The National Agriculture Land Development Authority (NALDA) has entered into a partnership with organised private farms and universities that have considerable investments in farmlands for crop production.
This partnership is to improve sustainable domestic food supply in accordance with the President’s declaration of a state of emergency on agriculture.
NALDA entered into a partnership with Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomosho, Oyo State.
This partnership is already yielding positive results through increased maize production and attraction of PhD students.
The result of a 60-acre maize farm under the partnership, which has not yet been harvested, motivates the university to request more diversification into the livestock production industry, especially to revamp its 3000-broiler production crumbling facilities on campus.
While commending NALDA for granting the university access to the partnership, Professor Samuel Babarinde, Dean of the university’s faculty of Agricultural Sciences, characterized collaboration as “very fruitful and promising,” adding that “we started with maize as the major crop, and we look forward to possible enlargement of that partnership in the future.”
As part of the collaboration, the university released 60 acres of land for farming and the labour force needed to carry out agricultural production activities utilizing its 400-level internship students.
NALDA supplied all the necessary equipment, including tractors, harrows, boom sprayers, planters, harvesters, and maize shellers, including fertilizer, seeds, and agrochemicals for the production process.
Professor Babarinde described the relationship as “graciously timely,” pointing out that without it, their 400-level internship students would not have access to such agricultural mechanization during their practical year.
Professor Tonyi Abegunrin, an agricultural engineering expert specialising in irrigation and allied operations, who introduced a PhD student to conduct research, stated that the farm is large enough to carry out some useful research.
“If NALDA has not come, we may not have a farm of this size in our university for such research.
“Now, we don’t need to take our students out of the university before they can see the practical views of what we teach in the class, and mechanization encourages specialization,” he said.
Professor Abegunrin, however, appealed to NALDA to assist the university with irrigation facilities, including water collection technology, noting that two industrial boreholes could provide enough water to irrigate the field. This will increase crop and vegetable production in the off-season.
NALDA also entered into a partnership with the Nigeria Farmers’ Group & Cooperative Society (NFGCS) located in Nasarawa State’s Kokona Local Government.
The partnership with the farm resulted in the production of rice in 100 hectares.
Recently, NALDA officials and journalists visited the 100-hectare farm to observe harvest activities. A noteworthy outcome of the visit was that the partnership is increasing production, as the planted faro 44 and 59 produced excellent seeds that might yield over 300 tonnes of paddy.
NALDA supplied the farm with agricultural machinery to automate tasks, resulting in a minimal need for physical labour.
Speaking about the mechanization of the farm, Ms Hope Christopher, the NFGCS Chief Operations Officer, stated that it has made it easier to handle the challenges associated with manual labour.
Ms Hope said the mechanisation process made harvesting easier, cost-effective, and more efficient.
READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
and then