Nigeria: British Tobacco to Develop Agriculture, Awards Scholarships

Source from:  The Daily Times of Nigeria (ng)  12/17/2012

British American Tobacco (BAT) Nigeria has pledged to continue support for Federal Government's initiative on the promotion of agriculture through the provision of strategic inputs. Hugo Norman, the company's Demand Chain General Manager for West Africa gave the assurance on during the company's scholarship award ceremony in Ibadan.

 

Norman, who stressed the need for stakeholders to support government's effort to restore agriculture to its leading position as a critical sector, said time had come for subsistence farms to expand into large
 scale mechanised ones.
 
This, he explained, would enable agriculture practitioners to design and implement sustainable methods that would revolutionise the sector.
 
he said that the time for self-sufficiency has come; the need to attain food security cannot be over-emphasised. "These, coupled with efficient methods of food production, present a huge potential for Nigeria to grow its agricultural sector, feed her rapidly growing population and reduce its heavy reliance on imported food staples.
 
The company, he said, developed schemes that were devoted to a new generation of well-educated agricultural entrepreneurs.
 
 ''We are also enabling rural Nigeria to use improved technologies and modern management approaches that help ensure farm profitability.''
 
A total of 10 beneficiaries won the award and were presented with N120,000 cheques each.
 
The state's Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr Peter Odetomi, advised the beneficiaries to make good use of the award.
 
The Head, Corporate Social Responsibility of the company, Mrs Oluwasoromidayo George, said the award was unique because the awardees distinguished themselves through their ingenuity in different fields of study. Enditem