Food security: Stakeholders advocate improved agriculture mechanization

Stakeholders in the agriculture sector have said that Nigeria cannot increase its farming productivity until it starts engaging in large scale mechanisation as compared to other countries.

Speaking during at the 50th anniversary celebration of the Nigerian Institution of Agricultural Engineers (NIAE) held at the National Centre for Agricultural Mechanisation (NCAM), Ilorin, the stakeholders emphasised the need for improved agricultural mechanisation to achieve food security and sufficiency in the country.

The programme was also to mark the 25th NIAE International Conference, 45th Annual General Meeting (AGM) and the National Agricultural Machinery Exhibition.

The Executive Secretary, Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria, Dr. Adamu Dabban, said that it was high time the country moved from using crude farm implements in farming processes to using mechanised technologies to improve farm productivity.

‘’Our rate of engagement in mechanisation is very low in this country and this programme that brings stakeholders together is to see how we can further strengthen mechanisation goals in the country.

‘’We need to stop using hoes and cutlasses and start using machines and equipments and the latest modern tools to engage in our farming practices.

‘’We have to increase what we produce and move away from food insecurity so as to feed ourselves, increase our food production for the populace and possibly to export,’’ he said.

The Co-Chairman of the Central Organising Committee, Oluwole Ogujini, said that mechanisation would help to remove the drudgery associated with farming for it to be attractive to everybody including the youths.

‘’The major reason why youths are not interested in farming is because it is not attractive.

‘’They don’t want to engage in the use of hoes and cutlasses anymore, but if they have access to technologies like tractors and other mechaniSation inputs, they will be interested in farming.

‘’Agriculture is profitable, it is just the method we are using to go about that it’s making it not profitable and attractive,’’ Ogunjini said.

He expressed optimism that the 2025 conference would be more impactful in the agricultural value chain because of the introduction of exhibition of locally produced machineries.

‘’This year, exhibition of technologies locally developed by our engineers would have ripple effect on agriculture and the economy, because as they are produced locally, its servicing won’t pose a problem,’’ Engr Ogunjini said.

The National Coordinator of Women in Agricultural and Bio resource Engineering in Nigeria (WABEN), Mrs. Taiwo Kehinde, said the arm of agriculture engineers was meant to influence decisions and machinery that can improve the role of women in agriculture.

‘’It is the women that constitute a large portion of farmers producing, harvesting, and processing, so their needs must be considered when producing these machines.

‘’If you are not on the decision table, you cannot influence the decisions that gets made. So, our goal is to promote women agricultural engineers up to the level where they influence decisions that can impact women agriculture.

‘’This is because it is the women that constitute a large portion of farmers putting foods on our tables, so, the mechanisation has to favour them.

‘’Our goal is to impact the life of the female women at the rural level such that we will develop small technology that they can adopt and utilise”, she said.