President. In his speech, he acknowledged the role played by policies enacted by the present government to ensure a consistent push towards reaching the goal of improved domestic food production industries and food security.

9 million metric tons of food has been added to the production chain within the last two years to our domestic food supply, and the success of dry season rice production in the country was a major talking point at the FAO summit in Rome earlier this week. In the last two years, Nigeria has managed to produce 1.8 million metric tons of rice per day which is 55 per cent of the target set for achieving self sufficiency in rice production by 2015.

The Minister, clearly excited by the award still had an eye on the greater picture stating that as long as any Nigerian goes to bed without food, the job of the government was still not completed. The President, Jonathan Goodluck was very appreciative of the minister and his team. 

"Let me use this unique opportunity to tell Nigerians and the rest of the World that we appreciate this award. We are yet to reach where we want to go but surely, we will get there."

Enough food for everyone: The Big IF campaign

On Thursday the 6th June, I received a text from a friend I hadn't seen in a while asking me to come along to a festival of sorts, promising drinks, food and music. So of course I immediately said yes and sent the text on to another friend so that we could really make a day of it.

What I hadn't realised is that my friend had greatly understated what the day was about and so on Saturday the 8th June I found myself amongst a 45,000 strong crowd campaigning against world hunger in one of London's most beautiful spaces Hyde Park. (Organised by a coalition of almost 200 organisations http://enoughfoodif.org/who-we-are)

So with the day having a heavier meaning then what I had initially planned for, I embraced the event full throttle and what followed was at the very least an education and at best an awakening of sorts from my sheltered bubble.

The three of us started out at Marble Arch station, and basically followed the crowds until we were literally at the front of the stage. Speakers included Danny Boyle and Bill Gates and a host of other dignitaries. The emphatic Myleene Klass presented the event. They shared their thoughts with us on the campaign, throwing in facts and figures to an attentive crowd. Like did you know that a child dies every 15s from hunger? No me neither..

Picture 1: the view from the stage overlooking the attendees of the Big If Campaign

Emotive videos were shown intermittently, the footage showed children of all different races from various countries in the third world suffering from severe malnutrition. Many of the children looked as if they had suffered horrific burns injuries, the kind that are caused by hot water but in actual fact these patches were caused by hunger. On large screens we watched as mothers reacted to burying their children due to being unable to provide them with enough food to make it into adulthood, we saw a father describe his anguish at having to listen to his daughter crying every hour of everyday as there just wasn't any food for him to give her.

But here's the crux, there is enough food. There's enough food in the world in order to prevent these deaths and ensure that no one goes hungry. However, our world leaders are not doing enough about it. This is why this campaign is different from others that I have attended, seen on TV or the usual. You see they weren't asking for financial contributions from the crowd. No, what they wanted was our voices, our voices to be used collectively to be heard loud and clear by David Cameron and the other G8 leaders all attending the G8 summit in London that weekend. We were urged to act as one, and send tweets to David Cameron and sending text messages to a number displayed on screen in order to add our names to a petition.

The campaign achieved a degree of success, a further 2.7 billion pounds was pledged to tackling this issue by the G8 leaders. Although, I'm not sure what issues this poses as David Cameron is not best known for his problem solving ability, in actual fact he's more of a tornado taking the UK back to Victorian times but that's a story for another day. So back to the day in Hyde Park, the sun bore down on us whilst we carried our placards with provocative messages and our paper windmills each petal supposed to represent the millions of children that die every year due to hunger.

The show closed and we headed down past Princess Diana's Memorial Fountain, where children played in the water and were having fun with their parents. I couldn't help but compare these happy children with the ones I'd just seen on the video footage at the Big IF Campaign stage and wondering if this inequality would end in my lifetime. Reaching the paper flower garden, which was a visual delight we milled around for a while talking to the volunteers and other attendees. Then we headed off as a group and in the search of food.

Picture 2: The Paper Flower Garden created by the Big IF Campaign volunteers

Stumbling across a pub on the Kings Road, we had picked up a few more people along the way and we all ordered are drinks and food. Chatting away, sharing our sentiments and getting to know these new acquaintances looked to be a good ending to the day. However, I often find that I become full very quickly and regularly leave about a quarter of my food uneaten when dinning out. I did this again at the pub, and one of the members commented in jest 'Ivy, how can you waste your food after the event we have just been too?'. It was this flippant remark that was the most poignant of the day as although I know my friend was joking, there was a latent truth to the question. While there are those of us that can afford to buy a spontaneous meal, there are still so many people wondering where there next meal is coming from. The gap is so wide its easy to switch off and wait for a miracle.

