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Frozen Green Asparagus Many Nigerians have expressed fear that unless urgent measures, with far-reaching impacts are taken, the present food shortages and the attendant prices would soon assume an uncontrollable situation. However, Dr. Eleoke C. Chukwuigwe, former Head of the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Nkporlu, Port Harcourt said Nigerians do not need to panic but rather to strategise on possible ways towards averting the situation. “We are not in food crisis here in Nigeria yet. If you look at what happened in Haiti and Egypt where people or citizens took to the street because of lack of food, that is food crisis. Nigerian present food situation has not graduated to what you can term crisis situation,” but is a wake-up call on Nigerians particularly the authorities to strategise and tap fully abundant agric potentials in the country. Chukwuigwe, an associate professor and former Director, Nigrian Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) said Nigeria has not got to food crisis situation because part of oil money is being invested in importing food from outside the country but warned that if the current scarcity persists, we might get there. “If our oil has not been around, the country could have been at that crisis situation. So thanks to the oil,” he said. Apart from allaying the fear about food crisis at present, Chukwuigwe outlined certain measures which the nation should put in place to avert the eminent crisis in agriculture. He said Nigerians should adopt the economic principle of comparative advantage by reducing demand and consumption of rice by eating more of cassava products which is relatively cheaper and more available than rice. “Must we eat rice? In my days, when we were growing up, we only eat rice on Sundays. All we need do is eat more of the varieties of cassava products,” he advised. The university don said the country has a lot of potentials to produce rice to meet our domestic needs and event to export to boost our exchange rate. “We have suitable and fertile land from Uzoakoli, Afikpo to Ogoja that cultivation of rice can thrive very well but little attention is being paid to this opportunity. We used to have Ogoja rice, Abakaliki rice,Afikpo rice etc,” he said. He noted that apart from the problem of stones in our specie of rice, the local rice is richer and tastier than the foreign rice which we import from other rice producing nations of the world. On how to attend to the problem of stones in our specie of rice, Chukwuigwe disclosed that there are machines that can destone our rice and make them free for stones. “Our rice has some richness and is better in taste compared to foreign rice except we have more stones in it which can be destoned because there are destoning machines,” he said. Commenting on the swift measure adopted by the Federal Government by importing N80 billion rice, the associate professor commended the measure but added that apart from importing which he regarded to be a short term measure, the Federal Government should consider investing huge sum on local production of rice. He remarked that importation depresses local price level and kills incentives for local production since by importing bulk goods, the prices become cheaper than the locally produced ones. This he said has the implication of chasing local producers out of business as they cannot sell below their production cost. He called on the government to encourage local productions of agro-allied products and consider diversification so as to increase the choice opportunities. One way of achieving this according to him is to introduce aspect of mechanisation in our agriculture that reduces drudgery. The don revealed that a recent study on potentials and constraints of oil palm in Rivers State and Bayelsa showed that young men were not willing to go into oil palm production while the few old men willing to venture cannot meet the local needs. He attributed this unwillingness of the able-bodied young men to the unattractiveness of the farming system. “Not many of us are willing to climb the palm trees but with aspect of mechanisation that can make it easy for a farmer to harvest hectares of palm trees while on ground, it reduces drudgery, makes the system attractive and increases production,” he stated.

Agricultural Machines Scores of Jim Bittner’s cherry trees are now just heaps of roots and sticks, piled in his fields here along Route 18. Some of the branches lying on the ground are dotted with small blossoms, the season’s earliest evidence that sweet cherries were on their way. But for Mr. Bittner, having sweet cherries would have meant hiring someone to prune the trees and harvest the fruit, and he was not sure that he could do it this year. So he cut his trees down.Skip to next paragraphMultimediaConcerned About Migrant Labor, a Farmer Turns to Machines Audio Slide ShowConcerned About Migrant Labor, a Farmer Turns to Machines “We always assumed we could find the labor we would need,” said Mr. Bittner, who has managed Singer Farms since 1991. “We’re not making that assumption anymore.” Mr. Bittner said he was planning to grow blueberries, or tart cherries for use in pies, because those crops could be harvested by machine and did not require migrant workers. Others managing the fields and dairies of western New York State are starting to make the same calculation. For the last several years, crackdowns on illegal immigrants and the lack of comprehensive immigration reform have increased anxiety among the region’s farmers, many of whom rely on a migrant labor force from Latin America to work their fields. Some have begun making changes in their operations to reduce their reliance on that labor force. For some, this has meant making temporary adjustments, like putting in less cabbage, or resisting the temptation to put in profitable, labor-intensive crops like asparagus. It can also mean making fundamental changes that cannot be easily reversed. Mr. Bittner cut down 25 acres of sweet cherry trees, some of which were 30 years old. He also dug up 20 acres of peach trees that were 12 to 15 years old. In all, he razed more than 10 percent of his fruit orchards this year, a decision that he said was a direct response to the immigration situation. There will be no harvest from the newly cleared fields until at least 2011. “We don’t take it lightly to make these changes,” Mr. Bittner said. Other farms are making large capital investments in mechanical systems that will allow them to cut their work force significantly. Fewer farmers are willing to buy neighboring properties, a traditional method of expansion for agricultural businesses. At least one food-processing company claims that it is already having trouble buying produce in the quantities it needs. Great Lakes Kraut, based in Shortsville, N.Y., which relies heavily on farmers in western New York for the cabbage it ferments to make sauerkraut, has been able to buy only about 80 percent of what it needs this year, according to the company’s vice president, Ben Frega. That will not lead to a shortage of sauerkraut, but Mr. Frega said it did play a role in a 10 percent price increase. “It’s been more difficult to secure our crops than any year I can remember,” Mr. Frega said. There are no data on the number of farmers changing crops because of the labor problem. Farmers’ organizations and state officials said that only small numbers of farmers were making major changes and that there was no immediate threat of major disruptions in local agricultural markets. But experts monitoring New York’s agricultural industry said that the shift away from labor-intensive crops would accelerate if the uncertainty over migrant labor and immigration policies remained unresolved. (On May 20, an attempt by Senator Diane Feinstein of California to attach a guest worker program to an Iraq spending bill failed.) “I don’t believe that we are seeing those numbers right yet, but I do think that this is a serious conversation that farmers are having,” said Jessica Chittenden, a spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Agriculture. “One of the things that will change is the fresh market crops that need to be handpicked. They’re fresh, they’re fragile and they need that special personal harvest.”

Protein Hydrolysate Cumin seeds, paprika and turmeric infuse this starter with the flavours of the Subcontinent.Preparation Time 15 minutesCooking Time 20 minutesIngredients (serves 6) * 150g (1 cup) plain flour * 2 tsp cumin seeds * 1 tsp ground turmeric * 1/2 tsp paprika * 250ml (1 cup) chilled water * 1 egg yolk * 1.2kg (about 1 head) cauliflower, cut into medium florets * Vegetable oil, to fry * Yoghurt & mint sauce * 260g (1 cup) Greek yoghurt * 1 green shallot, ends trimmed, thinly sliced * 2 tbs shredded fresh mint * 2 tbs fresh lemon juice * 2 tbs water Method 1. To make the yoghurt & mint sauce, combine the yoghurt, shallot, mint, lemon juice and water in a medium bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge to chill. 2. Sift the flour into a medium bowl. Add the cumin, turmeric and paprika and stir until well combined. Whisk together the water and egg in a jug. Add the water mixture to the flour mixture and whisk until just combined (do not overmix). 3. Add enough oil to a large saucepan to reach a depth of 4cm. Heat to 190°C over medium-high heat (when the oil is ready, a cube of bread will turn golden brown in 10 seconds). 4. Dip 6-7 cauliflower florets, 1 at a time, into the batter to evenly coat. Shake off any excess. Add the cauliflower to the oil and cook for 2-3 minutes or until golden brown. Use a slotted spoon to transfer to a tray lined with paper towel. Repeat, in 5 more batches, with remaining cauliflower and batter, reheating the oil between batches. 5. Place the cauliflower on a serving platter and serve immediately with the yoghurt & mint sauce.