Cassava Production Rises In 2011

The Federal Government has said that cassava production recorded the highest among crops with 34.5 million tonnes in 2011, followed by sorghum at 9.3 million tonnes.
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture stated this in its 2011 Monitoring, Evaluation and Performance report on Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) issued by the National Planning Commission in Abuja recently.
The report said that data from the Ministry of Agriculture on key agricultural indicators suggests that Nigeria made gradual progress, across the board, in crop and livestock production, meeting most of its production and productivity.
“Among priority crops, cassava production was the highest, with 34.5 million tonnes produced in 2011, followed by sorghum at 9.3 million tonnes,” it stated.
The report said rice production grew rapidly from 3.4 million tonnes to 4.2 million tonnes from 2010 to 2011.
‘‘However, the nation’s rice mills were unable to keep with the high production, yielding just 0.25 mt of milled rice in 2011, down from 2.10mt in 2010, indicating the importance of integrating the agricultural value-chain.
‘‘Other priority crops were cocoa beans (25,000 mt produced), cotton lint (20,000 mt produced) and oil palm.
“It is noteworthy that from 2010 to 2011, cotton productivity per hectre of land cultivated rose from 150 kilogrammes per hectre (kg/ha) to 192 kg/ha, indicating greater productive efficiency.”
The report said the rice productivity improved marginally from 2.0 to 2.1 mt/ha, consistent with higher rice production. It also said that the agricultural export earnings were N119.84 billion in 2011, adding that the Ministry of Agriculture was targeting a 50 per cent increase in earnings by 2015.
“‘However, the country remains overly dependent on importation of food, importing over N450 billion in 2010, almost four times its agricultural export.
“Pre and post-harvest losses of agricultural production for 2011 was reported at 40 per cent unchanged from 2010,’’ it stated.