We already produce enough food to feed the world, but the policies and conditions that ensures that poverty and inequality exists in our world need to be changed to put a stop to hunger globally. Advocating for this change togehter, we could become that miracle.

Rally your friends and let our voices be heard

Tweet/write to world leaders

Sign up to the BIG IF Campaign

Let's just do all we can to shorten the gap between the haves and have not's.

Ivy Nwanze
June 2013

Follow Ivy @IvyNz

Call for Articles: New Agriculturist - "Agri Enterprise involving Smallholders"

Deadline: 30 Jun 2013

A wonderful opportunity to share your experiences, views and projects on small scale Agri-Enterprises on a globally recognized and widely read journal. Do you have any ideas, problems or solutions you feel can help drive innovation and development in the Agricultural sector ? Then this is for you.

GFAR is seeking many new ways to spread the value of agricultural research and innovation of all kinds and how they are helping to address development challenges. GFAR has established a collaboration with New Agriculturist a widely read and well recognized online journal, to help share your stories about how agricultural knowledge and innovation are helping to address major development challenges and make a real difference in the lives of the poor. Through publication in New Agriculturist we can help you to raise wider awareness of your work and share your knowledge with thousands of readers.

We are particularly interested in stories that show how you are delivering against processes transforming and strengthening agricultural research for development systems as highlighted in the GCARD Roadmap and how your work is helping achieve developmental change in increasing environmental resilience, in benefiting people’s lives and livelihoods or enhancing food and nutrition security, whether by improving foresight and prioritization, improving partnership, enhancing capacities, increasing investments, or by better linking research and innovation into development processes. GFAR is contributing 3 articles in each edition. These articles will be displayed on the front page of New Agriculturist.

The previous editions with the GFAR sections are available here. The topic for the next edition is "Agri Enterprise involving Smallholders"and GFAR is seeking stories and projects from around the world on the theme, whether at local, national, regional or international scale. We welcome your contributed articles, which must be received by the 30 June 2013.

The guidelines for writing up the articles in terms of content are:

Show how people put the GCARD RoadMap principles into practice:
Background – what was the drive behind the new development

Description of how the new development works and how it is changing real livesHurdles and challenges that were overcome

Comments and experiences of ‘developers’ and usersLimitations/constraints/future challenges
Responses from relevant/significant bodies (e.g. partner organizations)

What next in terms of development?
What lessons have been learnt/can be transferred elsewhere?
Article length is 750- 850 words. Please note, longer article will not be considered. 

Please send us articles rather than research type papers as the former are more likely to be selected. All articles received will be submitted to New Agriculturist for their consideration and selection. We invite you to identify and share stories on the topic and help us reach beyond GFAR`s community.

Please send the articles to the following E-mail address: erna.klupacs@fao.orgThe Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR)

YAE NEEDS AND OPPORTUNITY ANALYSIS AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD (ANNOUNCEMENT)

The Youth Agro Entrepreneurs are pleased to announce the availability of our Needs & Opportunity Analysis report for download.

This report assesses the current state of the agriculture industry and youths’ interests and attitudes toward farming in Nigeria. For our assessment, we conducted a survey, and the 302 respondents, including key individuals in the industry, have revealed much about agricultural priorities, trends, and the needs to reach youth and government planning committees to ensure a holistic and sustainable impact.

The overall outcome we expect to achieve is to encourage and engage youth in pursuing agriculture as a meaningful and viable career by operating a self-sufficient training center which would ensure a sustainable revenue stream.

We believe this needs analysis study, would contribute to the overall vision by helping establish a knowledge base, setting benchmarks, networking with key people, identifying gaps, limitations, and achievements, and devising objectives and long-term goals.

We trust that you will find these informative and useful in helping us develop strategic partnerships with agricultural stakeholders, policy-makers, advocates and investors

Please click here to download a full copy of the report.

Today's Hunger and Tommorow's Food

The food of the future are being discussed and designed while most are still wondering about todays food. The recent troubles of the global seeds giants Mosanto, against the backlash of popular opinion mainly powered by campaigns ochestrated over social networks (facebook, avaaz, twitter, etc) served as a reminder of unresolved debates about food and intellectual property patents and by a further stretch -organic agricultural methods vs conventional farming methods. 

