NDE, Algeria collaborate on palm tree farming

The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) is to commence farm project of palm tree plantation in Nigeria. The palm tree revolution will involve date palm and oil palm. This was disclosed recently in Abuja by the Director-General of the NDE, Dr. Nasiru Mohammed Ladan Argungu, while exchanging views with journalists and German expatriates on new strategies for employment creation in Abuja.

Date is a sweet sticky brown fruit that grows on date palms commonly found in North Africa and Western Asia. Oil palm on the other hand is the most widely planted and protected tree as well as the most economic and useful tree within the traditional farming system of South Eastern and Western Nigeria in the 60s to the early 80s.

Argungu said that the giant stride of the government in rice farming which has resulted into a fall of rice import net from 1.2 million metric tonnes in 2014 to only 58 tons in 2016 is a pointer to the fact that agriculture as the mainstay of humanity has the potential to lead the desperately needed economic rebound from the year long doldrums.

Agriculture, he said, is tested and reliable machinery for effective economic diversification, as prioritised in the policy thrust of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

He said the wealth and economic prosperity of Nigeria in the 60s could glaringly be linked to the groundnut pyramids, Oil palms and Cocoa Trees.

According to Argungu, NDE will create a new scheme under the Rural Employment Promotion (REP) Programme called ‘’Green Cash for Nigerian Youth’’ under which the Directorate will focus essentially on Economic Trees.

He said efforts are on top gear to secure at least one million high yield seedlings of both Date and Oil palms to kick start the project in the northern part of the country. He said the selected youths in the South-South and South-West will concentrate on Oil Palm plantation.

For the reason of Date Palm Plantation initiative, the Directorate, under its present leadership, has expanded its collaboration beyond the shore of Nigeria.

To ensure success, NDE is to collaborate with the Centre for Scientific and Technical Research on Arid Regions (CSTRAR) in Biskra, Algeria.

The collaboration is being facilitated by the Federal Government of Nigeria through her embassy in Algiers, Algeria. In a letter signed by Minister Counselor and Head of Chancery, M.S. Nuhu, the NDE contingent is expected to visit Algiers to consummate the Collaboration and visit some poverty alleviation agencies of the country in order to exchange ideas on employment generation and poverty alleviation.

Also in its urgent push to kick – start the Palm Plantation Project, NDE has finalised agreement with the Research Institute in Edo state for monthly release of 50,000 seedlings to fast track and maintain the continuity of the project.

‘’All These efforts, according to the DG, will further encourage jobless youths especially university graduates to migrate and advance their status from motor cycle riders to gainful farming’’

Throwing more light on the readiness of the Directorate for the project, Dr. Ladan said that NDE has already secured vast land from some local government areas to enable the engagement of youths in modern farming.

‘’We have about 35 hectares of land in Sabuwa, Katsina state, another of such in Akunnu in Ondo state and we are asking for more from the local government council areas’’.