The Nigerian agriculture research system received its last attention from the government over 25 years ago, as Nigeria continued to battle low crop yield and poor animal production amidst surging population.
Research is the basis of agricultural production. Without an effective research system, farmers will be unable to get viable seed for planting, livestock production will continue to depreciate and the country will depend heavily on importation.
Just like the past governments, the present administration led by President Bola Tinubu promised a robust food production as it took its first step by renaming the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.
A lot of efforts have been made by this administration to boost food production with the latest move being championed by the National Agricultural Development Fund (NADF) on Baseline Survey and Needs Assessment of Agricultural Research Institutes and Federal Colleges of Agriculture.
This, according to the Executive Secretary of the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), Professor Garba Sharubutu, signified a rebirth of the agricultural system in Nigeria.
Sharubutu expressed conviction that the reform of President Tinubu is touching the country’s research system which according to him was reviewed over 25 years ago.
“I can say in summary, that the reform of the Tinubu administration is touching on the research system in this country now, because before his coming, for over 25 years, no thoughts, no thinking, no attempt was made to touch on the substance of the agricultural research system.
“And we know that agricultural research is the basis for which food production and food security can be obtained in any country. So, if the National Agricultural Development Fund has decided this time around to focus on the Agricultural Research Institute and the Federal colleges of agriculture, I think the reform of this administration is beginning to touch on us”, Sharubutu said.
With the commitment of the NADF, if the needed attention is given, Nigeria will begin the production of very viable seed and the upgrade of local food seed and seedlings for better productivity.
The whole discussion, Sharubutu said, was about inputs, farm inputs, in terms of the availability of viable seed.
“Just like the analysis has given us, if today, the agricultural research system is able to provide early generation seed, and which case we are talking about foundation seed and breeder seed, these will be made available, and within a year or two, this viable seed will be made available to virtually all the farmers”, he noted.
“As it is now, we started with the National Agricultural seed planning between the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria and the National Agricultural seed Council. We have done this seed planning. We have been given the go-ahead by the Honorable Minister, on the dictate of Mr. President to say, we must come up with this viable seed in its tonnage according to the various mandates of the Agricultural Research Institute.
“The phase we are entering now is the phase of the provision of all the necessary support. So, we are shortening the period, because in a five-stage production of food, we have passed through the third stage now, and all we need to do now is already the money has been there earmarked for that purpose, and once the money is led to the Agricultural Research Council, production will actually start”, Sharubutu added.
For the Executive Secretary of NADF, Muhammed Abu Ibrahim, support in agricultural research and setting the agricultural sector right for national priorities is one of the mandates of the Fund.
He explained that around September last year, the NADF constituted a consulting sitting to do a baseline survey and needs assessment of the 16 agricultural research institutes and the 17 colleges of agriculture so that they will be able to know their strength, constraints, gaps, the challenges and the opportunities.
This assessment was conducted extensively, all the research institutes and colleges of agriculture were visited, discussions were held with their leaderships and feedback was collected. After the baseline survey, NADF convened stakeholders, including the heads of the Research Institutes to validate the results.
“Now the teams went into technical session where they looked at how the prioritisation would be done, the idea is that after the prioritization, we would go on a massive resource mobilisation. The state of the agricultural institutes is very deplorable, there is a lot that needs to be done and a lot of neglect is the reason, the institutes and colleges of agriculture have been neglected for years.
“Thanks for the renewed hope agenda of President Bola Tinubu, we want to have a very tailored approach and see how we can leverage on the little public sector funds that we can bring to catalyze private sector funding, we want to look at the unique propositions that some of these institutes have and see how we can help them in commercialising some of the output we get from them, how we can have market linkages for them”, Ibrahim noted.
On the areas of intervention, the NADF ES stated that steps have already been taken to address some of the challenges that were recorded during the baseline survey and needs assessment.
“We want to see that whatever we do is sustainable, already we have gone into an MoU with one of the Africa’s largest power companies to see how we can provide constant power, renewable energy to these institutes, we are also at the beginning of discussions with another company that is into internet provision, certain things are basic, there is no way we can leave these institutes without light, internet.
“There are certain things that are across board for all the research institutes and colleges of agriculture, I think the prioritisation would be which institute has the mandate for the food security crops and probably start with them, keep cascading down until we are able to cover all the institutes and colleges of agriculture.
“It is very worrisome because lack of investment in research probably is one of the reasons why we are where we are, but again, this is the era of President Tinubu and we will not leave any stone unturned”, he added.
Professor Lateef Sanni, Executive Director, Nigeria Stored Products Research Institute (NSPRI) said in the past, there was a pre-assessment that led to some level of capacity enhancement.
“So, if we are coming back now to review and audit ourselves and look at what are our key strengths and areas of weaknesses that need some level of improvement, to me, this current study is good”, he said.
Talking about some of the findings, Professor Sanni said, “We have what we can call baseline facilities that will enhance manpower development and come out with some research outputs. The second one is that some of those facilities need regular maintenance, rehabilitation and improvement. Now we’re talking about the digital economy.
“Everybody is talking of digital, the use of drones in spraying of herbicides, for instance, these are some of the things that need to purposefully be introduced into the research institute and colleges of agriculture, so that if you mechanize the farm with high-yielding varieties, you are sure that you are going to double the yield. And once you double the yield, there will be a premium for the core crops and commodities in the market. And that’s exactly what I will say are the areas of improvement that will help us on that”, he added.
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