A shift in policy emphasizing on re-investment and revamping of the agricultural sector has been noticed globally. "Food security" has slowly crept into the discourse of sustainability, climate change and the future ecomomy. The need for crops and livestock that can adapt to climatic changes and adverse conditions have gained prime importance amongst the first world economies. The developing economies, still battling hunger, poverty and unemployment face an uneviable task of proffering solutions for todays poor and ensuring the security of tommorow's food. Raising productivity of farmers in an emerging economies like ours is one way of reducing hunger, but that is just one head of the beast. Hunger is caused by poverty and inequality and definitely not due to lack of food. The world already produces enough to feed 10 billion people (the forecast for global population by 2050) but most of that population can't afford to buy this food. The reality is, most farmers live below the poverty lines. Combating hunger would require policies to foremostly address the conditions that ensure poverty amongst over 70% of our population. Access to sizeable plots of land for cultivation, financial facilities tailored to the peculiar needs of farmers, proper training and education are practical ways to reducing poverty and improving the quality of life of farmers.

The allusion that genetically selected or modified food is a ready made solution to overcoming the issues of food security is unfounded and probably wrong. The possibility that the crops our poor farmers would use in future are being patented today is extremely worrisome, this could go a long way in controlling the price and demands of tommorows food. Recently a news report in The Guardian annouced bodly :" The future wellbeing of millions of Africans may rest in the unlikely hands of a vegan hippy scientist working for a sweet company who plans to map and then give away the genetic data of 100 traditional crops"

These crops include yam, cassava and cocoa. The man of the moment : Howard-Yana Shapiro described rather poetically as "The Hippy from Mars". Since he joined Mars (Yes! the multibillion dollar sweets and chocolate factory), Shapiro has been credited with making the company go sustainable. Based on his influence as the Director Of Agriculture for Mars, the company announced it would "contribute $10m to a project to map the cacao tree genome and publish it for free to speed up the development of quicker-growing and more resilient varieties." The only snag to projects like these, is that while its a laudable step to include Yams, Cassava and other tropical crops that are not of interest to the other seed and food corporations, the main motivation for Mars is quite apparent - a steady supply of cocoa. While over three fourth of the world's cocoa is produced in Africa (mainly Ghana and Ivory Coast), the final products i.e. coffee, chocolate bars and beverages are consumed mainly by the first world economies. Those who can afford this products and actively purchase them represent quaint outliers of the overall populations here.

Decoding these 'orphan crop' genomes could make a huge difference to the national and global economy, saving millions of lives in Africa from poverty would require concerted investments on Agricultural training and developing an entrepreneurial approach towards agriculture. It is only then we can begin to influence the R&D departments that are churning out tommorow's food. It is only then we can assure today's food.

FMITI & UNIDO Entrepreneurship and Careers Fair 2013

 An entrepreneurship and career fairs aimed at university and Secondary school graduates is scheduled to hold in Abuja on the 27th of June 2013 and 4th July 2013 in Lagos. This would be the first event of its kind hosted by Nigeria’s Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Investment (FMITI) in partnership with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO). The fair aims to host and train over 1,000 university and secondary school graduates between the ages of 18 – 35 years.The programme which will take place at the Velodrome, Abuja and at the Landmark Village.

This programme aims to help train young Nigerians who are willing to start their own businesses.The event will also help pool job seekers and recruiters. It will also showcase successful entrepreneurs and promote alternative forms of employment, including self employment. Young Agro Entrepreneurs across the country are urged to try and mark these dates on your calendars. The event is shaping up to be a very productive and empowering fair for those that would particiapte. With over 30 collaborating companies and 15 federal ministries engaged, this would definitely be one of the largest entrepreneur training fair to be hosted this year.

According to a statement released over the weekend by UNIDO, young Nigerians who were eager to start their own businesses would have a chance to meet and interact with entrepreneurs and representatives of organisations, institutions and companies during the fairs.“UNIDO and FMITI are to utilise the partnership to establish public-private knowledge sharing platforms that will allow unemployed youths to access job opportunities in local businesses and institutions across the country.’’UNIDO said an inter-ministerial committee has been inaugurated in February by the Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Samuel Ortom to this effect. 

A few of the key compaies, ministroes and aganecies involved are :

The ministries of Education,
Labour and Productivity,
Women Affairs,
Youth Development.
The Industrial Training Fund (ITF),
National Board for Technical Education,
National Committee on Job Creation,
National Directorate of Employment (NDE)
National University Commission (NUC)
Small and Medium Enterprises Development of Nigeria (SMEDAN),
Bank of Industry (BOI)
National Board of Technical Education (NABTEC)
Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA)
Manufacturing Association of Nigeria (MAN)
Nigeria Chamber of Commerce Cooperatives Industries, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA).