NASS to receive agric extension revitalization bill draft, Thursday

Stakeholders in the Agricultural Sector will on Thursday, present the Draft Agricultural Extension Revitalization Bill to the Chairman Senate Committee on Agriculture on Thursday to be read at the Red Chamber and Passed in the Red Chamber.

These stakeholders came under the umbrella of the Women Farmers Advancement Network (WOFAN) Icon 2 Project, supported by the Mastercard Foundation.

The Executive Director of WOFAN Hajia Salamatu Garba explained that what is left to be done is to clean up the bill based on the recommendations they got earlier, then present it to the Chairman Senate Committee on Agriculture on Thursday.

“We are at the level of rounding up, it is so interesting how the various stakeholders have come together, we have moved it from zero to first draft, second draft, we did the third one and we are even revising the third draft and we have come to a conclusion.

What we need to do now is clean up based on other recommendations that have come today, then we print them and hand them over to the Chairman Senate Committee on Agriculture which will be done on 27^th of June this year.

“The Senate will now be picking it up and they will invite the Ministry and the relevant stakeholders and they will revisit it before they domesticate it.

“We are not talking about a bill that will create any controversy, it is a bill that will sustain food security in Nigeria. if we strengthen and prioritize the agricultural extension system, we are going to get it right”, she said.

Furthermore, Hajia Garba explained that WOFAN Icon 2 Project, which is supported by Mastercard Foundation, works through extension services.

She said WOFAN is currently working with 675,000 farmers in 10 states in Nigeria and 1500 extension workers

She said extension workers are not properly supported, that is one of the reasons why they are supporting a system which will bring in more extension services, which means once they build the capacity of extension workers, capacity of farmers is also built.

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Professor Ikani Emmanuel, Executive Director National Agricultural Extension Research Liaison Services, Zaria while highlighting the importance of an Extension bill, said up till now, extension delivery service in Nigeria is unorganized and there is no law backing it.

He explained that through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, they were able to produce an agricultural extension policy that was passed by the Federal Executive Council.

“That makes it a policy, but to implement or enforce it, we needed to convert it to Act of the Parliament, and that is why for six months, we have been on how to convert the policy into a language that can go to the National Assembly as a draft bill for them to consider and pass it so that it can become a law.

“Agriculture is scientifically driven, it is about skills, and extension is the vehicle that conveys the knowledge that is demanded to transit from crude farming to scientific and commercial agriculture”, Professor Ikani added.

Also, Hajia Maimuna Lawal, Executive Director, Green Pillars Enterprise said the bill made provision to cater for the needs of women in agriculture and also those who are physically challenged.

Hajia Lawal noted that they put into consideration the needs of women and those living with disabilities needs and how extension can reach out to them and also help them improve their own productivity.

“So, this is going to be really beneficial because extension is the lifeline of agriculture, it is the medium we translate innovations into action and a medium where farmers can access and understand what they need to do on their farms and how to improve on it generally”, she added.